OFFICIALLY UNVEIL CHANGI FLAG

SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE,

MELBOURNE

FRIDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2005

To the Chairman of the Trustees, John Taylor, Major-General McLachlan of the

RSL, to Bill Flowers, thank you for your wonderful speech, your wonderful reminiscence

and the way in which you shared your experience today. Ladies and gentlemen,

but particularly to our POWs who are here with us today: – gentleman we are

honoured by your presence and we want to thank you for being here.

As someone who has lived in Melbourne all of my life, I know what the Shrine

of Remembrance means to our city, to our State and to our nation. It dominates

the main thoroughfare. If you look down Swanston Street your eye immediately

is drawn to it. It is a very substantial tourist attraction. And on ANZAC Day

it provides the setting for one the most memorable experiences that a person

can ever take part in.

On Remembrance Day, the light falls on the Stone of Remembrance. It was my

very great privilege recently to contribute to the building of this undercroft.

The displays that were built here were built so that we could tell the story

to new generations. So that new generations could remember the sacrifice and

honour and realise the great debt that they own to Australia’s servicemen

and women in the world wars and in other conflicts that Australian troops have

taken part in.

This Shrine physically honours the fallen, the servicemen and women, and the

story it tells we hope will help generations of Australians to honour them in

their heart because they will know the story, they will know the sacrifice and

they will always remember it.

And what a wonderful chapter we open today by having this flag from Changi.

Can you imagine if you were one of those POWs in Changi who signed their name

on a flag more than 60 years ago in captivity, in deprivation, walking past

that flag and seeing your signature there today?

Can you imagine the shock as that signature takes you back 60 years to the

time when you signed, wondering whether you would ever live out that war, whether

you would ever see your home again, whether you would ever see your loved ones

and then coming back to the prosperity of today and looking at that signature

and giving thanks to God for coming through and seeing our country and saying

it was worth fighting for, it was worth dying for. It was worth it to keep the

country free.

Imagine the shock if your signature is on that flag. Imagine the lesson for

the children, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren, to be told that story

as we have heard it here today.

This flag was taken down as the Australian troops came down the Malayan Peninsula

and then hidden throughout long years of war in awful conditions in a POW camp.

Of the 91 signatures that are there, 16 of those went up to work on the Burma

Thai Railway and never came back.

Imagine the story being told to the children and the grandchildren of how

this represents the spirit of Australian troops that weren’t going to

give in, that were going to be defiant in the midst of their suffering.

Imagine telling the story about how when it was unveiled that we had some

of them here with us. There are 13 surviving signatories. Today Ken Topliss,

Harry Shurey, Bluey Cummins and Paul Payne, who can see their signatures and

tell the stories, remember what it was like, and pass that down to the children

and the grandchildren.

In the preparation for the unveiling another veteran with connections to the

flag came forward and is with us today. Sergent Bill Cutler of the Royal Engineers

who was the seconded to Lord Louis Mountbatten’s Force that went to Changi

to re-establish the British presence was asked to fly the British flag as a

morale booster to the prisoners. As the regimental Sergent Major he handed the

flag to the men to hoist.

Aren’t these wonderful stories? Aren’t we honoured to have these

men here with us? And aren’t we honoured that the Walker family saw fit

to recover the flag and to put it here and to tell the story for the children

and the grandchildren in the years to come.

This is a very important part of this shrine, which is a very important part

of honouring our servicemen and women and throwing forward the story so that

the story can inspire the generations of the future.

We hope that the generations of the future never have to go through that kind

of privation and suffering but we do want them to understand how the privation

and suffering of others has given them so much. We want them to honour the legacy

that they have and inspire them to be worthy to carry it in the years that lie

ahead.

Thank you to the POWs, thank you to the Walker Foundation, thank you to the

RSL, thank you to the Shrine for letting us be part of that story which we hope

will go on for the generations to come. I hereby unveil the Changi prisoner-of-war

flag.