Memorial Articles

For more than five consecutive years almost 2,500 unarmed Australian military and civilian monitors worked closely with the Bougainvillean people, at times in isolated and remote parts of Buka and Bougainville Islands, to support peacebuilding in a region that had been exposed to almost a decade of violence.

The Australian Field Ambulance has played a vital role during times of conflict, assessing injuries, providing initial medical care, and removing the wounded from combat zones. 

In 2016, Research Officer Amy Pym came across a fragile-looking book. On the front was the title “NX172702; Pte Allan ‘Bluey’ Bartlett; 2/17 Inf. Btn; Personal Experiences 1945”. It was her late grandfather's war diary...

It’s a nerve-racking moment for Dr Charles Robb. The Brisbane-based artist has wrangled approximately 200 kilograms of clay to create a sculptural portrait of Second World War nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, and is watching on as the final bronze sculpture is being craned into position at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

At the beginning of 1942, George Mackisack’s family received word that he was in a convalescent hospital in Singapore, recovering from wounds received in an air attack. This was the last news they would receive for almost a year.

When Andrew Fox-Lane donated his helmet camera to the Australian War Memorial in 2013, the helmet and mounting systems did not come with it.

Vivian Bullwinkel thought she was going to die. The 26-year-old Australian army nurse had escaped the fall of Singapore, and survived the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke, clinging to a life raft before making it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island. There, 22 Australian nurses were forced into the ocean and shot by Japanese soldiers. Bullwinkel was the only survivor.

Australian cine-cameraman and correspondent Neil Davis experienced and recorded various conflicts throughout the south-east Asian region between the 1960s and 1980s. 

While considering objects for inclusion in Action! War and Film, one item I definitely had to have was an electrified Bell and Howell 35mm Eyemo cine camera.