105 years of veterans' support and commemoration
In 1917, the federal Parliament passed the Australian Soldiers’ Repatriation Act, creating the legislative basis for the Repatriation Department and the Repatriation Commission, which were established the following year. The legislation was introduced by Senator Edward Millen (pictured), who would soon be Australia’s first Minister for Repatriation. He told Parliament that it would honour Australia’s obligations ‘to those who on its behalf have gone down into the Valley of the Shadow of Death’. He went on to say that though that there was ‘no blazed trail for the work of Repatriation … the story of the re-establishment of the soldier in civil life… is, so far, a story of experiment, sometimes more, and sometimes less successful’.
There were 160,000 men and women overseas at the end for the First World War and it took about a year to get them all back to Australia. The man in charge of this was General Sir John Monash, who provided training and educational opportunities to his men in England while they waited for an available ship. Once back in Australia, they were all eligible to some extent at least for repatriation support. By 1920, 90,000 incapacitated soldiers were receiving war pensions from the Repatriation Department, as were almost 49,000 dependants of those who had died.
The department was also providing a good deal of vocational training and medical support – the latter was far and away Australia’s most extensive public health initiative until after the Second World War. As part of this, the department provided suitable clients with prosthetic limbs, however, it was criticised for its failure to adequately look after veterans suffering from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The department worked closely with what was then called the Imperial War Graves Commission, which was responsible for administering the graves – known and unknown – of the tens of thousands of Australia’s war dead overseas. Very few Australians were wealthy enough to visit these graves, but they derived some solace from knowing they were carefully tended, and from the various memorials that sprang up around the country, including the Australian War Memorial, as well as the growing popularity of Anzac Day.
New complications arose following the Second World War. For one thing, the Repatriation Department was one of a confusing array of federal government agencies that provided services to veterans. For another, it soon became clear that treatment of former prisoners-of-war of the Japanese would present a difficult task, as many of their conditions were largely unknown to their local doctors.
One significant change for the department was that it assumed responsibility for dedicated repatriation general hospitals in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, which it retained until handing responsibility to the states in the 1980s.
Again, vocational training was a big focus of government repatriation efforts but this time it included women – 50,000 of whom had enlisted in the three services during the war. The Repatriation Department soon became the second largest federal government agency in terms of staff numbers. In the late 1960s, it moved from Melbourne to Canberra and in 1976 its name was changed to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, at which point it took over what is now called the Office of Australian War Graves.
It was following the Vietnam War that DVA’s relationship with many of its new clients deteriorated. Part of this was due to the broader community’s reactions to the war, which leaked into the department itself, but also to a failure on DVA’s part to properly understand PTSD and recognise that it is both commonplace to emerge from combat with the disorder, and not a stain on anyone’s honour. The debate over the medical effects of the herbicide Agent Orange on Australian personnel was also an issue.
The 1980s saw the creation of the Veteran Review Board and the passing of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act, which rationalised a tangle of sometimes contradictory legislation.
In the mid-1990s, DVA introduced the Gold and White health cards. The Gold Card entitled holders to DVA funding for all clinically necessary health-care needs whether related to war service or not; White Cards covered conditions related to war service, as well as treatment for malignant cancer, tuberculosis and, more recently, any mental health condition without there having to be any link to war service. Orange Cards were later introduced, which covered the costs of pharmaceuticals only.
There was now an increased emphasis on rehabilitation and support, including self- and peer-help, with initiatives such as The Right Mix, At Ease and Men’s Health Peer Education. The Vietnam Veterans’ Counselling Service was established in 1982, and was recently rebranded as Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling.
The 1990s were characterised by a strong emphasis on commemorations, from a major program around the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War to pilgrimages by veterans to places where Australians fought during that war, the establishment of the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum in Thailand and a greater recognition of the importance of Remembrance Day.
From 2014 to 2018, DVA marked the Centenary of Anzac as a means of honouring the service and sacrifice of our original ANZACs, and the generations of Australian servicemen and women who have defended our values and freedoms, in wars, conflicts and peace operations throughout a Century of Service.
In 2018, DVA opened the remarkable Sir John Monash Centre – a world-standard interpretive centre on the grounds of the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery in northern France.
Around five years ago, DVA received funding to undertake a root and branch transformation of its culture and systems, with the intention of turning it from a mainly a claims processing organisation to one that is client-focused and designed to ensure the overall wellbeing of members of the veteran community during their lifetime.
DVA’s transformation thus far has improved access for veterans. For example, MyService is making the claims process easier and quicker more generally. This, coupled with a better understanding across the community of DVA services and payments including by serving members, means we have seen a significant increase in compensation claims over the past couple of years.
This country is one of the few in the world that has a government department dedicated to meeting the needs of veterans and their families. But Australia’s history of repatriation is not just about DVA or its predecessors. When DVA was first established, the states, then, as now, were an important part of the veteran support system, as was the Red Cross and the newly formed RSL and Legacy. Today, a great many organisations and government agencies are involved in supporting the veteran community – from the departments of Defence and Health along with state and territory governments to ex-service organisations, Comcare, the National Disability Insurance Agency, employers, health providers, and so on.
The trail might be well ‘blazed’ by now but DVA and all organisations that support the veteran community continue to strive to improve how we go about our business.
This article draws on Repat – A Concise History of Repatriation in Australia by Philip Payton, which is available free of charge on the DVA website.
Returned soldiers from the First World War learn the art of boot-making, a common occupation acquiring skills from carpentry to motor-car maintenance by the and thus source of employment in small factories in inner Melbourne and Sydney.