Your Excellency, Governor, Prime Minister, Premier, Leader of the Opposition, distinguished ministerial representatives of Japan and France, service personnel and ex-service personnel, ladies and gentlemen.
One hundred years ago today, the ANZAC convoy sailed from this point for Gallipoli; 38 troop ships, four cruisers, 20,000 Australian and 8,500 New Zealand soldiers.
A passenger in that convoy, our poet, Banjo Paterson, wrote of the fleet assembled on these waters as the most wonderful sight that an Australian ever saw.
Captain Walter Bedford described it as one of the most stirring sights in the whole history of the war. As far as the eye could see, the ocean was dotted with the ships of the convoy and a large haze of smoke stretched away for miles. Some passengers would have felt fear, others anticipation, most, perhaps, a measure of both but all were sailing into history. One hundred years on, we can say with certainty that as long as there is an Australia and as long as there is a New Zealand, they will be remembered.
The First World War was the crucible in which the Australian identity was forged. In 1914, we were a country with a flag and a Parliament but little sense of nationhood. The baptism of fire that was the Great War changed all that. The scale of sacrifice and loss was beyond anything imaginable. From a population of under 5 million; 417,000 enlisted, 332,000 served overseas, 152,000 were wounded and 61,000 never came home. Of Australian men aged 18 to 42, almost one in two served in uniform. Of those who served overseas, almost one in five died on active service and of the 270,000 who returned, more than half had been wounded and others had mental scars that never healed.
It was sacrifice on a stupendous scale and it was sacrifice shared by our neighbour, New Zealand – because of it, our countries will always be brothers. On days such as this, we do not glorify war but we do acknowledge the selflessness and comradeship of shared struggle.
Charles Bean, Australia’s official war correspondent, was a passenger on the Gallipoli convoy and subsequently wrote of the original ANZACS:
“To be the sort of man who would give way when his mates were trusting to his firmness; to be the sort of man who would fail when the line, the whole force, and the allied cause required his endurance; to have made it necessary for another unit to do his own unit’s work; to live the rest of his life haunted by the knowledge that he had set his hand to a soldier’s task and had lacked the grit to carry it through-that was the prospect which these men could not face.”
At a time when war was its worst, our soldiers, serving in our name, were at their best.
Today, we also remember all those we fought with; the soldiers and sailors of the countries of the British Empire, of gallant France and of Japan – first an ally, then a foe, now the very best of friends.
We remember them all. They're all gone now – gone but never forgotten by the nation they shaped.
Thank you.
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