Some issues have been brought to stark prominence by the Coronavirus Pandemic. Homelessness is frequently front of mind in politics and the media – the stay-at-home measures elevated it even further. How does someone stay-at-home without a home?

I am proud to observe a lot of work has been done combatting the problem over the last few months, the Victorian government has released millions in extra funding and not-for-profit organisations such as our own BeyondHousing have been putting in the extra mile, but I am concerned what happens on the other side of this crisis.

Since last November, my office has been conducting a review into the issue of homelessness in our region and some of the findings are sobering.

We experience some of the highest instances of homelessness in regional Victoria. People on the streets, the so-called “rough-sleepers” form only a small component, around seven per cent according to the data. There are also the “hidden homelessness,” hundreds of individuals and families who live daily with high levels of housing insecurity. These people are forced to couch surf and rely on the good-will of friends and family and they grapple daily with the worry of where they will sleep the following night.

Everyone deserves a door they can lock, a bed they can sleep in and a place to prepare a meal. Without these necessities life can quickly descend into a dark and miserable existence. Without these necessities, it can be extremely difficult to maintain a job or even basic health needs.

Our investigations have revealed we have a lot of great organisations in our region working hard to help those experiencing homelessness across the not-for-profit sector, but there are also noticeable problems.

Right now, we have more than twenty government social housing properties sitting vacant. Some of them have been vacant for years. I have asked the Minister for Housing to look into this. On Monday, the minister announced half-a-billion dollars to renovate and revitalise government owned social housing stock and it is only appropriate part of this spend occurs here.

The Victorian government has also pledged to build over 1000 new social housing properties across the state. Again, I have asked that the electorate with the highest rate of homelessness in regional Victoria receive some of the highest levels of social housing investment in regional Victoria.

There are many causes of homelessness such as family violence, mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse, but one of the growing issues is simple housing affordability. I will continue to lobby the government on solutions to these myriad causes of homelessness in our region.

We have made significant gains over the last five years across health, education and infrastructure investment and I am committed to adding reducing homelessness to that list.

The Coronavirus Crisis has been hard on all of us but I am proud of how well our community is responding to the challenge, especially in our smaller townships.

Through natural disasters, through fires, floods and droughts, our region has always displayed considerable resilience.

With our schools closed to all but the children of essential service workers and those who cannot study at home and many facing extended isolation it is important we draw on that resilience and continue to look out for one another.

I am particularly concerned about those enduring the lock-down alone. If you know of someone in isolation without household or family support, I encourage you to pick up the phone and call them. Any and every act of simple kindness can make a huge difference at a time like this.

My office is available to help during the lock-down. We have fielded many requests for assistance and information and while we cannot always help, we often know who can.

If you are running a small business, we can point you to multiple state and federal government programs. If you are out of work or having difficulty with your employment, we can also let you know what measures have been put in place to help through the crisis. If you are having difficulty sourcing the basics like food and hygiene products, we can direct you to state government support.

Check in with your family and friends and take care of yourself. This is an unprecedented event and there is no “normal” way to handle it. If you are feeling overwhelmed, as many of us rightfully have been, reach out to others. It is OK to be uncertain or worried or fearful during a time like this. It is OK to ask for help.

Our country and our region have displayed incredible efforts and co-operation in reducing the spread of the virus and our collective efforts are succeeding – the proof is the low rate of infection.

I encourage you to visit www.treasury.gov.au to see the full available supports by the Australian Government and www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus for the Victorian State Government supports.

Stay safe. Stay home.

My office is undertaking research into the causes and potential state government policy solutions to address homeless in our region.

Many of us are familiar with media reporting that the Electoral District of Shepparton experiences some of the worst instances of homelessness in regional Victoria and that the problem is worsening.
In November 2019, I commissioned research into homelessness in our region to develop policies to advocate to the Victorian Government.
The research has focused on examining differing datasets and holding interviews with local stakeholders in the not-for-profit, private and local government sectors.
These are two areas we have been examining closely and I hope to have these and a number of other policies ready to advocate to the Victorian Government in the near future.

An exciting opportunity exists to join the team supporting the Independent Member for Shepparton District in the Victorian Parliament as a legislation and policy officer.

The role is ideal for a research and policy enthusiast who values a challenging position with diverse responsibilities and duties including data-gathering, writing and policy development.

It would suit a recent graduate or someone with 1-2 years similar experience with an interest in law, current affairs and government.

The role:

• Provide high quality research, policy briefs and analysis of upcoming government legislation
• Monitor and analyse government statistics and reports
• Liaise with the Member and staff regarding policy direction
• Engage with key stakeholders on issues relevant to the Shepparton District
• Develop position papers and submissions
• Assist with the preparation of parliamentary speeches for the Member on specific government Bills

The successful candidate will have:

• A university Bachelor Degree (preferably in Law or Arts with relevant areas of study), or demonstrated equivalent work experience/prior learning
• Strong research and analytical skills and a willingness to learn
• Effective communication, with a particular skill in articulating complex information in accessible written form
• Ability to produce quality material with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and adjust quickly to changing priorities
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a small team, while maintaining high professional standards
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality
• Initiative and accountability to ensure high quality results
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• A demonstrated understanding of Victoria’s system of government and interest in politics as well as a familiarity with issues relevant to the Shepparton District would be an advantage

Please note this is a full-time ongoing role, based primarily in Shepparton, with salary based on experience and employment subject to a six-month probation period.

