Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to stand here on this Remembrance Day to recognise those who sacrificed so much for our country. I missed very much being in my own community today to commemorate due to our parliamentary duties. Remembrance Day is a time when we can come together as Australians and reflect on our past. Every day, millions of Australians busily go about their day-to-day lives. Yet on Remembrance Day we pause together at 11 am. We stop to pay our respects to those who served our country with the highest honour. This year is especially significant as today marks 90 years since the end of World War I; 90 years since the German government agreed to an armistice to withdraw their forces. At 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the conflict ended.

Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on many things. Like many Australians, my own family has been touched by losing a loved one overseas. My uncle, Edmund Geoffrey Mears, was a leading aircraftsman in the Royal Australian Air Force who died on his 21st birthday in 1942 and is buried in Ambon. Remembrance Day gives me an opportunity to reflect on Geoff’s service in World War II and the impact his death had on his family. Some 66 years on, as the only surviving member of that generation, my mother still misses her brother very much. Geoff’s story is reflected across the country: brothers who never came home; uncles never known; sons lost. All those beautiful boys—and some girls—who never came home and who never got to live full lives. People across the country commemorate Remembrance Day at our many shrines and memorials.

Perhaps because of our strong sense of history Ballarat is home to a number of significant memorials. Great landmarks in Ballarat, such as the Ballarat Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honour, Bacchus Marsh Avenue of Honour, and the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, help us honour those who have served so bravely for our country. During the election I had the pleasure of announcing $500,000 for the Bacchus Marsh Avenue of Honour and then reaffirming this commitment during the May budget. The Bacchus Marsh avenue is one of the most magnificent and important elm avenues in the country, and this funding will help to maintain it for future generations.

Also in September I had the pleasure of standing with the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and announcing the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat as a national memorial, something long overdue. This national status reflects a strong desire of the Australian people to appropriately honour our ex-POWs.

I would also like to give mention to the Ballarat Avenue of Honour. The Ballarat Avenue of Honour is the earliest known memorial avenue to have been planted in Victoria. Planting commenced in 1917 and was completed two years later in 1919. The avenue stretches for some 22 kilometres and includes over 3,700 trees—all of the fallen from World War I. At the entrance to the Avenue of Honour is a magnificent victory arch. In 1919 the employees of the Lucas factory began to collect money to build the Arch of Victory. They pledged two shillings in every pound of their wages, sold souvenirs and held fundraising drives. On 2 June 1920, the Prince of Wales opened the arch and was presented with a pair of silk pyjamas embroidered with Australian emblems, with each of the 500 ‘Lucas Girls’, as they were known, having put in a stitch. The arch stands as a significant tribute to the men and women of our district who lost their lives in WWI.

Over recent years, the state of the Ballarat Arch of Victory has declined. In recent months we have found that the basic repairs could cost between $80,000 and $100,000, with a full restoration in the vicinity of $200,000. It is unfortunate that such a significant structure has degraded to such an extent, although I guess not unexpected given that it is 88 years old and that it is a very large structure. The Arch of Victory is an important memorial and is close to the hearts of Ballarat residents. After becoming aware of the state of the Arch through the Ballarat Courier I have written to the Minister for Veteran’s Affairs to see if there is any assistance the federal government is able to give. Memorial funding tends to be of much smaller amounts than that required to restore the arch, but given its important status I would hope that we can as a community work together to ensure its survival for another 88 years.

On this Remembrance Day we remember the fallen and the potential they never got to fulfil. We remember the families who have mourned their loss for generations. On behalf of Joycelyn King, nee Mears, I remember Edmund Geoffrey Mears—‘Geoff’—by placing his name in the historic records of this place on this Remembrance Day in 2008.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The lone bugler’s haunting melody of The Last Post resounded today—at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. This is when we Australians commemorate those diggers who lost their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today. Daniel Webster said, ‘Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honoured.’

In 1993 the government brought ‘home’ the body of a fallen warrior. Today he rests in the Hall of Memory as the Unknown Soldier. In his prime he left Australia to fight for his country and today he represents over 100,000 of his brothers and sisters killed in war for the freedoms we enjoy. He represents over 10,000 Australian soldiers who lie in unmarked graves. Freedom is never free. It is purchased through the blood of the martyrs and maintained through eternal vigilance.

Compared to many other countries Australia is still a fledgling nation but boasts a proud and rich military history. Her military have trained and fought with pride and valour. World War I was the first time Australia had gone to a significant conflict as a federated nation. With enthusiasm and a longing to serve, over 416,000 men and women enlisted out of a population of under five million. The urge to serve meant many lied about their ages; they were boys entering a man’s world.

In 1914, with little training, our boys marched into battle. For more than four years they fought with allied nations, for a freedom in far away countries, on the battlefields of Europe, seeing death, hearing the dying and seeing the dead lying around. Over 60,000 Australian soldiers would not come home; over 135,000 were wounded—for a war that would end all wars.

On 11 November 1918, 90 years ago, the Armistice treaty was signed at five o’clock in the morning and at the 11th hour on that same day the French and Belgium battlefields fell silent. At its conclusion the First World War had cost more Australian lives than any other war in our history. As the red poppy sprouted in Flanders field, it became a timely reminder of the blood that so freely flowed. As Eric Bogle once sang:

The sun’s shining down on these green fields of France;

The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.

The trenches have long vanished under the plow;

There’s no gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.

But here in this graveyard it is still No Man’s Land.

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand

To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man,

And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

After the Second World War Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day to include commemoration of the over 19,000 men and women who died during World War II. This day now commemorates all of our military who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. While the lone bugler trumpets the losses of war we remember the boys and men, the girls and women that left Australia to defend their nation and we honour their sacrifice.

Remembrance Day is also the day that the names of the fallen are added to the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. This morning six Australian heroes were added to the Roll of Honour: Private Dennis Michael Millane, who died in Borneo during confrontation; and five brave soldiers who died in Afghanistan—Sergent Matthew Raymond Locke, Private Luke James Worsley, Lance Corporal Jason Paul Marks, Trooper David Ronald Pearce and Signaller Sean Patrick McCarthy. Today at the 11th hour we added these men to our thoughts as we stood like the guns of the Western Front, silent and still.

As a former Army officer I feel a special affiliation with these men and their families. My family has fought in most of our wars, starting with the ultimate sacrifice when a cousin, a young lieutenant, led his men to their death at the Nek in Gallipoli in August 1915. Likewise I am very conscious that, of the six names added to the Roll of Honour, two of these heroes have families in the electorate of Fadden. Trooper David Pearce, loving husband to Nicole, father to Stephanie and Hannah, was tragically killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on 8 October 2007. Signaller Sean Patrick McCarthy, loving son of David and Mary, brother of Leigh and Clare, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on 8 July 2008. Their families should be very proud and our nation is forever grateful for their courage. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. It will be remembered.

I acknowledge the men and women who are today overseas serving their county. They help those who cannot help themselves. Today, just as they did 90 years ago, regardless of the danger, our military men and women risk their lives. We will remember them. (Time expired)