On the occasion of the commemoration of
Battle for Australia Day
2 September 2009; Bomana Cemetery, Port Moresby, PNG
Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Mr. Chris Moraitis
Today we commemorate the service and sacrifice of all those who served in the defence of Australia in 1942 and 1943, where we faced the gravest of threats to our nation.
On 23 January 1942, the Japanese overwhelmed and captured Rabaul, which was then Australian territory. However, it wasn’t until 15 February, the day that Singapore fell to the Japanese, that Prime Minister John Curtin announced the Battle for Australia had begun. He said:
“Just as Dunkirk began the Battle for Britain, so does Singapore open the Battle for Australia. It is now work or fight as we have never worked or fought before. On what we do now depends everything we hope to do when this bloody test has been survived.”
But it is the first Wednesday in September that has been chosen as the day to commemorate Battle for Australia day. This day represents the first defeat of Japanese forces on land, which was the Battle of Milne Bay.
In the three months following the fall of Singapore, Darwin and other Australian cities were bombed, while midget submarines attacked Sydney. By July, the Japanese had occupied the Solomons and landed in Papua New Guinea.
The Australian population of more than seven million was living with wartime controls on their daily lives including rationing, restrictions on movement and with many directed to jobs supporting the war effort. The entire Australia economy was geared towards the defence of Australia and industry turned from peacetime production to wartime requirements.
Australia was being defended by more than a half a million full-time Army, Navy and Air Force personnel and the women's services. The part time Volunteer Defence Corps was also preparing for the defence of the Australian mainland. As well as ten Army divisions, the equivalent of one division each was deployed in the Northern Territory and Papua with support from the Navy and Air Force.
Using Rabaul as their main base in May 1942 the Japanese sought to threaten and isolate Australia and attempted a direct sea-borne landing at Port Moresby. They were turned back by a combined Australian and American naval force in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Japanese next attempted to occupy Port Moresby by landing troops on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea and by advancing over the Owen Stanley Range along the Kokoda Track. They were stopped a mere 25 kilometres from Port Moresby.
The Japanese who made a sea-borne landing at Milne Bay in August 1942, to assist their forces attempting to capture Port Moresby. In a fortnight's hard fighting, the defending Australian troops, supported by RAAF fighters, inflicted the war's first land defeat on the Japanese.
After the Kokoda campaign, it took a further 18 weeks - to January 1943 for the Australians to drive the Japanese back over the Owen Stanley Range and, in conjunction with American forces, to defeat the enemy in a series of battles at Gona, Buna and Sanananda on the north coast of Papua.
In January 1943 the Japanese, having failed to capture Port Moresby, determined to render it useless as a base for Allied operations by intensive bombing.
In March 1943, a Japanese convoy of ships carrying reinforcements and supplies to their forces on the north coast of Papua New Guinea was almost totally destroyed by Australian and American aircraft in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The Japanese no longer held the initiative. The Battle for Australia had been won.
As our nearest neighbour, PNG played a key geo-strategic role in the Battle for Australia. This fact is becoming better known by Australians who in ever-increasing numbers are making the pilgrimage to this rugged yet beautiful land. The Australian Government continues to herald the importance of our wartime links with this nation. Last year it listed the Kokoda Track on the List of Overseas Places of Historical Significance to Australia. In 2008, the Ministerial Forum noted the iconic status of the Kokoda Track for the people of PNG and Australia, and highlighted the strong bond forged between us in times of war, when signing the Joint Understanding on the Kokoda Track and Owen Stanley Ranges.
Importantly, the Australian and Papua New Guinea Governments have also taken the step of recognising Papua New Guineans, those who we fondly remember as Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, with commemorative medallions, in recognition of bravery and tireless support and dedication to Australian Servicemen throughout these grim times. Australians have long revered the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels for their role in carrying supplies to troops fighting in nearly inaccessible terrain and for their care in evacuating the wounded. Many Australians who became sick or wounded during the campaigns in Papua New Guinea owe their lives to these men, who we affectionately know as Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. Today, it will be my honour and privilege, following this service, to present the second commemorative medallion.
So what better place to honour those who served, those who cared for our servicemen and to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the Battle for Australia than here at Bomana. We remember all of those who at the hour of need provided their all, on the front lines and on the home front. Lest We Forget.