Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

Report 2020–21

Mr TARLAMIS (South Eastern Metropolitan) (17:38): I rise to speak on the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s annual report 2020–21, specifically in relation to the veterans portfolio and acknowledging the important contribution of our nurses, having just passed the significant occasion of the 80th anniversary of the massacre of 21 Australian Army Nursing Service nurses on Bangka Island, Indonesia. What I commemorate today is a story that combines terrible tragedy, amazing bravery and survival, one that affected families and communities across Victoria and Australia.

It was on Tuesday, 16 February 1942, that 21 nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service were massacred by their Japanese captors at Bangka Island, Indonesia. Their ordeal began as they, along with 44 fellow nurses and many civilian women and children, sailed from Singapore aboard the SS Vyner Brooke following the collapse of the Allied defence in 1942. The ship was bombed and sank as it sailed in the Bangka Strait, many of its passengers being killed or drowned as they tried to escape, including 12 nurses, four of whom were from Victoria.

While one group of 31 nurses landed on Bangka Island and were taken into captivity, another group of 22 nurses who came ashore at Bangka Island’s Radji Beach would face a different and terrible fate. When Japanese forces arrived at the beach, a number of British soldiers, survivors of other sunken ships, who had also come ashore were separated from the nurses and murdered. The nurses were then ordered to wade out into the sea, where they were brutally machine gunned. Those who could not enter the water were murdered on the beach. Amongst the dead were four Victorian nurses: 37-year-old Ballarat-born Clarice Halligan, who was living in Kew when she enlisted and who had trained at the Royal Melbourne Hospital; 33-year-old Fish Creek-born Rosetta Wight; 31-year-old Mary Cuthbertson from Ballarat, who was Armadale born; and 27-year-old Dorothy Elmes, who was a resident in Wangaratta when she enlisted.

Only one nurse survived the massacre, 26-year-old Vivian Bullwinkel. South Australian-born Vivian began her nursing career in Hamilton in western Victoria before moving to the Jessie McPherson hospital in Melbourne in 1940. Vivian would not only survive the massacre but along with 23 of her fellow nurses from the Vyner Brooke also survive 3½ years in captivity. Back in Australia, Vivian would become the director of nursing at the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne, but she would never forget the fate of her fellow nurses. She wrote to and visited the relatives of her fellow nurses who were murdered on Raji Beach, providing some comfort in their sorrow.

Her concern for her fellow nurses saw her serve on the Australian War Memorial’s council, as the president of the Royal College of Nursing and as a driving force in the establishment of the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre in St Kilda Road, Melbourne, which opened in 1950. A major aspect of the centre is its memorial plaque, which was unveiled by Vivian in April 1980, and which reads, ‘May they kindle in your hearts a torch whose flame shall be eternal’.

In 1993 Vivian returned to Bangka Island to officially open the memorial at Muntok to the 65 Australian nurses from the Vyner Brooke. For her service and her work Vivian was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, an MBE and an AM. She died in Perth in July 2000. In February last year the centre erected a new memorial on Bangka Island, supported by the Andrews government, as a permanent place of remembrance for those who were massacred on that terrible day 80 years ago. An annual commemorative service is held there, which is attended by many Australians, including the descendants of the nurses killed along with military and diplomatic representatives. I was honoured to attend this very moving service virtually a few weeks ago.

The Andrews government has been a strong supporter of the work of the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre, and I have personally attended and participated in the centre’s annual commemorative events and informative lectures as well as their annual scholarship awards, which invest in the advancement of nurses’ education and will again be held virtually this year—tomorrow night in fact. Most recently I had the pleasure of attending an unveiling of the new memorial plaque at the centre by the Minister for Veterans, the Honourable Shaun Leane.

The work of the centre has been essential to keeping alive both the memory of this tragedy and the story of those who survived, not to mention the amazing work that they do to honour, remember and respect all nurses and the important role that they have and continue to perform in times of war, during conflicts, in peacekeeping operations and in our everyday lives, including as frontline workers during this pandemic. I look forward to their continued important work, and I am certain they will continue to enjoy the support of the government with these endeavours.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the president of the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre, Arlene Bennett. I have known Arlene for many years and have witnessed both her dedication to the commemoration of Australian nurses who have served in war and her support for nursing and nurses in general. She has played an active part in enhancing commemorations and awareness of the service of Australian nurses, not only in World War II but also those who served on Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign. Along with the work of many others who volunteer their time for the work of the centre, Arlene has played a critical and no small part in its success, and I commend her for her work.

Finally, I know this house will join me in honouring the lives and service of the 21 nurses who were murdered on Radji Beach 80 years ago as well as the other nurses who either drowned or died in the years of captivity. We honour the services of Sr Vivian Bullwinkel, who in surviving the massacre and years in captivity was able to donate her life to the memory of those who did not come home. Lest we forget.