On July 26 1971, a top secret cabinet meeting ended what was then Australia’s longest conflict. The public would hear about it for the first time in August, when Prime Minister William McMahon announced the withdrawal of Australian forces from Vietnam.
Eighteen months and a change of government later Australia’s Vietnam War was over. Alongside untold Vietnamese, some 521 Australians had died in conflict, including 202 national servicemen.
The end of Australia’s war also saw the wrapping up of a novel and now largely forgotten organisation. The Ex-Services Human Rights Association of Australia was founded in October 1966 by former servicemen and women who “oppose militarism” and “believe that National Service […] should not involve conscription for foreign wars”.
The scene of the rescue attempt at Mullion Cove in November last year. Picture: Bina Fellowes RESCUERS and volunteers have been praised for their bravery at an inquest into the deaths of a father and daughter who were swept into the sea and drowned at Mullion Harbour last year. The praise came during the inquests into the deaths of Matthew Smith, aged 47, and 26-year-old Bonnie Smith, who were both washed from the harbour wall by a giant wave during the early evening of Monday, November 2. They were airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro by the coastguard helicopter, following a major rescue attempt involving coastguards and two lifeboats, but were sadly confirmed to have died later that evening. The cause of death was drowning.