VETERANS DAY 2016 – 50TH ANNIVERARY OF THE

Thursday 18th August 2016

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Honourable Daniel Andrews MP, Premier of Victoria,

The Honourable John Eren MP, Minister for Veterans,

The Honourable Ted Baillieu, Former Premier and Chair of the Victorian Anzac Centenary Committee,

The Honourable Matthew Guy MP, Leader of the Opposition,

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle,

Senator Derryn Hinch, Senator for Victoria

Distinguished service men and women,

Members of the Consular Corps,

Major General David McLachlan AO (Ret’d), State President of the RSL,

Air Vice-Marshall Chris Spence AO (Ret’d), Chair of the Shrine Trustees

Mr Robert Elworthy AM, Victorian President of the Veterans Association of Australia,

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls

First, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathering and pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and to any Elders with us this morning.

Today we remember all those Australians who fought in Vietnam, and in particular those who fought so bravely in the Battle of Long Tan exactly 50 years ago.

There will be many amongst us here who were not born then, and some who will not recall the detail of the time.

1

In 1966, just one year after the first Australian troops left HMAS Sydney bound for Vietnam, I was just a teenager. Many of our troops were not much older. We had grown up in easy times. Exciting times. A post-war boom. A time of social ferment, of social revolution for young people and for women.

The government of the day was led by Harold Holt who, having succeeded the country’s longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies earlier in the year, went on to win the biggest majority in the country’s 65 year history since federation.

One of the first policies announced by his government was an increased commitment to supporting the United States against communist North Vietnam, including an increase in Australian personnel from 1500 to over 8000 by October 1967.

And so, from early 1966, further battalions were deployed to set up Australia’s strategically important base at Nui Dat in the Phuoc Tuy Province. The members of the 6th Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) were amongst them.

Nui Dat (Vietnamese for ‘small hill’) was chosen for its strategic position, but it was in the middle of what had been a Viet Cong stronghold. Security was always of prime importance for its 5000 Australian personnel.

In the early morning of 17 August 1966, our base at Nui Dat came under fire from the mortars of the Viet Cong. Twenty-four of our soldiers were wounded in that initial attack.

At 11:15 am on the following day, Thursday 18 August, while Little Pattie, and Col Joy and the Joy Boys were entertaining the troops, Delta Company of the 6th Royal Australian Regiment were sent to patrol the Long Tan rubber plantation to the south-east.

At around 4 pm that day, the Viet Cong attacked in force with heavy mortar, machine gun and small arms fire. Our Australian soldiers, outnumbered by about 25 to 1, fought a gruelling three and a half hour battle in pouring rain. They fought hard enough and long enough to receive a fresh supply of ammunition, medical aid, and reinforcements from A and B companies, but also to inflict significant casualties on the enemy.

One hundred and eight Australian and New Zealand soldiers managed to hold the 2500-odd Viet Cong in that small plantation. But, tragically, despite managing a gallant battlefield

2 victory, 18 Australians (all but one from D Company) were lost, and a further 25 were wounded.

On 18 August 1969, the third anniversary of the Long Tan battle, the men of the 6th Royal Australian Regiment raised a cross on the site, and veterans from the battle gathered at the cross to commemorate the fallen. The day then became known as Long Tan Day.

In 1987, following the belated Welcome Home parade for Vietnam veterans in Sydney, Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced that Long Tan Day would henceforth be known as Vietnam Veterans’ Day. Since then, it has been commemorated every year as the day on which the service of all those men and women who served in Vietnam is remembered.

Peter Edwards, official historian of South-East Asian conflicts at the , argues that Long Tan gives a location for the emotions of all Vietnam veterans, even those who have no direct connection with the battle itself. “It taps into a lot of what we like to think of as the Anzac tradition: sacrifice, endurance, mateship and courage. The classic virtues of the Anzac are illustrated there”, he said.

Today we honour the 60,000 Australian soldiers who fought in the . Today we remember the 500 Australians who died in Vietnam and the 3500 who were injured.

And on the 50th anniversary, to the day, of the Battle of Long Tan, we have a special thought for those who fought heroically to preserve the Australian base at Nui Dat, and to protect their fellow soldiers.

Today we remember their families and all the loved ones of those and all of the soldiers who fought in, died, were injured or were forever changed by the hardships and horrors of the Vietnam War.

And that’s why it is so important that we gather and we say “Lest we Forget”.

3