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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-10 Daily Xml
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BANGKA ISLAND MEMORIAL SERVICE

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:31): This is the first opportunity I have had since having the pleasure of attending the annual Bangka Day Memorial Service held during February to speak on this important event. Guest speaker, His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, Mrs Liz Scarce, a patron of the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields (where the event is held) and many colleagues from the state and federal parliaments attended on the day. The Leader of the Government in our chamber and Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon. Gail Gago, as well as the Hon. John Dawkins and the Hon. Mark Parnell from our chamber were also there.

Bangka Day is named after Bangka Island and Bangka Strait, both of which lie east of Sumatra, and the commemoration is specifically to honour the South Australian Army nursing sisters who were massacred at Bangka Island in February 1942. It also honours and remembers all those women who served in the forces and commemorates those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

The Bangka Day massacre, as it is known, occurred on 16 February 1942 on the beaches of Bangka Island. The events that led up to this tragic event saw some 140 Australian nurses, injured service personnel and many other civilians quickly evacuated from Singapore Island on three poorly-equipped vessels, all due to advancing Imperial Japanese forces. One of the vessels was the SS Vyner Brooke, with a normal capacity of 12. It was crammed with 65 nurses, civilians and some injured service personnel, in particular sister Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkel, who was born in Kapunda, South Australia.

During its daring escape, the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft and therefore forced all who survived, including Sister Bullwinkel, onto Radji Beach, Bangka Island. The group was joined the next day by others, making a total of about 100. They elected to surrender to the Japanese forces. History records the tragedy of what happened next, with soldiers arriving soon after and killing all the men who had elected to stay behind on the beach and then motioning the nurses to wade into the sea where they were machine-gunned from behind—the tragedy of war.

Sister Bullwinkel was the only survivor of the Bangka Day massacre, having been shot by a bullet that did not hit any internal organs but passed straight through her body. She washed up on shore unconscious and then managed to survive for 12 harrowing days hidden in the forest with an injured British soldier, only to surrender and spend the next 3½ years in a makeshift Japanese prison camp.

Sister Bullwinkel's survival from the massacre was kept hidden in order to protect her and the awful truth. On returning to Australia in 1945, Sister Bullwinkel was one of only 24 nurses from the SS Vyner Brooke to survive the end of the hostilities.

Online information tells us that Vivian Bullwinkel went on to devote herself to the nursing profession and to honouring those killed on Bangka Island, raising funds for a nurses' memorial and serving on numerous committees, including a period as a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial and later president of the Australian College of Nursing. In 1992 Sister Vivian Bullwinkel returned to Bangka Island to unveil a shrine to those who had not survived. She died on 3 June 2000 aged 85 years.

The Bangka Day Memorial Service is held at the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields. The fields were established in 1953, and the eight hectares of land located on the corner of Ayliffes Road and Shepherds Hill Road, St Marys, were granted by the late Hon. Tom Playford, the then premier of South Australia. I understand these fields are the only dedicated women's memorial of this type in Australia, a fact all South Australians should be rightly proud of.

I would like to thank Mr Bruce Parker, president of the South Australian Women's Memorial Playing Fields, and his committee for their continuing commitment to this important commemoration. I also acknowledge the excellent book On Radji Beach by Mr Ian W. Shaw. I know that we all agree how very important it is to record this piece of history to remind those of us who have come after of the courage of many to see a free world.

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