The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of Australian involvement in peacekeeping operations.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by , the story for this day was on 75th anniversary of Australian involvement in peacekeeping operations.

Today we commemorate the 75th anniversary of Australian involvement in peacekeeping operations.

In 1947, Australians were part of the first group of United Nations military observers, when a small contingent was deployed to monitor the ceasefire between Dutch colonial and Indonesian nationalist forces.
In those early years, peacekeepers were generally unarmed military observers. They promoted peace by ensuring that neither side in a conflict could violate a ceasefire or commit atrocities without the world learning about it.

While today the media or members of the public are often seen as filling this role, military observers with peacekeeping operations have the training to assess situations accurately and impartially, and the ability to bring the influence of their governing bodies to bear.

In Indonesia, for example, information from UN military observers helped set the conditions by which Indonesia won independence. In 1950, the UN’s judgement that North Korea had invaded the south was based, in part, on a report by Australian military observers.

Australia’s contributions to peacekeeping operations have since increased in size and scope. The commitment to Indonesia in 1947 consisted of just four officers from all three of our armed services.

At the end of the 1970s, 150 Australian soldiers took part in a British Commonwealth operation as Zimbabwe won independence.

A decade later, a larger contingent assisted a UN operation with a similar role in Namibia. In 1993, Australia had over 2,000 peacekeepers in the field, with large contingents in Cambodia and Somalia, and a year later, Australian peacekeepers were also in Rwanda.

In 1999, Australia organised and led INTERFET, contributing over 5,000 personnel as East Timor achieved independence from Indonesia.

Australians have taken part in over 60 peacekeeping operations, and ten multinational operations have been commanded by Australians to date.

Peacekeeping has not only been the preserve of the Australian Defence Force. Civilians from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AusAID and the Australian Electoral Commission, as well as police officers from the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Protective Service have served as far afield as Cambodia, Haiti, Mozambique, Bougainville, and Timor-Leste.

Five years ago, the last Australian Federal Police officers from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus were withdrawn.

More than 1,600 Australian officers had contributed to the peacekeeping force over a period of 53 years, working to maintain peace and stability, delivering humanitarian assistance, and liaising between authorities. Most recently, from 2019 to 2021, Major General Cheryl Pearce commanded the UN peacekeeping force on Cyprus.

Peacekeeping is the front-end of a complex, long-term process of creating the necessary conditions for sustainable peace. It is also usually the pointy end of this process, and it comes with inherent risks.
Six Australian police officers were killed serving in Cyprus, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste.

The Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial contains the names of 10 Australian Defence Force personnel who died while deployed on peacekeeping operations, in far away places such as in Kashmir, Lebanon, Somalia, and Western Sahara, and much closer to home, in Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

Today we pay tribute to those who played their part during the past 75 years of peacekeeping operations. We pay our respects to the men and women commemorated here on the Roll of Honour, and to those who returned home.

Peacekeepers Vale;

• Lieutenant General Robert Nimmo, Australian Army, 4th of January 1966, Kashmir

• Sergeant Lewelyn Thomas, South Australian Police, 26th of July 1969, Cyprus

• Inspector Patrick Hackett, New South Wales Police, 29th of August 1971, Cyprus

• Sergeant Ian Ward, New South Wales Police, 12th of November 1974, Cyprus

• Captain Peter McCarthy, Australian Army, 12th of January 1988, Lebanon

• Lance Corporal Shannon McAliney, Australian Army, 2nd of April 1993, Somalia

• Major Susan Felsche, Australian Army, 21st of June 1993, Western Sahara

• Lance Corporal Russell Eisenhuth, Australian Army, 17th of January 2000, East Timor

• Lance Corporal Shawn Lewis, Australian Army, 20th of May 2000, Bougainville

• Corporal Stuart Jones, Australian Army, 9th of August 2000, East Timor

• Protective Service Officer Adam Dunning, Australian Federal Police, 22nd of December 2004, Solomon Islands

• Private Jamie Clark, Australian Army, 10th of March 2005, Solomon Islands

• Private Ashley Baker, Australian Army, 5th of November 2007, Timor-Leste

• Protective Service Officer Ronald Lewis, Australian Federal Police, 2nd of December 2010, Solomon Islands

• Craftsman Beau Pridue, Australian Army, 15th of September 2011, Timor-Leste

• Sergeant Brett Kinloch, Australian Federal Police, 24th of February 2012, Timor-Leste