Download Waiting for the Rising Sun Narrators script

Waiting for the Rising Sun
© Craig Palmer. 2014
Narrators script
Play 1.
With flag unfurl’d
(The Boar War)
During the late nineteenth century, tensions in Southern Africa between the Dutch-Afrikaan settlers - the
Boers, and the colonial British, were high. Although the two sides had previously clashed, the situation
for the British reached a crisis point in 1899 and they called on the six Australian colonies for troops to
support an all-out war against the Boers. Many of the contingents raised in Australia were bushman
contingents, valued by the British for their skills with both horse and rifle. From 1900 to 1902, the Boar
War was mostly a protracted guerrilla war, with just as many men dying of disease as were killed in
action. In a newly federated Australia, the Boer war became increasingly unpopular as news of the illtreatment of the Boar population reached our shores. And in the heat haze of the harsh bush of South
Africa – a landscape very similar to Australia - the rules of war became blurred.
Play 2.
The King’s Shilling
(WWI)
Despite having become a Commonwealth in 1901, many Australians considered themselves to be
Britons - a race different from the British, but sharing the same bloodlines and traditions. Therefore, the
outbreak of war between Britain and Germany in 1914 was met with much enthusiasm in far off
Australia. From a population of just over five million, Australia offered up men in the hundreds of
thousands and as a result, the ANZAC legend was born. However, World War One was unlike any other
war, before or since. Eighteenth century military thinking was out of touch with twentieth century
technology and as a result, the loss of life on all sides was staggering. Despite its initial enthusiasm,
Australia, naively, was not prepared for the immense human, social and political consequences of the
first world war: and when it ended, many preferred just to get on with their lives, glad that The Great War
- the War to End all Wars, was over. But for many, the war would go on forever.
Play 3.
Letters
(WWII)
On the third of September, 1939, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, announced on radio, that
Great Britain had declared war on Germany and, as a consequence, Australia too, was again also at
war. And again, Australians signed up in the hundreds of thousands in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Our initial fight was with the Germans and their allies in far off Northern Africa, but in December 1941,
the Japanese entered the war, waking and shaking the sleeping giant that was America. And, for the first
time in our history, Australian soil was attacked. Thousands of Australians were captured in the fall of
British run Singapore as the Japanese brought the war to Australia’s shores. Australian troops were
recalled from Africa to meet the Japanese head on in the Pacific war, not under overall command of the
British, but the United States. World War Two shifted Australia's allegiances to a different red, white and
blue flag, turning to a newer, bigger, stronger big brother. Despite this shift, individuals serving and their
loved ones at home, fought their own personal war.
Play 4.
Out in the cold
(Korea)
After the Second World War, the allies were entrusted with supporting the Korean peninsular previously
occupied by the Japanese. Korea was divided in two at the thirty-eight parallel, with the Soviets
supporting the north and the United States the south. Both sides, north and south, fostered very different
systems in line with their own political views. In 1950, the United States proposed to The United Nations
that they should intervene against North Korea in what they saw as its aggressive stance with its
southern neighbour. With a murky endorsement from the UN, the United States moved to intervene on
the Korean peninsular and committed ground troops. Soon after, Australia followed. But Australia’s army
was in peacetime mode and under strength compared to our massive mobilisation of troops only five
years previous. Again, young men were asked to serve, this time not for the duration of the war, but for a
tour of duty. Korea would mark the end of large-scale Australian military interventions with the British.
Play 5.
Welcome home
(Vietnam)
Australia was involved in a number of smaller military interventions after the Korean War. However, in
1962, Prime Minister Menzies, again offered Australian military assistance, through our alliance with the
United States. Very soon, the war in Vietnam would escalate. Anticipating this, the Australian
Government introduced, for the fourth time in our history, National Service. The aim was to increase the
size of our army to forty thousand. Eligible young men aged twenty were conscripted to serve from 1964,
and in 1965, were deployed with regular army regiments to Vietnam. Paradoxically, at the time, the legal
age to drink or vote, was twenty one. National Servicemen comprised around one quarter of all of those
who served in Vietnam, yet made up almost forty percent of those killed in action. The war in Vietnam
became an increasingly unpopular conflict, and stories abound of indifference and open hostility towards
returning service men. Only in recent times have many Australians come to accept and respect those
who served in Australia’s longest running military conflict.
Play 6.
Game over
(Afghanistan)
The age of using military force to subsume whole nation states or seek continental domination ended in
the twentieth century. Large-scale global conflicts are a thing of the past. Long gone are the trenches,
the notion that Australians will be of cannon fodder for a colonial master and the spectre of conscription.
Whilst conflicts still rage around the world they are fought more along ethnic and ideological lines.
Nationalistic posturing has been replaced by the unseen threat of terrorism; an army that wears no
uniform or badges of rank. Today, Australia’s defence force is a lean, well trained, disciplined mixed
gender force which uses state of the art technology. Despite this, the conflict in Afghanistan since 2001
exacted an awful toll on the ADF. Australia has been involved in a dozen conflicts and peace-keeping
operations since the Boer War, yet despite the renewed interest in Anzac Day in this centenary year, are
we any more informed about the consequences of war? What have our young people really learned
about it or has technology, the internet and constant exposure to violence, numbed them to its realities?