Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Excerpt from the Senate Adjournment VP Day Speech, 16 August 2005

More than 900,000 Australian men and women enlisted in the armed forces between 1939 and 1945 from a population of barely seven million. Of that figure, 550,000 service men and women served outside Australia in one of the services during the war. That was one in 12 people of the total population—and my father was one of those.

Twenty-seven men from the small New South Wales village of Burrawang enlisted for World War II, but my father had already moved to Sydney so was recorded as enlisted from Undercliff. The Sydney Sun on the day of his enlistment carried a pictorial story sporting my then—and in fact always—very handsome father moving from civilian to private in the space of one day. It is a news clipping which I of course cherish. The list of surnames of those who enrolled from the village of Burrawang is a history of that small community and, in many ways, the history of my family—names that I remember my father speaking of on many occasions.

My father’s service record has him enlisting on 9 March 1941 and being discharged on 14 March 1946—a very long time in a young life to spend in the service of your nation—with a total effective service period of 1,831 days, which included active service in Australia for 1,292 days and outside Australia for 327 days. He left the Army as a lieutenant. That time in the Second AIF changed my father’s life—as it did for so many Australians. His service and his pride had an extraordinary impact on my life and our upbringing.