00:17I'm Robert Hitchcock, Robert Gordon Hitchcock.
00:20I'm the son of the pilot who was Robert Edward Hitchcock
00:25and the Hudson plane that came down on August 13th, 1940.
00:33I've come to this ceremony, I missed the last one.
00:38It's not the first time I've been to the site,
00:40but I missed the last one because I didn't want to really be too involved.
00:47But now I'm the age I am and my son decided that I should.
00:52So I've come and I'm glad I did.
00:57The things that happen to people after a disaster like that are an important thing.
01:04They're the ones that are living and they suffer the consequences of the accident.
01:11This is a real disaster for Australia after the subsequent events of the Second World War
01:18sort of overshadowed everything that happened at the outbreak of war.
01:25It's given me an interest in history all my life, which I've read a lot of.
01:32And I think that's all I need to say.
01:36Now this is my, I was always told this is my father's scarf.
01:40And he must have forgot it because I've found out coming to Canberra is bloody cold here.
01:46But it's the Air Force colours.
01:49I also have a shoehorn of his.
01:52I used to fit in his uniform when I was about, hmm, probably 12, 13.
01:59And it fitted perfectly.
02:01I don't quite understand why, but I know my mother really wasn't that happy about it.
02:06So it disappeared not like a shoehorn uniform, you know.
02:10And I had the baton as well with a little Air Force motto on the top of that
02:15because he was a flight lieutenant.
02:18Now I've discussed this with my son.
02:21Probably had he lived he probably would have sent to Britain
02:24or gone into training the people here for the war.
02:31And very likely have been killed anyway, you know.
02:34You don't know.
02:35But I was talking to the Fairburn people just now
02:38and, you know, they were saying that, well, it's amazing.
02:42Even my grandfather went to the First World War in the army
02:47and he was sent home with a heart disease, which I've inherited, I'm sure, from him.
02:52And one of their grandfathers also went right through the First World War
03:01and they ended up being in prisoner of war and everything like that.
03:04And they got out of it.
03:06I'm Andrew Alford.
03:07I'm the son of Richard Alford.
03:09I was seven years old when the accident occurred.
03:13And I just think it's so important we keep the memories of all those
03:18that sacrificed their lives in this tragic accident.
03:23And today is a special day on the 85th anniversary.
03:29Yes, I have memories, but at seven years of age, we didn't really get to know our father all that well.
03:39I just remember the bad things like putting grass cuttings down his petrol bowser in the car.
03:46And things that you should remember, but he was always away with Jim Fairburn travelling around.
03:55And I know my mother managed to bring up myself and a twin with absolutely virtually no support in those days.
04:08So I remember her very much too.
04:11I just reiterate the fact that it's terribly important in my view that we only look forward and remember those ten that lost their lives in this accident,
04:27rather than looking back and trying to find out what happened exactly that caused that accident.
04:36It's past history and now we should just think of the future and the relatives of many descendants of those ten that are both here today and those that couldn't get here today.
04:52My name is Peter Gullet.
04:55My grandfather Henry Gullet was one of the ten men that died on the 13th of August in 1940,
05:04and that aeroplane crashed right here where we are today.
05:09And it's a significant day still for lots of descendants and connections of those that died on that day because it obviously was a catastrophic event for those families and their friends.
05:29And also had wider implications about how Australia was managing to, the logistics of being in a wartime situation.
05:43Those that died were senior members of the Menzies government and were lost to the focus of the day.
05:54Well, I've of course been here a number of times before and I'm always sort of struck by the sort of sombre implications of this spot.
06:06It's here, not in the landscape that it was in 1940.
06:11It's now a space in the middle of a pine forest, but back then it was a sort of open sheep paddock.
06:19But it seems appropriate that it's this quite intimate and personal space now with that beautiful memorial there that's been erected to remember those who died here.
06:32Yeah.
06:33Hi, I'm Wendy Elford and I'm granddaughter of Dick Elford or Richard Edwin Elford.
06:42It's easy 85 years on or 86 or 87 or 88 years on to forget that not only do people lose their lives, but remembering helps us be, I guess forever learning about the impacts in our own lives about these tragedies.
07:01And that support, I think, to the generations that follow helps us become stronger people.
07:12My father was here with us as family a couple of months ago and the words said were, I hope we've done you proud.
07:24So that's been very important in our family, this drive to perfection and do better.
07:32And that made a lot of sense to me to understand that the impact on someone who is a direct descendant, a child of someone who lost their lives, has been really important in all the generations afterwards.
07:49So it was sadness and also a little bit of satisfaction or peace, knowing that in coming to know this place and the story and the impact on the people, I'm better off as a person.
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