Memorabilia
ANZAC Day Lunch 2010 - President's response
The following speech was made by our President, Gordon Wallace, in response to the Toast at the Brisbane ANZAC 2010 Club Luncheon.
In response to the toast to the 2/15th Aust. Inf. Bn made by our Vice President Percy, I thank you for honouring the toast in the manner in which you have done. We of the battalion are intensely proud of our record and that of the entire 9th Division.
Anzac Day this year has a special significance for this unit, for it is our birthday . We came into being on April 25th 1940 under the auspices of Major R.F. Marlan, who later became Lt. Col. Marlan, and the first commanding officer of this unit. With the habit we have of attaching nicknames to people because of their names, he became “Spike” and so he remained. I believe his daughter Marie is here today, and I am sure she will recognise the fact that “Spike” was an affectionate name, although there were times he received other appellations which were not so affectionate.
ANZAC to me is not about any particular person, although it was coined to describe a certain combined body of troops. It is also not about a place. It is about a spirit. A feeling. An essence. An essence of Australia. It is also perhaps an essence and a spirit of a people. Not we who are here now; but of those who gave us this pride we show of being Australians.
A people who were our first and most important immigrants. These were those who arrived here not of their own volition but were forcibly deported and sent here as prisoners, plus a certain number of free men. The people, men, women and children, who for the most trivial offences were sent to an unknown uncivilised country on the opposite side of the earth. These were the people who survived the harshest, most appalling conditions imaginable, or unimaginable, aboard barely seaworthy hulks. Disease, starvation, brutality and death on a voyage halfway around the world. There was no Suez Canal. They came via South Africa. But, some survived. For a large number of people here today, these are your forebears.
They served their time, became Ticket of Leave men and eventually freed men. They were instrumental with the free men who also survived that journey in forming this nation. They explored, they developed this land in the face of everything that was the opposite of anything they had known before. From them came the spirit, the guts, the willingness to have a go. They were the first real Áussies'. And where did they come from? From those two little islands in the North Sea. Those two little islands who showed that spirit in two world wars and who stood off the foe twice. With nowhere to retreat to, they were the frontline troops, while others were tardy in deciding to come to their assistance. These were the same people who, in the face of the enemy, went across the English Channel in open boats to bring their men home from the beaches of France.
Those two little islands, without whom there would have been no airfields for the latecomers to make their attacks into Europe. And without whom there was no land to base troops and prepare to invade the continent and free the countries under oppression. Malta became the George Cross island -- how in the name of God was not Britain made the VC island? They were the frontline troops.
These were the islands from which your ancestors came bringing with them the spirit, the guts, the determination and the nerve, all those long years ago to make this country of ours great. They fashioned a way of life that is envied by many, and so our forebears picked up the ball and ran with it. We breathed in over several generations the spirit of Anzac and the essence of Australia.
In later years, the East Enders also gave us a lot of our slang which sadly we seem to be losing. Teach all your children where we initially came from and never forget these people who were our first immigrants, because they forged for us this country which we love. They gave us the courage, the audacity, the nerve and strangely enough, a sense of common decency which our media seem to have lost. Never forget them. They were magnificent.
This is why the bond in this Remembrance Club endures. We are the Australians who grew up to always be breathing in that intoxicating perfume -- the essence of Australia.
Gordon Wallace on 25 April 2010.