To apply for this position, please submit a 1-2 page cover letter addressing the required skills and salary expectation, together with your CV to suzanna.sheed@parliament.vic.gov.au.

Applications for this role close at 5pm on 8 March, 2019.

At this month’s Remembrance Day service in Mooroopna on the 100th anniversary of Armistice, local historian Adrian Ambrose shared moving stories and reflections of our local contribution to World War I.

Here are his words.

———-

100 years ago at 11.00 am on the 11^th November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent.

Spare a thought for Canadian soldier George Price who was shot in the chest by a German sniper and died at 10:58 am, 2 minutes before the Armistice came into effect.

At the War’s end the Australian population was just over 5 million.

On 11/11/1918, there were almost 200,000 Australians serving abroad.

Spare tears for those for whom the bell tolled.

Some 62,000 men were killed: more than 160,000 wounded.

The war lasted 1650 days and on average 38 Australian men died each day.

But when news of the Armistice arrived, crowds gathered in Melbourne cheering through the night.

The Australian War correspondent Charles Bean instead visited the tragic battlefield at Fromelles where the Australians made their catastrophic entry onto the Western front 2 years earlier and

found the ‘old no man’s land’ simply full of our dead.`

Many of those who remained on the Western Front were too exhausted to celebrate.

 

Aftermath of War

Virtually every Australian home was touched by the war.

Many families were broken. Lives were constricted to nursing the wounded, the lung damaged and disabled.

That task fell to the parents, wives and sisters of the young men of the AIF.

There was no provision for psychological trauma.

Some 20,000 died of injury shortly after the war.

Many more would succumb to wounds, to the effects of gas and to suicide in the decades to come.

Some 60,000 Australians would die within a decade of returning home.

The war’s final curse was the Spanish flu transmitted by the returning troops that carried off another 14,000 Australians.

The historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote:

It was the loss of so many talented people who would have become prime ministers, premiers, judges, divines, engineers, teachers, doctors, poets, inventors, farmers, mayors of towns, the leaders of trade unions and the fathers of another generation of Australians. A young nation could not afford to lose such men.

Paul Kelly a journalist for The Australian wrote:

the great War, 1914-18, was a most convulsive, tragic and defining event in Australian history.

And of those of our own who served in the years 1914-18.

There are 124 names of the men of Mooroopna and North Mooroopna including 2 district Chaplains who enlisted for war service inscribed on the Cenotaph. There are also the names of 21 nurses, who volunteered, all of whom, had trained at the Mooroopna Hospital.

 

Letters Home

In August 1916 Sergeant Robert Bazley from somewhere in France, wrote to his mother at the Mooroopna Commercial Hotel with the sub-title back from the mouth of hell.

(I read the following excerpts)

Just a line to let you know that I’m still strong and well, having come out of the Pozieres battle without a scratch.

I can tell you it was simply hell. You would wonder how human beings could survive in it.

The bombardment was something terrific. It went on night and day without ceasing.

All of my mates were wounded.

My God, it was awful. I shall never forget it as long as I live.

British Orders were not challenged.

Charles Bean was to write that the ‘Pozieres ridge was more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth’.

There were more Australian casualties in late July 1916 than in the entire Gallipoli campaign.

And we know that within minutes of his first engagement at Pozieres, Sergeant William McLennan was shot through the lungs and later reported missing.

Yet his recently widowed mother Mary who suffered poor health was to wait some 16 months before a Court of Inquiry determined that he had been killed in action.

Sergeant William McLennan was one of some 20,000 Australian men for whom there was no known grave.

In December 1916, Corporal Clarie Doyle wrote to his parents in Mooroopna:

 I’ve met nearly all the chaps from Mooroopna way. Bob Bazley, who is writing beside me now got his commission after Pozieres; Shrewdie Evans, Fred Geisler and Andy Goodfellow are in this battalion. I met Charlie Dobinson last week, who was going to England as an instructor. Wally Lane also got his commission after Pozieres. Arthur Price told him that Joe Norton was in hospital in England and Ginger Brown and Peter O’Connell ran in a relay race last Saturday.

That band of brothers came home.

A Shepparton News article in December 1916 reported that Mr & Mrs Knight, of Mooroopna received a ‘cheery letter from their son Lance Corporal William Knight who as the result of a shell wound recently had his leg amputated’.

He ended his letter with the words:

don’t worry about me. I’m all right and I have no regrets.

Citations

Lieutenant Reginal Valentine Hill enlisted at age 21.

He was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant in April 1917.

In May 1917, he was severely wounded with gunshot wounds to the left arm, leg and foot.

He was awarded the Companion of the Distinguished Service Order for displaying conspicuous courage and leadership during operations at Bellicourt in 1918.

