Yalunga [welcome]
I too acknowledge that we meet on traditional Aboriginal land. Land never ceded. I pay particular respect at all indigenous citizens present today. The current work underway by an energetic group of residents to better understand and celebrate our Valley’s indigenous heritage, encourages.
I am greatly honoured to have been asked to provide an address this morning. That my community has seen fit to issue such an invitation is humbling. I am honoured; and confronted; ANZAC Day has been part of my life for the past 72 years, and yet I have never really understood it. Working out what to say has been running around my head for some months. I have taken part in Dawn Services in Martin Place, innumerable ANZAC Day marches at Mangrove Mountain, in Sydney and as a cadet at Knox Grammar School, for 20 years spoke annually at Dapto HS ceremonies; but never quite got a handle on it.
On a personal level; today is a precious time to reflect on family and community service and sacrifice in response to a national and international need; is the best I can do. I have these medals on the wall near our fireplace and treasure the component of my parent’s lives represented.
ANZAC Day nationally; complex and challenging.
To observe that we live in uncertain times seems almost trite. War in Europe, ongoing conflict in Africa, unimaginable strife in the Middle East. Deep international currents beyond my understanding. I acknowledge a debt to those who serve in our defence forces.
Both my parents served in WW2, my grandfather in the Boer War. I was conscripted for the Vietnam War; I was amongst thousands and thousands of citizens who resisted our country’s involvement and conscription.
Dad was an Anti-aircraft Lieutenant: 6+ years. El Alamein in Egypt and New Guinea. He told me of taking part in an amphibious landing at Finchhaven, of going over the side at dawn and into a barge, chugging towards the enemy dug in on the shore. He held hands with his Sergeant and friend Les Penman as the bullets thudded against the side. He marched every year and met dwindling mates from the ……. Regiment Almost a teetotaller he would “..line his stomach with a milkshake..” before the beer fest. Our childhood was enriched with large sepia toned photo albums of exotic places and regular visits from ‘army mates’.
Mum enlisted soon after she qualified as a physiotherapist. She served for 5 years, Alice Springs, Darwin, New Guinea and Bougainville. She was not demobbed until 1946. On return they met, got married and got busy on our citrus and vegetable farm; 7 children in the next 13 years!
My grandfather, Fredrick Booth, took his own horse to Africa; they often lived off the land in quite terrible conditions. He told me a story of crawling several hundred metres to steal horse feed corn; he and his mates were starving. Before returning, he took the terrible decision to shoot his horse; rather than condemn it to a life underground in the gold mines.
Our gathering this morning will doubtless have innumerable similar stories and uncertainties; these stories can unite us. I honour those who died and those, like my forebears who served and survived and lived to reaped the rewards. Sincere thanks.
One of the most important aspects of our ANZAC ceremonies is that as a community we take time to pause, reflect, converse, re-evaluate, share, consider, learn and plan. I regularly gave Dapto High School students some unusual homework; talk to those who know you well and love you about the impact of war. We got to some unusual places.
We lucky few, live in this quite magnificent spot; we cannot lock our house, I have never gone hungry, my family has never been threatened by a gun, I can plunge into Brogers Creek on a hot day, then drink deeply from the flow; the air we breathe is pristine. Look around our troubled globe; we are blessed.
I first came to our magnificent valley in 1971; having met Warwick Deacock at a conference at the University of Sydney. Chakola bound some months later, I worked a week there most holidays for years. Riding my motor bike back to Sydney I would often pause on the Wattamolla Rd hairpin; have a cigarette and drink in the beauty. Never imagining this would later become my top border.
More than fifty years on, our community, this magnificent geography, this extraordinary bio-diverse environment remain as entrancing and engaging as ever, actually more so.
But it is feeling fragile; under threat.
Feeling brave……
Perhaps I can assert the national call to serve so many young Australians responded to in the past, now has another guise; the Climate Change Crisis. This time, not just the young; all of us must play a role. Fire, flood, more flood; extreme weather on all sides, our valley is experiencing the pointy end of exactly the scenarios predicted by scientists for decades. We engage skilfully and energetically now, or we will not be able to live here as we do. We can all bring different skills and resources, and sensibilities and priorities to this crisis; but responding urgently is the task at hand. A task that can in fact strengthen community cohesion.
This morning we gather to collectively recognise and remember family members, fellow citizens, neighbours who put their lives on hold and responded at a moment of existential threat. Our heads and hearts are doubtless filled with the enduring costs of such selflessness. Is it too much of a stretch to assert that responding individually and collectively to the Climate Change Crisis with all the energy and intelligence we can muster is a similar moment?
I remain optimistic that, somehow we can collaborate globally to manage the Climate Change Crisis; a peaceful world is an essential requirement.
Seems obvious, we cannot continue to squabble.
Stay strong team. Please consider.