The first bullet of World War I heralded a calamity on a scale unknown to humanity. The last shot was followed by silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Charles Bean wrote of the eerie quiet that settled along the Western Front:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe change went too deep for actual rejoicing\u2026 The sound of guns ceased \u2013 the gates of the future silently opened.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
While many of our soldiers found ways to celebrate, many greeted the peace with their own quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the children who chalked the walls of village houses with messages celebrating the end of the war, many couldn\u2019t even bring themselves to note it in their diaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the spare words of one Australian digger:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was over. That was enough.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
We thank them for the peace that came when the final shell crater had uncurled its final wisp of smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the sea and the sky were killing grounds no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the last coil of barbed wire had been cut apart or turned to rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the singing of bullets had given way to the song of birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the naked mud had begun to once again be clothed in grass and flowers, hellscapes turned back to meadow and farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When ruin had given way to rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as those who survived the War to End All Wars soon learned: victory in war offers no guarantee of the victory of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another war came. Another generation of Australians went. And at the end of it, another silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the silence of guns suddenly stilled, of planes left on the ground, of ships with their cannons lowered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was also the silence of the dead, and the grief of those they left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each time we honour our fallen with silence, it is a silence that also contains within it the hope that humanity has at last learnt its lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hope that this will never happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hope, it must be said, is playing a long game. And hope may yet win out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we will keep returning to this silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This solemn quiet that holds both endings and beginnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of exhaustion and rebirth, and a belief in humanity that somehow survives and holds on despite everything that is thrown at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a silence I hope that our courageous, suffering friends in Ukraine will also soon know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For so many of our veterans, silence is also a shield against the world \u2013 an outer stillness while within them, the cacophony of war rages on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That has been the experience for so many, whether they raised arms against the enemy, or worked desperately to save the lives of the wounded and the dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when that outer silence ends, when that shield is lowered, we must listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen even to the silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as our veterans stepped up for us, we must step up for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We owe them a debt greater than mere gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have stood here before and cited the examples of my great mentor Tom Uren \u2013 a giant of the Labor Party \u2013 and Sir John Carrick, a giant of the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two great Australians who, even amid the deprivation of prisoner of war camps, managed to encapsulate what is best about our national character: that our deepest instinct is to respond to the worst of times by being our best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we gather in this place of memory, we honour all those who have gone in our name.
We honour them as the bugler sounds the Last Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe honour them as the piper plays The Flowers of the Forest, a lament of stately sadness unsoftened by the passing of centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in our gratitude and sorrow at their sacrifice, we honour them most profoundly with silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lest we forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first bullet of World War I heralded a calamity on a scale unknown to humanity. The last shot was followed by silence. As Charles Bean wrote of the eerie quiet that settled along the Western Front: \u201cThe change went too deep for actual rejoicing\u2026 The sound of guns ceased \u2013 the gates of the … Continue reading “LAST POST CEREMONY”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17463,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17462\/revisions\/17463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}