Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to report to the Senate that yesterday I was privileged to represent the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Tony Abbott, at a wonderful ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War—I know it is slightly premature. At the outset, I want to give enormous credit to my Senate colleague Senator Glenn Sterle. It was in fact the initiative of Senator Sterle and his friend Mr John Davis that allowed four gentlemen to travel from Ypres in Belgium. Two of them were buglers from the fire service in Ypres. You, Acting Deputy President Fawcett, and my Senate colleague, Senator Ronaldson, know well the tremendous ceremony that the buglers perform every night of the year at the Menin Gate. The other two were Mr Benoit Mottrie of the war grave office in Belgium and Mr Didier Pontzeele who oversees the Last Post Association.

As I said, this came about as a result of the ongoing communication that Senator Sterle has had with the Darling Range Sports College in the Darling Ranges of Western Australia. I understand that Senator Sterle takes students across to Belgium each year and I believe he is doing that again this year.

The ceremony yesterday was held in the small Western Australian south-west town of Yarloop, not known widely anymore but once a thriving small community—in fact, a community that once had a very significant foundry as a result of people from Sheffield in England gathering in that area. It was the foundry in which many of the naval guns that were used on our battleships and other warships in the Second World War were manufactured.

Why Yarloop was chosen is to signify the fact that 260 young men went from there to the Western Front and of course to Turkey, to Gallipoli. Of those 260 young men, two were Victoria Cross winners and only 201 returned. In a wonderful ceremony in which the names of all those were read out and a bell tolled regrettably for those who did not, it was the sacrifice of families, where often two sons of a family did not return from that terrible war on the Western Front, that was most poignant.

I am very proud to be able to say that the buglers from Ypres were joined by a Western Australian fire serviceman by the name of Mr Ted Tate. I say proud, because I was once, as you know, the chief executive of the Bush Fires Board, and Mr Tate—himself a bugler, a volunteer in the Bush Fires Board and indeed a volunteer naval rating—joined the two buglers for the playing of TheLast Post and Reveille.

It was a wonderful ceremony. Young people were involved in the parade and there were representatives of the 10th Light Horse Regiment, which served with such distinction in the Middle East. But, in particular, the students of the Darling Range Sports College acquitted themselves so very, very honourably.

I was told that at an event at the college on Friday some thousand students actually sat down and listened to the stories that were presented to them by their Belgian guests—and I would think by Senator Sterle and his colleagues—and not a single solitary sound could be heard from those students, just total concentration on what was being said.

I would urge any members of the community who are traveling to Europe to visit Ypres, to visit the Menin Gate. Of course this was very much part of the Western Front, very near Fromelles, where, as we all know now, not many years ago the graves of many, many Australians were uncovered. This leads at eight o'clock every night to a ceremony. I think the names of some 64,000 soldiers whose bodies were never found are inscribed on the Menin Gate. I believe it was in 1928 that the fire service in Ypres said, 'We will honour them by playing The Last Post with a ceremony at 8 pm every evening.' I think they intend doing it until all 64,000 have been recognised in this way.

My wife and I were privileged to participate in that particular ceremony, and our host in Ypres told us that the most striking times were not in the middle of spring, autumn or summer but on those bitterly cold, damp, wet nights in the middle of a Belgian winter when the firemen turn out, even if there are no visitors.

When we were staying at Ypres, we were very close to Hellfire Pass. I said to the gentleman that we were told about the bombs at Hellfire Pass and asked where the evidence of this enormous crater was. He said, 'It was the swimming pool, Dr Back, outside the front of the motel. That was the largest of the craters.'

We were directed of course to Hill 60, to Passchendaele, to Tyne Cot cemetery, and in fact we ran into some British people who asked whether we had been to Bayernwald. Bayernwald was another location where the trenches of the Germans and the Allies were literally only metres apart. It happened to be where a young corporal, Adolf Hitler, was actually stationed for a period of time during the First World War.

It was when we were at Bayernwald that we were again asked whether we were aware of the famous soccer match that occurred on Christmas Day 1915 when the Germans and the Allies put their weapons down, met on a field and had a game of soccer. They directed us to a paddock, and the only indication was a very small sign to say that was where the game of soccer had taken place.

What was tremendously significant to my wife and me was the fact that in 1914 through to 1918, the families around Yarloop—repeated everywhere, of course, across the world—would have had no knowledge at all as to the whereabouts of their family members or the wellbeing of their family members and indeed had no concept of the conditions under which they were surviving and living.

It called to mind our own family circumstances. Our youngest son was a serving officer in Iraq at the beginning of the war there, and of course we would get some communication every now and again, usually days or more after a major event had taken place, to the effect that he and his soldiers were okay. He subsequently served as a combat officer in Afghanistan—again, in far more dangerous circumstances—and less frequently would we hear. But it caused us on those occasions to reflect on how things must have been, particularly in the First World War, when the first notification that families had of a son who had been killed or badly wounded was when there was a knock on the door, there of course being no other means of communication.

I think it is to the credit of the Australian community today that, even when there are people who disagree with decisions of the government of the day whether to send troops into areas of activity, there never, ever is any criticism of the serving personnel themselves. I would always urge that we learn from the mistake we made in Vietnam, where soldiers returning were blamed for the decisions of their political masters—and that is us. Should there ever be any criticism, it is to us that it should be directed.

In conclusion, I want to recognise the significance of this occurring in a small village called Yarloop. I had the opportunity yesterday in speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister at this ceremony to reflect on the fact that it was in small villages throughout Europe—France, Belgium—that we were so impressed by the dignity and honour accorded to our fallen personnel through the way cemeteries were maintained. And I made that observation indeed to Mr Mottrie of the war graves office. Just the enormous impact and the quality of the way in which those cemeteries are being maintained are true reflections of the regard in which they held Australia's effort and the regard in which they hold the fallen who remain in their soil today.