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- 9 March 2004
Australian Chinese Ex-Servicemen Monument
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Page: 6819
The Hon. HENRY TSANG [Parliamentary Secretary] [9.20 p.m.]: I am pleased to report to the House the completion in Darling Harbour of the final stage of the monument to Chinese ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen. The completed monument, including the lighting system, was unveiled on Wednesday 18 February 2004 at its site at the intersection of Liverpool and Dixon streets, right behind the Chinese Garden of Friendship at the gateway to Darling Harbour. The project was an important one to me, but it also proved to be a very difficult one to see through to completion. Not surprisingly, the building stage proved very difficult, with cost overruns and various other problems. Luckily, with the arrival of Louis Lee, an engineer from Newcastle, as the project manager the monument was completed in accordance with its design. I have previously placed on record my recognition of Peter McGregor as the designer and I am happy to do so again. After many years of hard work it is fantastic that Australians can now recognise and commemorate the enormous contribution made to the country by Chinese Australians in conflicts over the past centuries. It is especially wonderful that this monument stands at the crossroads of Chinatown and Darling Harbour, a symbol of the cross-cultural understanding among Australians. It is a place for all Australians to reflect on the contribution made by ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen, and especially those soldiers who were from the Chinese community in Australia.
I express my appreciation to all the parties who made the monument a reality. In particular, I thank the Australian Chinese Ex-Services National Reunion, whose members served Australia with pride and dignity, and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority for providing land and support for the building and future maintenance of the monument. I thank also the New South Wales Government, the Commonwealth Government and the City of Sydney for their support in providing grants for the monument to be built. In particular, I thank Premier Bob Carr for his personal support of the monument and the community for its generous donations. I hope that all Chinese Australians who served overseas or who have a family member who served will join me and distinguished community leaders each Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and Australia Day to remember those who died in battle while serving Australia so courageously during the Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Malayan conflict, the Vietnam War and in other conflicts.
The completion of a monument to Australian Chinese ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen is an important event that highlights the continuing strong relationship between the people of New South Wales and the Australian Chinese community. I am sure that new generations of Chinese people in Sydney and New South Wales will join me in commending this memorial in recognition of their forebears who contributed to their adopted country. An article entitled "Courage and Service" by Diana Giese states:
When war came to Australia with the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, many Chinese Australians ... witnessed the destruction. In an interview for the 1999 Courage and Service project, Mr Riley Yuen Wing remembers: 'They bombed the Wharf; they bombed the RAAF Base, and then they came across and we saw the oil smoke from the tankers in the Harbour ... the whole Harbour was on fire. They came over and put the bombs right on huts filled with explosives. It was like Chinese New Year.'
Mr Tom Cheong, President of the Australian Chinese Ex-Services National Reunion, and the prime mover behind this Monument, was also there. Afterwards he went on to join the RAAF. '19 February was a day of great significance for Australia,' he says. 'I felt it was important to defend my home because this was the first time Australia was under direct threat from enemy forces. I was only about half a kilometre from the Wharf and the oil tanks. Many of my friends were killed.
Families were separated and moved out of town, but some stayed on through further raids. Mr Charles See-Kee—
Whose real name is Tsang—
who worked for the Administrator of the Northern Territory, sheltered from the first bombs under his office. A woman was killed beside him. He remained in the stricken town, under constant attack, until May. Then he left with several cars and a truck loaded with the Northern Territory Administration's records. The Authority had already relocated to Alice Springs.
As the enemy moved inexorably closer to north Australia, Chinese Australians helped build airstrips and fortify beaches, supplied food, transmitted coded messages and maintained amphibious vehicles to repel a possible invasion. Overseas, they served on the front line, on land, sea and in the air. In 1942, in Cairns, Thomas Tung Yep was one of the Chinese boys accepted as air crew by the RAAF. 'A number of Chinese lads are breaking their necks to get into the Air Force in Australia,' he told the local paper. 'We mean to set a good example in the training so that the others will be accepted.'
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