Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Steve Larkins was born in Sydney in 1954, eldest of four sons to Frank (A WW2 veteran) and Nancy.  He was raised and grew up in Heathcote, an outer suburb on Sydney's southern periphery.  He went to school at local State Primary and High schools; Heathcote Primary Heathcote East Primary ad Heathcote High School. He recalls being interested in his father's WW2 service at an early age, and in military aviation.  He joined the Cadet Unit at Heathcote High School in 1968.  After matriculation in 1971 and an unsuccessful attempt to gain pilot selection in the RAAF, he began his working career with the Sydney Water Board.  In September 1972 he enlisted in a local CMF (Army Reserve) unit, 4th Battalion Royal New South Wales Regiment.  

After returning from a CMF camp he considered his future and decided to transfer to the Australian Regular Army and applied for the Officer Cadet School Portsea (Vic) and was duly selected commencing 7 January 1976.  He graduated to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, as a Second Lieutenant and was posted to the 3rd Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) at Woodside in South Australia in January 1977.

He deployed with A Company as a Platoon Commander to Malaysia as Rifle Company Butterworth (RCB), Malaysia in July 1977.  Malaysia at that time was dealing with the dying stages of the Communist inspired insurrection that had begun with the Malayan Emergency in 1948. Although the physical threat to the airbase at Butterworth was by that stage abenign, RCB performed a standing Security Ready Response Force, and was afforded the opportunity to train with the Malaysian Army in what was at the time an extensively rainforest covered countryside still exhibiting evidence of the last days of British Colonial interest in the region.

Steve served for a total of 20 years in the Regular Army serving initially in a range of Regimental, Training and Staff postings that defined peacetime service as an  Army officer in the period following Vietnam. 

He married Gwenda Altree in 1979 and they welcomed son David into the world in Townsville in 1984, where Steve was serving at the time with the 2nd/4th Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment (2/4RAR).

In 1986 he was offered the opportunity to undertake specialist training in the UK at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham.  This course schooled participants in the military application of science and engineering which manifest itself in design and performance and tactical application and attributes of all forms of military equipment.  This directed him into the arena of specialist staff roles in procurement, the highlight of which was as Deputy Project Director of the Small Arms Replacement Project in 1991-3, introducing the Steyr AUG assault rifle, FN Minimi Light Support Weapon and the attendant ammunition into Australian service. Concurrently he undertook an MBA program at Deakin University.

By this time he had determined that his future lay outside the Army as he perceived his career options to be narrowing so he sought a posting back to Adelaide in order to position himself for the next phase of his career.  However, other events were to intervene. 

In April 1994, a brutal civil war and genocide erupted in a small, barely known country in the middle of Africa - Rwanda.  In three months a genocide of unprecedented scale unfolded and after a lethal period of inaction the world responded by substantially boosting a hitherto undermanned Peacekeeping Operation.  Australia undertook to provide a Health Support contingent as part of the UN commitment to the restoration of order to a traumatised country.

Steve was approached to fill a staff position on the Headquarters of the second contingent of some 300 personnel comprising specialist medical personnel, an infantry rifle company security element, a headquarters and operations support personnel making it completely self contained. 

The second contingent, with their predecessors already 'in country' from August 1994, concentrated in Townsville in January 1995 and undertook intensive conditioning and briefings to prepare them for their role.

Its personnel comprised men and women, all three services and Reserve and Full Time personnel, all very keen to play their part in attempting to address the results of the catastrophe that had befallen this tiny African country.  They were  due to deploy February to August 1995. 

Steve deployed with the Advance Party on 11 February 1995, bound for Kigali via Nairobi in Kenya, on a series of civil flights with the final leg to Kigali by UN transport aircraft.

Steve maintained a detailed diary throughout.  It was a transformative experience for he and his 300 or so colleagues.

Steve returned at the culmination of the ADF deployment in late August 1995, when their diminishing responsibilities were taken over by a detachment of Norwegian personnel.  The change from being in an operational environment to 'normal' civilian life took place within 48 hours or so, aboard a charter flight from Kigali to Townsville, where they over-nighted and ‘barbied-up’ as a final act before the contingent dissipated back to their home locations.

For Steve, the 'change of scenery' was to continue apace with his decision to separate from the Regular Army to pursue the next phase of his career.  Unlike many of his peers, Steve's transition to a career outside the Army proceeded relatively smoothly. He subsequently held three senior management appointments in a variety of industry sectors between 1996 and 2017. 

To effect separation from the Regular Army he transferred to the Reserve 'inactive' list. However it wasn't long before he was approached to become an 'active' reservist.  He did so and from 1996-2010 he served in a variety of postings as an instructor, Infantry Company and Combat Support Battalion Commander and senior staff officer on 9th Brigade Headquarters and following promotion to Colonel, as Director of the Army Personnel Agency - Adelaide. 

A highlight was, in 1998, taking an Honour Guard of 70 soldiers to France to reinter the remains of a 27th Battalion soldier, Private Russell Bosisto, discovered near the famed 'Windmill' at Pozieres near where he was killed while taking part in the attack that captured it on 4th August 1916.  This experience and the research he undertook prior, introduced him to Battlefield guiding which he has been involved in ever since.

In 2008, he was appointed Deputy Brigade Commander 9th Brigade.  In the latter capacity he was responsible for the preparation and deployment of a 9th Brigade Peacekeeping contingent to Operation Anode in the Solomon Islands in early 2011.  He managed his Reserve service concurrently with his employment but as many Reserve members can attest, often under a great deal of pressure.  

Steve had joined the RSL on leaving the Regular Army in1996.  He and some colleagues founded the SA Peacekeepers Sub Branch in 2005.   He joined the State Board in 2011 and became Deputy State President in 2012-2016. 

He conceived the RSL Virtual War Memorial in late 2008 after meeting the  South Australian Premiers ANZAC Spirit Prize group while working as a Battlefield Guide, at Villers Bretonneux on ANZAC Day 2008.  It seemed illogical that research that was being undertaken by students and guides was not being collected and saved to help tell the story of our forebears who wrote our nation's history, so the VWMA was born as a means to do just that.

He was worked assiduously ever since to bring it to fruition as a researcher, content writer and public speaker.  He was awarded the OAM in June 2019 in recognition of his efforts in establishing the VWM and for other community service through a range of organisations, including Veternas support organisations, Rotary and Operation Flinders (a youth at risk program).

Steve has been taking tour groups to the Western Front and Gallipoli Battlefields since 2008.