His citation begins with the words:

He led a charge against an enemy machine gun post mopped up a garrison of about 20 and captured 3 machine guns.

We know that Captain Eowyn Davies was awarded a military cross for action in September 1918, where

over 2 consecutive nights for throwing footbridges across a river in no man’s land, and on the 2^nd night under withering fire.

We know that Lieutenant Robert Bazley was awarded a military cross after he took the place of his wounded runners and continually ran valuable intelligence to a command post whilst under enemy fire.

We know that Private Garnet Robbins was awarded a military medal

for cutting enemy wire entanglements under machine gun fire and as stretcher bearers for bringing 3 men back across no man’s land under a barrage of shrapnel fire.

We know that Private Edwin Smith of Lancaster was awarded the military medal for action on the 19 December 1915 when at Gallipoli

he was one of 4 men who for some 2½ hours created a ruse in trenches 500 meters long in front of Johnston’s Folly that enabled his battalion to escape safely

We know that Rudolf Geisler (NCO) was awarded a military medal in October 2017 after he led his platoon with great dash and skill east of Ypres.

We know that Privates Garnet Robbins and Edwin Smith were later killed in action.

We know that the Bazley and Hill brothers were among those who came home.

For many years, Clyde Clicker Hill a light horseman led Mooroopna’s Anzac/Remembrance Day Marches on horseback. The Mooroopna Historical Society has a faded photograph of him taken in 1933 astride a horse bred by Bill Woods and named after his daughter, Emma.

But spare a thought for the Hooper and Robbins’ families who lost 2 brothers.

 

Imagine the anguish of parents at the loss of 1 son let alone 2.

 

The Munro Family lost 3 brothers

Spare a thought then for Mr Alexander Munro and his wife Katherine from  Undera.

James enlisted at age 22. He was killed in action at the first landing at Gallipoli on the 25 April 1915 and buried at Anzac Cove.

George enlisted at age 20. He sustained a gunshot wound to the thigh at Gallipoli in May 1915.

He was killed in action in July 1916 at Pozieres and has no known grave.

Colin enlisted at age 19 and was killed in action during the battle of the Menin Road Ridge in September 1917. He too has no known grave.

There was no mission to save Private Ryan.

Alexander enlisted at age 28. He was wounded by shrapnel in the shoulder in April 1915. He returned to active duty in February 1916.

He was badly injured in April 1918 sustaining a fractured skull from a gunshot wound.

Somehow he survived his ordeal.

In August 1918, he was repatriated to Australia.

In March 1941, at age 54 he enlisted in the local Volunteer Defence Corps.

We know that Lance Corporal William Knight, Privates Robert Edwards and Joseph Norton were to die after they returned home from the effect of injuries they sustained at war.

We also know that in November 1920, Captain Eowyn Davies committed suicide.

Of our World War I fallen, we do not know of their hopes, dreams and aspirations, or their feelings of existential dread.

We have no copies of their diaries.

But we know that they did not wish to die.

We can only imagine the unbearable heartache and anguish of parents, grandparents, siblings and girlfriends who were never to overcame their sense of loss or grief.

We know that the James Munro’s fiancée never married.

We know that the Munro family dressed for Sunday lunch and that Mrs Munro set places for her missing sons.

Commemoration of the Cenotaph

Some 9 years after the end of the war, this cenotaph was dedicated on Thursday, the 26^th April 1928.

The Shepparton News reported that Mr B. M McLennan, chairman of the Mooroopna War Memorial committee, said much difficulty had been experienced getting the Memorial completed.

Dr Florance paid for the clearing of the site and the construction of a fence.

The Memorial and site on which it stood cost £1,100.00.

And there are 30 names listed under the heading of Our Glorious Dead.

We know that the Cenotaph became a proxy for the lonely graves overseas.

Cr Little, President of the Rodney Shire, concluded his address by reading the speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the field at Gettysburg in November 1863.

That speech ended with the words:

That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-

            That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom-

            That government of the people by the people for the people should not perish         from the earth.

And for whom the bell tolls…

Our anthem of fallen youth: 30 dead

And add to list of fallen, the name of Lieutenant Reginal Hill, who was to die shortly after the opening of this Cenotaph.

For the nation, some 62,000.00.

And another 60,000 within a decade of returning home.

How are we 100 years later to make sense of that unimaginable loss.

 

We think of service and of enduring values of courage, endurance, mateship, and sacrifice.

 

Our men fought for the bonds of nationhood.

 

And if the voices of our fallen could speak to us from the battlefields where they fell, what would they ask of us.

 

That their names be not merely etched in stone, but rather that we know their individual stories and that those stories become part of our collective memory.

 

**

SOURCES

I would like to acknowledge my reliance on the magnificent coverage of the 100^th anniversary of Armistice Day by The Australian Newspaper, the Shepparton News and its digitised records, the Australian War Memorial and its digitised records, records from the Mooroopna Historical Society and the generous assistance from local historian Ian Pleydell and friend Professor Ivan Caple.

 

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