Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

I was eight years old when John Fraser was killed, and the Frasers were our next-door neighbours. We lived on the east side of the southbound Gold Coast Highway (now Surfers Paradise Boulevard) in Surfers Paradise, a couple of doors north of Enderley Avenue, and the Frasers were next door to the north.

I did not know John; I knew his younger brother, who was a few years older than me and whose name I can’t remember. But I’ve always remembered John’s name. His brother and I played footy and cricket together in our backyards. I think he attended St Vincent’s school, as I did, just 300 metres north on the corner of the Gold Coast Highway and Clifford Street.

Most of the school knew that John was serving in Vietnam, so it was a school-wide shock when we were told he had been killed. The whole school attended his funeral at St Vincent’s Church in the school grounds. I was sat in a pew on the left and immediately beside the centre aisle. I remember the coffin; atop it an Australian flag, a slouch hat, and a sword.

From my child perspective, life seemed heavier for the Frasers. I thought they seemed to often be looking at the ground when they came and went, and I understood why. It seemed to me that we were quieter too, on guard against any noise or nonsense that might challenge the right of way that grieving should be afforded.

I don’t remember if there were any backyard contests after John’s death, and we moved to the beach end of Clifford Street by the end of 1968. However, upon the occasion of various related reminders, at least every year I remember John’s funeral, and his family’s seemingly diminished presence in his absence.

I see on the map of Surfers Paradise that there is a John Fraser Memorial Park in Surfers Paradise, and the centre of that park is 280 metres due west of where the Fraser family’s residence was on the Gold Coast Highway at the time of John’s death.

Brett Porter