It would remain that way for decades to come.įor many of those who served, their own battles only just began with their return home. The subject of violent street protests, divisive political debates and a public furore that split the nation, Vietnam was a war that most Australians wanted to forget, let alone commemorate at its end. Says Cliff: “Nobody knew we were coming home.” Only family were told, and it was like: we’ll slide them in and no one will know we’re here.” Unlike their counterparts in WW1 and WW2 who returned to heroes’ welcomes in glorious quayside reunions and victory parades, there was to be no public display of thanks and gratitude as the HMAS Sydney pulled into its home town in October 1971.ĭenise recalls the ship’s arrival as if it was yesterday: “Even in that shot, where that photo was taken, where the ship pulled in (at Garden Island naval base), was in the back docks of Sydney. While signalling the completion of combat operations in an extremely unpopular war, the return of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), in which Cliff served as a Lance-Corporal, wasn’t the end of the controversy. It should have been a day of celebration and honour as one of the final contingents of the Australian armed forces serving in Vietnam were brought home on HMAS Sydney. If anything, it hid the real story, a darker one, a story that couldn’t often be told in words but which nonetheless left its mark deeply on the individuals at the centre of it and on a country driven by its involveme nt in a deeply divisive conflict.įifty years on from when this photograph was taken, that day is still seared into the memories of Cliff and Denise Last.
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