Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the House to provide an update on a couple of relevant World War II events and projects that are happening in my electorate of Solomon in the Top End. The first concerns the status of the salvage of the MV Rushcutter, a World War II vessel, and then I will touch on the upcoming commemorations for the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.

As the House may remember, I spoke some months ago about the Rushcutter, which saw service in World War II with Z Special Unit forces to the north of Papua New Guinea, dropping off a group of Z Special Unit soldiers, all but one of whom were killed in that operation. It then went on to serve at other naval bases after the war. We are trying to restore it. We are getting some great assistance from the Australian National Maritime Museum, and a small community group has now been launched and incorporated. It is called Save Motor Launch 1321, which the Rushcutter was also known as.

This small group is working with Defence and with some of the private operators in and around the harbour, including the port of Darwin itself. It was great that the port of Darwin, through their insurance, was able to get the boat up from the bottom of Darwin harbour and over to the World War II Catalina ramp. The challenge now for all boat enthusiasts who are rallying around this World War II boat and trying to restore it is that it needs to go from that World War II Catalina ramp to the yard of the Paspaley Pearling Company. I want to thank the Paspaley Pearling Company for making yard space available for that restoration process, but we still need to lift this beautiful boat, which is made of Huon pine and was built in Hobart before the war and which, as I said, served our country well.

This small group of volunteers are doing excellent work, and the aim is that we assist them in any ways that we can. They may, in time, be able to apply for some funding through the Department of Veterans' Affairs Saluting Their Service program or something like that. When we can restore this vessel it will be only the fifth World War II vessel on display in Australia. I commend the people who are working on that project. They are very passionate and they are putting hours and hours of their own time into the project. Those efforts have been acknowledged by the Naval Historical Society, who are getting behind the project, and a massive event, the national Wooden Boat Festival, that is going to be held down in Hobart. A whole heap of wooden boat enthusiasts from around Australia will be coming down to Hobart to share information and keep this quite ancient art of wooden boat building alive.

This boat is in Darwin, in my electorate on the harbour, and we are hoping that this small community group, Save Motor Launch 1321, can raise about $50,000 through a variety of sources to move the boat to the Paspaley yard, where it can be restored. It is important. Our World War II heritage is very important. As I said, this will be one of only five boats remaining in our country that served during that time.

Just in the time remaining, I want to acknowledge and let the House know that 19 February coming up is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin, which occurred in 1942. More bombs dropped on Darwin than were dropped on Pearl Harbor. We will be having events up in Darwin, but we are also going to have an event here in the House, hosted by the NT federal parliamentarians—Minister Nigel Scullion, obviously; Warren Snowdon, myself and Malarndirri McCarthy. The aim of that event is to share this story of national significance but also a reconciliation story from World War II. But you have to come along to the event to find out about that!