The 25th of April is a day to remember all Australians who have served our nation in wars, in peacekeeping, in operations around our country and around the world.

We remember the sailors and soldiers at Gallipoli whose courage, mateship and endurance have so completely engaged our national memory.

Last December, the very last RAN officer to have survived the sinking of the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth died. His name was Gavin Campbell and I would like to take you on the journey of his wartime experiences.

In 1942 Sub Lieutenant Gavin Campbell, was a lanky young officer from Portland in Victoria.  He was the secretary to Perth's Captain Hec Waller. Between air raids on Batavia, (now known as Jakarta), he celebrated his 21st birthday in Perth with his brother officers and his captain.

After the birthday celebration Perth sailed to join an allied force of Dutch, British and American cruisers and destroyers off East Java, in what was a gallant but futile attempt to turn back a Japanese invasion force.

At the Battle of the Java Sea, on the night of February 27, that Allied squadron was badly mauled and beaten. Two Dutch cruisers and three Allied destroyers were sunk by torpedoes.  

Perth survived that battle, but was low on ammunition, and the next day she was ordered to flee the advancing Japanese, to head south for Australia, to fight another day. But on that night the 28th of February, she and the American cruiser USS Houston were engaged by Japanese destroyers in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra.

Captain Waller and his crew fought courageously,  as did the American ship, but it was far from an even fight.  Perth was struck by three torpedoes and a blizzard of gunfire, and left shattered and sinking. Waller ordered his men to abandon ship moments before he was killed on his bridge.

Gavin left his action station, perched on the guard rail and about to jump when the fourth and final torpedo hit the ship and blew him high into the air and dropped him into sea. Luckily, he was wearing his life jacket, his Mae West, and when he came-to in the water it held him up. 

But as he tried to swim, he found he had a broken leg, trailing behind him. The pain was excruciating, but he hauled himself onto a raft and there Able Seaman Bob Collins used his knife to hack off some strips of wood from a floating packing case and splinted the leg as best he could.

It was the first of countless acts of mateship given and received by these Perth sailors in the months and years ahead, and it saved Gavin's leg and his life.

But his ordeal had just begun.  When they eventually staggered ashore on Java, Gavin - barely able to move –found himself on a beach with another wounded sailor, Able Seaman Denny Maher from Sydney.

"We can't just stay here," Gavin told him. "We've got to move on or we'll die." So for three weeks these men staggered down the coast of Java, in the burning tropical heat of March.  Gavin was wracked with waves of pain, limping and hobbling. They were tormented by hunger and thirst

There were some days when Gavin simply couldn't move at all but Able Seaman Denny Maher stuck with him.  They encouraged each other, and they went on, unbeatable, indomitable, until eventually they entered a small town, where a local nurse took them in. They intended to escape from Java by sea but the Japanese arrived the next day to take them prisoner.

For Gavin and Perth’s survivors capture was the beginning of three agonising years of cruelty and savagery as prisoners-of-war on the Thai Burma- Railway. Men worked until they were skeletons, bashed or shot by their guards if they could not continue to labour. 

In 1945, in the last days of the war, it was Gavin's turn to give mateship.  The Japanese marched the sick men to a new camp outside Bangkok.  Another of Perth's officers Lieutenant Lloyd Burgess, was too weak to make it on his own.  Gavin carried him most of the way, through the jungle limping along on his healed leg. That saved Lloyd Burgess's life.

Gavin was liberated in Thailand when a British commando appeared from out of the jungle and it was all over. He arrived at Melbourne's airport on a chilly November day.  There was no one there to meet him, so he went over to a Red Cross Hut and explained to the lady there that he'd just returned from being a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

"Well," she said. "I suppose you'd like a cup of tea then."

Gavin served on in the Navy post war.  He had a long life of service to his family, support for friends and loyalty to the Navy he had served so well under the most difficult circumstances.

Our remembrance of this heroic generation, now passing into history, is important so last December a new bronze statue was unveiled by the Chief of Navy in Melbourne outside the former RAN recruiting depot, HMAS Lonsdale. It is called “Answering the Call.” It shows a young Second World War sailor with his kitbag.

This figure represents all RAN officers and sailors who fought the war at sea in 1939 to 45. He also represents the other two naval services, the Womens’ Royal Australian Naval Service, who were the Navy’s essential support ashore, and the RAN Nursing Service whose devotion to duty was, as always, ‘beyond praise.’

Appropriately our newly qualified bronze sailor is looking out at the entry to Port Philip Bay. Behind him is the training depot. Ahead is the open sea - his new home where he must brave what the naval prayer accurately calls “the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy.”

While remembering the RAN’s sailors we should not forget the thousands of seamen of the Australian Merchant Navy who served the allied cause, and the hundreds who died and were wounded, in both world wars. It was Merchant Navy ships, sailing under the Red Ensign, which carried the sinews of war, food, fuel, ammunition, troops and tanks, to the battlefronts of the world. They also sustained the populations at home until victory was won.

My address has had a deliberate naval focus. The reality is that the vast majority of Australians who have fought for our nation have been soldiers, and it is therefore natural that their story and their names should be most easily brought to mind. However the service of those in the Air Force and the Navy also needs to be remembered. I am proud to be an Australian sailor. I am proud of the Navy’s contribution to the ANZAC legend, and I am honoured to carry on the legacy of those who have fought and died on the oceans, on the land and in the air in defence of our freedom.

Finally, ANZAC Day is also a time to acknowledge the vital role of all those who have served, and continue to serve on the home front. Without the support, commitment and confidence of wives, husbands and children, mums and dads, sisters and brothers, it would simply not be possible for Australian service men and women to do the work they do.

Lest We Forget.