Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The 80th anniversary of the Siege of Tobruk was marked on 10 April this year. Of the 14,000 men who became our Rats of Tobruk, 1,400 were from Tasmania, a significant number of men from a small island state. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Kaye Ross at a community morning tea I hosted at the George Town RSL Sub Branch. Kaye is a proud descendant of four Rats of Tobruk, one of whom was killed at the tender age of 19, and another taken as a prisoner of war for 3½ years before escaping and walking across the Alps to Switzerland and freedom.

As a committee member of the Descendants of the Rats of Tobruk Association, Kaye has spent the last few years assisting in the organisation of a world reunion for the 80th anniversary event, to be held in Brisbane. A significant part of Kaye's role was painstakingly recreating 200 comfort packs to distribute at the event—replicas of packs sent to our troops in World War II. Included were sachets of tea and bars of chocolate similar to what would have been available for families to send to their loved ones all those years ago. Sadly, with the sudden COVID restrictions put in place in Brisbane just before Easter, the reunion was cancelled and, as such, the packs are still sitting in George Town waiting to be sent out. I'm working with Kaye to ensure that these packs can be distributed as intended. I hope the postponed reunion gets off the ground later this year.