Lemnos Association of South Australia

Ms VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:26): Today I would like to speak about an event I recently attended with the Lemnos Association of South Australia. It started on the weekend of ANZAC Day, on the Sunday, when they had a service at the St George Greek Orthodox Church. They then moved on to the Jane Street premises of the Lemnos Association of South Australia to commemorate the role of Lemnos in the ANZAC campaigns. It is something I have been aware of for a number of years, having travelled to Greece in 2010 to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the Greek and Australian participation in the Second World War and the retreat of our troops via Crete. Those troops then went on to Papua New Guinea and experienced further trials and tribulations.

However on this weekend, particularly with the 100^th anniversary and the beginning of a four-year journey for our nation, it was important that we commemorated and made reference to the Greek island of Lemnos, which lies in the North Aegean in very close proximity to the Dardanelles. The importance of this—and I have raised it in a previous private member's motion—is because of the nursing station, hospital and medical unit that was situated there with British, Australian and Canadian nurses and doctors, with the assistance of the local Lemnian population, working to look after our wounded during the campaigns in Gallipoli and nearby areas.

It is time to recall that without the hospitality and care of those people we would not have been able to care for the troops who were so terribly maimed during this time of battle. In fact, when our hospital station arrived they actually did not have clothing or food, and the Lemnians opened their hearts and their meagre supplies to us and provided clothing, bandages, their own homes and their own beds for our nurses and doctors until the supplies arrived for them to establish the first nursing and hospital unit to be located on that island.

Last month there were commemoration ceremonies on Lemnos in which many people from Australia participated. The Australian Navy and the Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett represented Australia on the island with several of my colleagues, who used to be in the parliament of Victoria. I am talking about John Pandazopoulos and Lee Taralamis, who have worked tirelessly over the last couple of years to bring the role of Lemnos to the centre of the Gallipoli story as we go on this four-year journey for the ANZAC Centenary. I praise their work, along with Jim Claven, in making sure that the Australian war graves there are brought to people's attention and cared for, that paths are laid, so that Australians can go and pay their respects on the island of Lemnos. I hope to do that myself one day.

I would also like to praise, with the Lemnos Association, some of the people who attended the day. Mayor Angela Keneally from Charles Sturt was there, the member for West Torrens, the member for Croydon (our Speaker), the Chief Justice of the South Australian court system, an ADF representative, and His Excellency the Archbishop of Dorileon, who participated by providing grace for the lunch. Also, the new Greek Consul to South Australia, Mr Andreas Konstantinos Gouras, who has been here with us since January, is doing an excellent job and is passionate and eloquent in his advocacy of South Australian Greeks. Also His Excellency Haris Dafaranos Charalampos, who is in Canberra as the Greek Ambassador, is passionate about this area, too.

I know from the feelings of the people who were connected to that island how important it was that day that we recognised them. I could see it in their eyes and their hearts that they felt deeply about the association between Australia and Greece and how much they understand it was a significant time in our nation's history and the beginning of our journey in Australian character building about the sacrifice.

Many things were done during those extremely difficult conditions, and the Australian nurses managed with heroic efforts to create appropriate infrastructure and attend our wounded. Matron Margaret Grace Wilson of Ballarat incarnates this titanic effort to organise the tent hospitals on Lemnos. Distinguished Australian biographer and historian Susanna de Vries wrote about her eloquently, and I recommend you read some of her work.

The Lemnians are an amazing people. They withstood Turkish domination of that island until the time of the First World War and eventually came back to Greek citizenship.