On Tuesday 11th of November, an Armistice Day commemoration ceremony was held at Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby.
Armistice Day, also known as Remembrance Day, commemorates the end of the Great War (World War I), the signing of the Armistice. The ceremony included a minute's silence at 11am, marking the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the moment when guns fell silent across the Western Front and the war ended.
Armistice Day pays respect to those who have lost their lives in all wars and conflicts.
In his Armistice Address, Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea and Special Envoy to the Pacific, Mr Ewen McDonald, spoke to the significance of Papua New Guinea in WWI for Australian soldiers.
He said “perhaps the most familiar names linking war and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to Australians are the Kokoda trail and the Coral Sea from the Second World War. However, New Guinea was the site of the first Australian battles and deaths in the Great War.”
New Guinea was the site of Australia’s first successful combat action in WWI, resulting in the taking of an enemy occupied radio station in Rabaul, East New Britain.
Visiting Australian Defence Force Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel Michael Folland recited 'In Flanders fields', a poem which speaks of the red poppies, the first plants that sprouted from the devastation of the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. The Flanders poppy has become the flower of remembrance worn on Armistice Day.
The commemoration ceremony was attended by visiting Commander of the 1st (Australian) Division, Major General Ashley Collingburn, Australian Defence Adviser Colonel Nicholas Trotter, and several diplomatic and Defence representatives.
ENDS
Left to Right - Commander 3rd Brigade, Brigadier Ben McLennan; Director General Pacific Air Commodore Jo Brick; Australian Defence Advisor to PNG Colonel Nicholas Trotter; Chief of the PNGDF, Rear Admiral Philip Polewara; Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea and Special Envoy to the Pacific, Mr Ewen McDonald; Commander of the 1st (Australian) Division, Major General Ashley Collingburn; and Commander 17th Sustainment Brigade, Brigadier Rebecca Talbot. Pictured at Bomana War Cemetery for the Armistice Day commemoration ceremony.
For further information, including access to related materials, please contact the Australian High Commission media team: +675 7090 0100