Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Aunty, thank you for your Welcome to Country.
Your Excellency the Governor-General, Your Honour the Administrator, parliamentary colleagues – the Minister for Defence, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Leader of the Opposition.
To Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition here in the Northern Territory, and Your Worship the Mayor.
Most of all, to the people of Darwin.
We gather here, on the land of the Larrakia, to listen. To draw strength from those who have gone before, and to remember their lessons.
Eighty years ago, the future of the Pacific hung in the balance. The impregnable Singapore had fallen. Territory in New Guinea had been captured. The Dutch East Indies were under siege. And a brutal foe was advancing towards us.
And on this day, the Australian mainland was attacked by a foreign enemy for the very first time – 242 aircraft in two waves. On sea and on land, everything that moved was strafed or bombed.
There was devastation on the water – the Neptunia, Barosa, Zealandia, Meigs, Swan, Don Isidro, Florence Dee, and the gallant USS Peary.
One hundred American servicemen were lost on that day and we honour our American friends who are here with us today.
Even a hospital ship was attacked – the Manunda – painted in white with giant red crosses. They could not have been mistaken.
Throughout the city, little was spared – the Post Office, the Cable Office, the Government House, Police Barracks, Air Force Station and the local hospitals were attacked.
The onslaught was met with many acts of bravery, courage and compassion. Anti-aircraft gunners giving their all, pilots entering the fray despite the forces of numbers against them, the Peery with its guns blazing until the very end, and the civilians commandeering small boats in fiery waters looking for survivors as they were treated here.
And on that clear morning, more bombs rained down on this city, this small city of Darwin, of a few thousand than had been delivered on Pearl Harbor 10 weeks before.
19 February 1942 marked an awakening. As the author Peter Grose argues, if the birth of Australia as a nation took place on the shores of Gallipoli, then it was on this day, at this place, that an independent Australia took charge of its destiny.
No longer could we look to the British or further afield. We had to look to ourselves. No longer was our world shaped by Europe. Our world was here in the Indo-Pacific where we live.
The Bombing of Darwin was the start of 64 air raids on the Top End, which continued until November 1943. The story of those raids is one of adaptation and endurance, of defences being strengthened, of gunners becoming more experienced, and of Australians always standing together – civilians and soldiers, men and women, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, at home and abroad.
So here in Australia’s only north facing city, the city that engages with our neighbours, and trades with the world, we remember what was, but we give thanks for the peace gifted to us.
In this place of great violence 80 years ago, more recently I stood here with the Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Abe, so it could become a place of reconciliation. And together we laid a wreath here, in silence, and reflected on those times.
There was a quietness and stillness that day. I wish all who had been in Darwin in 1942 and 1943 could have been there with us, but certainly were in spirit.
Because that enemy that inflicted such violence on this city and this that nation, on this day, has now become one of our most trusted and loyal friends. And a partner with Australia and the United States in building a world that favours freedom. A world of human dignity, human rights, and the rights of nations to live free of coercion and bullying. That is their legacy.
Friends, though our world has changed, our task remains to be prepared for any eventuality, to defend our values in a difficult world, as it was done right here on this day 80 years ago. And to live out these values with the same courage and the same strength and the same steadfastness that the people of Darwin showed 80 years ago.
Lest we forget.