Sunday, 19 October 2025
The Cenotaph, Martin Place
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

‘Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura’

I acknowledge the Gadigal, the Traditional Owners of this land on which we gather today. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to Indigenous veterans and family members of veterans around our nation.

‘Place’ has a central role in the Australian story. The history of this Cenotaph, as a place for public commemoration, tells us why it is significant that we gather here today.

In the pre-Dawn hours of Anzac Day 1927, a group of veterans walking by a partially built Cenotaph in Martin Place found an elderly woman leaning down to place flowers.^[1] Her grief etched by a surrounding arc of electric light, they joined her to pay their respects. The woman was, perhaps, a widow; almost undoubtedly a mother, and quite possibly both.

That encounter led to Anzac Day’s Dawn Service. On Anzac Day the following year, the commemorative service here began at 4.30am and attracted around 100 ^people.[2] In the silence of their reflection, each family member placed a wreath and took strength from each other.

Two years later, the finished Cenotaph, complete with statues, was unveiled by the then Premier Sir Thomas Rainsford Bavin, to a crowd of several thousand people. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the Premier’s words, saying:

“The Cenotaph (expresses) in a permanent and material form the admiration of the people of this State for the brave deeds of our soldiers and sailors, our imperishable gratitude for their sacrifice, and our deep and abiding sympathy for the relatives of the ^{fallen.”[3]}

The epithets: ‘Courage’, ‘Endurance’, ‘Service’, ‘Comradeship’ and ‘Sacrifice’ are not only the prerogative of the fallen. But, too often, as you know too well, it takes a long time for this to be understood, acknowledged and recognised.

Recognition finally came in 2022, when then Premier, Dominic Perrottet, announced that War Widows Day would “acknowledge the contribution and personal sacrifice made by more than 15,000 surviving widows and widowers of [servicemen and women] across New South Wales.”^[4]  As expressed by State President Queen Dunbar to the war widows present on the occasion of that inaugural day in 2022: “you may not have worn the uniform … [or] been recognised with medals and monuments, but you have stood for over 100 years, stoically and silently … keeping the faith back ^home.”[5]

This year, the newly named Families of Veterans Guild has asked us to consider “war widows of the past who have inspired us.”

With today marking her birthday, Mrs Jessie Vasey immediately comes to mind, the founder of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia.

At the end of the Second World War, newly widowed, Jessie was determined to do something about the isolation and hardship faced by so many families like her own. Creating a space for grief, connection, and advocacy allowed private sorrow to be accompanied by collective strength.

With many widows facing financial burdens and stigma, the Guild secured pensions, housing, and recognition for widows with state branches across Australia.

In NSW today, there are almost 10,000 war widows.

On this day, the 4^th official War Widows Day – I say, the 4^th ‘official’ War Widows Day as every day is War Widows Day - widows and families gather to lay sprigs of wattle in remembrance, a poignant symbol linking the past to the present.

The emblem of the flowers that were pressed and sent to loved ones who lay wounded on foreign fields is beautifully represented in the design of the wattle pin. It is a symbol of pride, of honour, and of remembrance for those whose lives have been shaped by loss, as well as by strength, resilience, courage, endurance, camaraderie, service - to their families, the community, and thus to all of us - and sacrifice.

Our community stands in solidarity with you, recognising and honouring your sacrifices. This living legacy, embodied within the stories of the War Widows Honour ^Roll,[6] is an essential part of Australia’s continuing history and story of service. We recognise and acknowledge your service.

Lest we forget.