25 April 1998, Hellfire Pass, Thailand
As we gather here to face the dawn,
We honour those who faced the night.
Not a night of rest, nor dreams,
Not a night of shared laughter or the warmth of homefire.
But a monstrous corruption of nature,
An eclipse of humanity itself.
And yet, when we look at the night sky,
the wonder we feel is surely for the stars, not the black veil behind them.
So too, our wonder is for these men, whose sparks of courage shine bright through the distance of time.
Their story of sacrifice and suffering, of constancy and compassion, illuminates the very essence of the Anzac spirit. For, of all our heroes, they were armed with human virtue alone and their victory was over the darkest recesses of the human heart.
To a superb tradition of self discipline under fire was added selflessness and ingenuity. To a heritage of wild reckless bravery was added cold calculated valour sustained for years.
To the world, proof was given that tyranny, in the end, has no power over the courage and decency of ordinary men and women.
It is an example to which we all aspire - as relevant in peace as to war, to our future as to our past.
And on this sacred day, at this most sacred place, we honour all Australian service men and women who gave or offered their lives in war.
We pay tribute to our veterans, unique Australians who have known the blessings and hardship of both conflict and peace.
On this day, we give grateful thanks to friends and allies who shared our danger, and we add our pledge that their loyalty will neither be forgotten nor unreturned.
On this day, we enrich ourselves for, it's been said, a nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but by the men it honours, the men it remembers.
On this day most of all, we mourn the fallen - long years of love and talent lost, of potential unrealised, of generations unborn.
We would have them know of our firm and steadfast belief that they rest not in shades of darkness but bask in the brightness of an Australian sun.
We would have them know that we will remember them.
