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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-15 Daily Xml
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DARWIN BOMBING ANNIVERSARY

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:25): On Sunday 19 February, I attended the bombing of Darwin Memorial ceremony held at the Cross of Sacrifice, Orange Avenue, Salisbury. The ceremony was held to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. A siren sounded at 9.58am, at the exact time of the bombing. The Last Post played and there was a minute's silence. I wish to thank Salisbury RSL, and I would especially like to acknowledge the role of Mick Lennon, President, and Lynne Leahy, Secretary, for the invitation and organisation of this event.

During World War II, Darwin was the only Australian mainland city to come under enemy air attack. On 19 February 1942, Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on Darwin. It remains one of Australia's greatest disasters. This was the first attack on Australian soil and the first time Australian blood was spilled on our soil in an act of war.

These two attacks, which were planned and led by the Japanese commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor 10 weeks earlier, involved 54 land-based bombers and approximately 188 attack aircraft which were launched from four Japanese aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Compared with Pearl Harbor, more civilians were killed, more bombs were dropped, and more ships were sunk in Darwin. However the magnitude of this attack and the death and devastation that followed has for decades remained virtually unknown.

In the first attack, heavy bombers pattern-bombed the harbour and town. Dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters then attacked shipping in the harbour, the military and civil aerodrome, and the hospital at Berrima. The attack ceased after about 40 minutes. The second attack, which began an hour later, involved high-altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Parap which lasted for 25 minutes.

The two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. Veterans dispute today's figure of 243 killed on 19 February, so the number is more likely over 1,000. One of the groups that was not included at this time, and often not accepted in counts, was the Indigenous population who perished. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed.

Contrary to widespread belief at the time, the attacks were not a precursor to an invasion. The Japanese were prepared to invade Timor and anticipated that a disruptive air attack would hinder Darwin's potential as a base from which the allies could launch a counter-offensive and, at the same time, would damage Australian morale.

With Singapore having fallen to the Japanese only days earlier, and concerned at the effect of the bombing on national morale, the government announced that only 17 people had been killed. The air attacks on Darwin continued until November 1943, by which time the Japanese had bombed Darwin 64 times.

During the war, other towns in northern Australia were also the target of Japanese air attacks with bombs being dropped on Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham, Derby, Broome and Port Headland. In the hours following the air raids on 19 February, believing that invasion was imminent, Darwin's population began to stream southwards, heading for Adelaide River and the train south. Approximately half of Darwin's civilian population ultimately fled, and they were not permitted to return to Darwin until 1946.

Wartime censorship ensured that even the soldiers, sailors and airmen were ordered not to talk about the events in Darwin during World War II, and many Australians still do not know that following the first bombing attack these brave defenders suffered a further 63 Japanese air raids. In today's world of Facebook and Twitter, it is difficult for us to imagine that this horrific event remained unknown to most Australians. Social media and the 24-hour news cycle have made censorship a foreign concept to us. When your story remains untold to those you serve to protect your efforts can go unnoticed. This is the fate of those who defended Darwin during World War II. We will remember them.

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