Report to Government

Digitisation of selected First World War repatriation records

2.30Australian servicemen and servicewomen who returned to Australia at the end of the First World War, and had formal contact with the repatriation authorities, generated repatriation records. The vast majority of surviving Department of Veterans’ Affairs repatriation records are held by the National Archives of Australia. There is no doubt that digitising these records would be of great value to researchers and historians, and would provide a unique insight into the personal and social impact of the First World War and into the repatriation process. The initiative would also be of benefit to the families and descendants of those individuals who were repatriated. The growing interest in family history, let alone any professional value, suggests that digitised repatriation records would have a substantial and interested audience. The service records of First World War servicemen and servicewomen have already been digitised.

2.31The Board has considered the merits of digitising these records. While there would be substantial benefits, it is clear that the process is very expensive. The National Archives has an ongoing program of scanning the permanent retention value records in its custody and making them publicly accessible on their internet site, although this would take time. The Board consequently proposed the possibility of accelerating the digitisation of repatriation records of a selection of veterans—the survivors of those who initially left from Albany for Egypt and Gallipoli in late 1914 and later to the Western Front. Access to the records of this group would be especially poignant and informative. It would still not be a straightforward process to complete digitisation of these records early in the Centenary period. The records are currently in paper form and many are extremely fragile, requiring manual treatment. Each identified veteran could also have three or four different files, including for registration, medical treatment, hospitalisation and pension entitlements, and possibly across several states and territories, so the scope of the task is not yet known. There are also privacy issues to consider, as the records may include sensitive personal issues that surviving relatives might wish to remain private.

2.32The Board considers this to be an important project, not only to enable historical and social research but also in discovering more about the individual servicemen and servicewomen who fought in some of the most atrocious battles of the First World War and who returned home and had to find their way again in civilian society, often carrying physical, mental and emotional wounds. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is undertaking a scoping exercise with National Archives of Australia. If feasible at a reasonable cost and with appropriate privacy safeguards, the digitisation project should be considered for funding.

Greater recognition of the role of Indigenous Australians

2.33Non-Europeans were officially barred from serving in Australia’s armed forces at the time of the First World War. Notwithstanding this, many Indigenous Australians fought in the war. Despite prejudice in civilian life, Indigenous Australians received the same pay and conditions as other military personnel. Unfortunately, when they returned to civilian life, they faced discrimination. While hundreds of Indigenous men served in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, the Army and Navy rejected all applications from Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders and others not ‘substantially of European origin or descent’. The only exceptions were Indigenous men who enlisted very early in the war before recruiting officers were fully appraised of enlistment policy. The RAAF alone, facing heavy manpower demands, accepted suitable recruits, including Indigenous Australians. Only in mid-1941, when the threat from Japan became serious, did the Australian armed services, now requiring a substantial increase in the number of recruits, abandon their previously held attitudes to Indigenous Australians and allow them to enlist in large numbers. Enlistment restrictions were abandoned in 1949 and since then Indigenous Australians have served in all conflicts in which Australia has been involved.⁵ The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has a campaign to identify Indigenous members of the veterans’ community.

2.34Appropriate recognition of the role of Indigenous Australians in our efforts at war and to our military is well overdue. The Anzac Centenary provides a unique national occasion to set this right. For example, it may be appropriate to examine the evidence on the issue of belated recognition of Indigenous members of the services who were denied medals and whether, during the Anzac Centenary, a formal inquiry might be conducted into how any injustice could be rectified. There will be many other opportunities in the Centenary’s educational, commemorative and artistic programs to acknowledge the reality that there has been discrimination (reflective of broader social attitudes), but thankfully these attitudes have changed over time, and this process is continuing.

Greater awareness of the contribution of Australians from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds

2.35It is vital that the commemorative period reflects the diversity of Australia’s community and that the program is inclusive of all Australians. It must provide all Australians with opportunities to engage in the Centenary. Even though the White Australia policy persisted into the 1960s, the make up of Australia’s armed forces has always reflected the country’s diversity. The Australian Imperial Force in both World Wars comprised people of many nationalities, as did the forces that Australia sent to Korea, Vietnam, other more recent conflicts and on peacekeeping missions. For example, two of the most well-known Chinese–Australian service personnel, Billy Sing and Jack Wong Sue, served in the First and Second World Wars, respectively. Billy Sing became famous at Gallipoli for his skill as a sniper. Later, on the Western Front in 1917, he led a unit in counter-sniper operations during the Battle of Polygon Wood during the Passchendaele campaign, for which he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Jack Wong Sue served with the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War, most notably as a member of the elite Z Special Unit with which he served behind Japanese lines in Borneo. He received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘leadership, gallantry and cold-blooded courage of the highest order’, as well as the United States Submarine Combat Insignia (submarines were used to insert members of the Special Forces on some operations).

2.36We need only look at the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial to illustrate the multicultural diversity of Australia’s defence forces and the service and sacrifice made by servicemen and servicewomen from many cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The multicultural face of the present day Australian Defence Force, across all ranks, provides a powerful image of the changing face of Australia.

2.37The Board has formed a group, under His Honour Judge Rauf Soulio, to develop further effective ways to involve our Indigenous and multicultural communities in the Centenary commemorations and other activities, and to broaden understanding of the contribution of Australians from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The Group has identified three key themes:

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  The face of the Australian Defence Force—raising awareness of the contributions of women, Indigenous Australians and Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds. This may be achieved by including relevant stories in Anzac Centenary material, e.g. in the series of personal stories, Exhibition in a Box, art exhibitions, the travelling exhibition, through education grants under the Anzac Centenary Educational Scholarships and Grants Program etc. Consideration might also be given to using such material in future Australian Defence Force recruitment campaigns targeting Australians from diverse backgrounds.
  
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  Engagement with communities—both to improve multicultural Australians’ understanding of the Anzac story and its importance to Australia’s national identity, and to ensure that awareness within the community of diversity in Australia’s military experience is improved. One initiative could be to invite key cultural leaders to major services and observances. The Board also considers that engaging local communities from those countries where Australian forces have operated, or were based, in campaigns in the First and Second World Wars and in more recent campaigns has told the story of Australians in overseas campaigns, and will continue to do so. These communities will include the more readily apparent, such as the French and Belgian communities, but also newer communities in Australia, such as the Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Afghani, Iraqi, and East Timorese communities.
  
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  The impact of war on migration—global conflict has affected migration to Australia, and continues to do so. This is considered a topic worthy of future research and awareness raising.