Gulargambone's ANZAC ceremony this year featured an address by Stephen Bignall, a Presbyterian Minister and social worker, who took the opportunity to call attention to the work of the chaplains and padres who worked in all battlefields where Australians have fought.

Mr Bignall's address is reproduced below:

"In remembering this morning, by this memorial to the fallen, we respectfully acknowledge both the original ANZACs and those who followed the call, into a 2nd World War, Korea, the Malay emergency, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan; fighting to restrain tyranny and above all protect the freedom of others, and defend the Australia we all call ‘home’.

I want to highlight for a few moments one small but ever-present group among defense personnel.

They walked unarmed and under fire up the beaches from the boats at Gallipoli and were in the trenches; daily helped with the wounded, tended the dying and every night reverently buried the remains of the dead who could be recovered.

Chaplains or padres were a unique bunch - they served as shepherds, walking alongside giving care, they were there at Gallipoli along “that far flung battle line”. They saw the cost of sacrifice and sought to sustain hope seeking the best outcomes possible in the worst of situations.

Some were former military personnel who, though not judged fit to fight, nevertheless accompanied those who were. Where they showed care and courage the men grew to respect and appreciate them.

They helped soldiers write home to mother and sweetheart, and to pray to “our father who art in heaven.” As they walked through the “valley of the shadow of death” the troops were reminded “the Lord is my shepherd”. Each week they gathered the servicemen in worship.

One ANZAC writes: ‘On Sunday afternoons, a little after four, you would see the Padre coming down Shrapnel Valley, singing… and the lads coming out of the dugouts like rabbits out of burrows and following him. When he got them into a comparatively sheltered corner, he proceeded to lead them in a short Sunday afternoon service of worship.’

There is a memorial built on the shores at Gallipoli erected by the troops honouring one of these men, who fell there.

Stephen Bignall makes his address at the Gulargambone cenotaph. IMAGE: Kirsty Fisher Photography

I have a personal memory as a teenager of a WW2 veteran of my grandfather’s generation recalling a chaplain [a Salvo] who was in PNG with him on the Kokoda.

“We all thought he was a ‘mad bugger’, he didn’t have to be there, but we grew used to having him around and he was always seeking to help. One morning we were having a quick warm brew, and talking with him seated there too and he stopped speaking, we saw he had fallen to a sniper’s bullet, the poor beggar, why was he there? But we missed him when he was gone with so many others”.

I think these shepherds accompanied the troops because they recognised the sacrifice made on the battle line and supported those making it, and because they wanted to sustain hope – they were men of faith, servants of God.

Today we recall countless service men and women who gave their lives, or who returned home bearing scars in body and mind, stretching from Gallipoli to all battlefields - spanning over 100 years up to this time.

School children turned out in droves to Gulargambone's 2023 ANZAC Day commemorations. IMAGE: Kirsty Fisher Photography

At these occasions we often repeat the words of the greatest of all shepherds, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this than that a man lay down his life for his friends” - words and actions repeated, again and again, by our Anzacs, our AIF and now our ADF; sometimes their chaplains have died alongside them.

We have battles on the home front now, here in Gulargambone and in sister towns along the Castlereagh - young adults suddenly gone too early, children bereft of parents; parents burying their sons and daughters. Insecurity, anxiety and a shrinking or fracturing of the community in a darkening world.

How do we cultivate hope, building on the sacrifices of the past to make peace last? Personally, I need more than imaginary heroes like Superman or even Wonder woman.

IMAGE: Kirsty Fisher Photography

We need a shepherd to care and to guide; that’s why I am a follower of Jesus the Saviour; he’s the reason why our ADF chaplains both men and women still walk unarmed into battlefields to stand alongside those serving and caring – in war and peace they are there.

Today we have pastoral care and wellbeing support in our school communities to promote aspirations and to help early in life, to positively encourage kids amidst so much uncertainty and strife; as well as in our hospitals, supporting our police, fire and ambulance service and also in correctional facilities; it’s about restoring or nurturing new hope and creatively encouraging the sacrifice that builds community and identity for an emerging generation.

Lest we forget.