RSL Virtual War Memorial

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:13): Following its hugely successful Don't Forget Me, Cobber fundraising lunch at Adelaide Oval on 6 October, I would like to inform the house about more of the work and activities of the RSL Virtual War Memorial and the great works the dedicated staff here in South Australia are undertaking.

The lunch was attended by hundreds of supporters, who had come to hear, amongst other things, a panel discussion led by Jane Doyle. On the panel were Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston; the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson, a former Modbury High School student; Warrant Officer Class 1 Wayne Weeks; and John Schumann, well known for his Redgum I Was Only 19 song. Guests were also treated to a presentation by Robert Kearney, who is an OAM, veteran, storyteller and historian, with the RSL Virtual War Memorial.

The war memorial tells a community story begun by the RSL's Tributes of Honour database compiled by the late Will and Jacqui Clough of Riverton, South Australia, between 2002 and 2007. Comprising more than 1,700 South Australian and Northern Territory war memorials and more than 48,000 names from all conflicts that appear more than 100,000 times, it was a remarkable undertaking for which a debt of gratitude is owed to them. Jacqui, along with Steve Larkins, continues to act as a development partner in the war memorial.

It now enjoys support throughout South Australia and the Northern Territory and is being recognised more broadly. It is a sort of Wikipedia for anyone who wants to research, study or contribute to this commemoration of service and socio-military history from the Boer War to today. It was my pleasure to co-host a function this morning with the member for Morphett to invite members to see a bit more about what goes on with the Virtual War Memorial in the presence of Sharyn Roberts, who leads it, Elsa Reuter, Julianne Ryan and, of course, Bob and Nicholas Egan.

There are four key foundation principles to the Virtual War Memorial: education, which provides local content for school students studying under the national curriculum, and there are wonderful fact sheets available for them; commemoration, which gives greater depth of meaning to our memorial infrastructure; community engagement, including crowd-sourcing of community, family and personal information; and accessibility for anyone to connect 24/7 anywhere with internet access via mobile devices. I quote Steve Larkins' message at the war memorial site www.rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au. He states:

This site is unique in its ambition, scope and reach. There are other similar sites, but none as 'joined up' particularly through memorial infrastructure. It complements and will interact with others sites such as the Australian War Memorial and National Archive of Australia sites with whom we are actively collaborating.

The RSL Virtual War Memorial (RSLVWM) has the capacity to present a web page for every service man and woman who has gone in harm's way in the country's name since the Boer War. The [ambitious] task will be ongoing…The system architecture and the data model is extremely robust and comprehensively structured.

The…War Memorial is both a repository and a resource for students, family, researchers, teachers, historians, genealogists and communities. It is the research project that will never end, as we strive to make stories as complete as we can.

Contemporary veterans will have the opportunity to tell their story first-hand…[There has been] a lot of interest in this facet of the site. It complements RSL objectives in veteran welfare by providing an audience for men and women who have historically ‘not talked about’ their experiences.

The...Virtual War Memorial is to be the definitive resource and repository for anyone wanting to research, study...[the history of their loved ones]…This site puts a life behind the names inscribed on memorials that we walk past every day.

Every 'person' has a web page—and we want to put a story on every page. It is populated as a minimum with data from a substantive source—official records or rolls.

It retrieves and cross-matches data from official sources such as the AWM, National Archive and resources such as the RSL’s own Membership...It will connect those names with key places, organisations and events to add context to the story.

Bob Kearney is well known in the veteran community and is truly passionate about veteran history. He has compiled a wonderful volume called Fallen Saints, which is the story of the soldiers who went to war, from St Peter's College. Bob is ably assisted by Nicholas Egan, and they stand ready to assist all members as they get behind this wonderful initiative in all the South Australian electorates by engaging with schools and individuals who may have known or are descendants of our fallen heroes.

Adding your own story to the virtual memorial is easy. Members of the public can sign up and log onto the Virtual War Memorial and update their own friends' and family's stories. The ability to add service history, stories and personal photographs is the legacy of our armed service men and women that will never be lost.