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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-26 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

ARMISTICE ANNIVERSARY

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:41): I want to express my thanks to the Premier, the Attorney-General and the Minister for Education for making it possible for me to attend the celebrations marking the 90th anniversary of the signing of the armistice at Villers-Bretonneux. I also had the opportunity to attend the rededication of the Australian Corps Memorial at Le Hamel on 8 November by Her Excellency, the Governor-General. To travel through the Somme Valley, that beautiful open French countryside, really makes one reflect on why so many young Australians were sent there and sacrificed. To walk through those cemeteries and see all the names and graves is a very chilling and sobering experience. I think it is a very small price for this parliament to pay each year to send someone to represent the people of South Australia and to pay homage to those young people who gave their lives.

One of the saddest things about this whole exercise is that, for most of the young people who are buried there, their parents or their families were never able to visit their graves and that in itself is a tragedy. I had the privilege of visiting the grave of one of my great uncles from Hallett. I think only one other person has ever visited that grave. As you walk through the rows, you see the names of 19 and 20 year olds, one after the other, and the futility of the exercise is brought to bear on you. When you look at those open fields along the Hindenburg Line, you see concrete bunkers with machine-gun posts set up, and people were expected to advance. The idea was that the artillery would smash the wire and they would advance. Thousands were killed in a short time. I was taken to a small spot where Newfoundland was virtually wiped off the map in about 20 minutes. Might I say that the day I was there it was absolutely freezing.

There is one other matter which I think we should all recognise; that is, the people of France have never forgotten the contribution that Australians made. I had the great privilege (thanks to the Minister for Education) of visiting the school at Dernancourt—and it is named the Adelaide Pavilion—and to meet his worship, the mayor, who was most gracious. He was very keen to drink more than one bottle of champagne, but I am a moderate drinker and I had other things to do that day. The appreciation that he had for the Australians and for the people of Adelaide who provided the funds to rebuild the school have never been forgotten. Of course, a very famous battle took place on that railway bridge when the Australians held the German advance and when they put on one of their last major battles known as Operation Michael—and the Australians performed admirably. Then, of course, I attended the beautiful monument at Villers-Bretonneux. As you look across the French countryside, it is up on a hill and it was a very moving experience. I think the nearly 600 people there were moved by the ceremony.

It is interesting to note that that monument bears the scars of the Second World War where a German ME109 fired rounds into it and they have been left there because my understanding is that Field Marshall Rommel was going past and they thought that there was a sniper up in the tower and, therefore, it was attacked. Fortunately, it was not badly damaged, but as you look across that beautiful French countryside, it is hard to believe, when you see the piles of sugar beet with no fences—it is beautiful country—that hundreds of thousands of people were engaged in what ended up being an absolutely fruitless enterprise.

One of the things that we can be proud of is that the Commonwealth War Graves Society looks after the graves in a magnificent way, and we should be very proud of the way that they do it. Walking along, one of the interesting things to see was some of the messages that have been written by the grandchildren of the people who are buried there. That was quite moving because they obviously did not know them, but they were very moving messages. It was also interesting to look at one of the German cemeteries that we were taken to, where the names of thousands of people are recorded. They have no known graves. One of the other things that struck home was that there was a number of headstones that had written on them 'Known only to God' because they could not identify the people.

I have been given the privilege of attending and I hope that this parliament will send someone each year. I thank the Minister for Education and I sincerely hope that the Mayor of Dernancourt accepts her invitation to come to South Australia for ANZAC Day, because there was a very close affinity. I also gave him a letter from the Mayor of Tea Tree Gully wishing him well and I thank her for it. I thank the house for the privilege of attending.

Time expired.

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