Aurukun Indigenous veteran honoured at Australian War Memorial

*Note: To be referred to in the spoken word as Waal Waal Ngakyunkwokka until June 2026, to follow cultural protocols of the Wik people of the Wanum Clan, relating to funerary announcements.

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will commemorate the service and sacrifice of Aurukun resident Private Charlie Bob Ngakyunkwokka at the Last Post Ceremony on National Reconciliation Day, Tuesday 27 May 2025.

“Born on 7 January 1912 at Aurukun Presbyterian Mission, Far North Queensland, Waal Waal Ngakyunkwokka served in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion during the Second World War,” Australian War Memorial historian Dr Thomas Rogers said.

He enlisted for service with the Australian Army on 13 September 1943, joining the 2nd Australian Water Transport Group, before being transferred to the 14th Australian Water Transport Operating Company. Under constant threat of enemy sea mines and aerial attack by Japanese aircraft, his duties included piloting Army vessels in the Torres Strait and Gulf of Carpentaria, and moving personnel and stores between ships, flying boats and the shore.

“In March 1945, Waal Waal Ngakyunkwokka was transferred to the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, one of the very few racially segregated units in Australia’s history,” Dr Rogers said.

While on leave at Aurukun, he contracted influenza and died of pneumonia on 20 April 1945. He was 33 years old.

Waal Waal Ngakyunkwokka was buried in the Aurukun Mission Cemetery, where his is the only war grave.

The Last Post ceremony is held at 4.30 pm every day except Christmas Day in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial.

Each ceremony shares the story behind one of 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour. To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 4,100 ceremonies, each featuring an individual story of service from colonial to recent conflicts. It would take more than 280 years to read the story behind each of the 103,000 names listed on the Roll of Honour.

“The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service,” Memorial Director Matt Anderson said.

“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died. We also tell the stories of who they were when they were alive, and of the families who loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.

“The Last Post is now associated with remembrance but originally it was a bugle call to sound the end of the day’s activities in the military. It is a fitting way to end each day at the Memorial.”

The Last Post Ceremony honouring the service of Private Charlie Bob Ngakyunkwokka will be live streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/awmlastpost.

The stories told at the Last Post Ceremony are researched and written by the Memorial’s military historians, who begin the process by looking at nominal rolls, attestation papers and enlistment records before building profiles that include personal milestones and military experiences.

Photos: link

Caption: Australian War Memorial Indigenous Liaison Officer Michael Bell places a poppy beside the name of Private Ngakyunkwokka on the Roll of Honour.