Australia Comes to Galilee

It caused quite a stir in Bourke when Yarran, a young Aboriginal man appeared in the ANZAC march last week, leading a horse and kitted out in the famous uniform of the Light Horsemen of World War One. It was his father Uncle Raymond Finn’s way of reminding new generations of the part his great grandfather and other young indigenous men had played in strategic battles like the charge at Beersheba.
 
It’s sad that this chapter has been forgotten in Australia’s military history. About 1,000 Indigenous men fought in the Australian ranks in World War 1, but on their return, the government did not honour their contribution in the same way it did that of other servicemen. The Knight brothers of Bourke were among those who went unrecognised until recently.
 
Uncle Raymond told me how on 25 September 2018, Australia’s ambassador Paul Griffith, along with Israeli dignitaries, gathered to honour the Light Horsemen who fought the Battle of Tzemach. The following year, the statue “The Aborigine and His Horse”, was dedicated there on the shores of Lake Galilee.

 The 11th Light Horse Regiment was comprised of about 30 Aboriginal troopers – the largest number serving in one unit.  Most of them had worked in the bush on cattle stations and were superb horsemen. They would go on to make one of the last cavalry charges in modern warfare as a part of the final allied offensive of the Sinai-Palestine Campaign. It was a unique, reckless gallop, carried out in the dark, across unreconnoitered country that proved their calibre. Comrades affectionately christened the regiment ‘Queensland’s Black Watch’, borrowing the name from the famous Scots battalion active in Palestine at the time.
 
On September 25, 1918, men from the 11th Regiment and one squadron of the 12th advanced before dawn on the strategic gateway to the whole of Galilee, positioned on the Damascus railway line. Surprised to find themselves outflanked, their Colonel ordered his troopers to charge the guns and they wheeled to make a direct front-on night attack into the stuttering fire of machine guns entrenched around the railway station.
 
As dawn rose on the mountains of Trans-Jordan, the men of the 11TH launched themselves at the enemy on foot, wielding bayonets and swords and in fierce close quarter fighting, wrested the stronghold from the Turks and Germans. Daylight saw fourteen Australians scattered across the battlefield, lying dead alongside their horses. Twenty-nine Light Horsemen were wounded in the assault on Tzemach.

It was reported, “it was not a just strategic victory – it was more than that. Atop their horses, with bayonets across their shoulders, Aboriginal troopers forged tight bonds with their fellow Australians. They were part of the same story. The Light Horse story. The Anzac story. A lasting legacy of heroism, mateship and resilience felt to this day.” Fittingly, at the 2018 service at the Tzemach memorial, the words of the song, “I am, you are, we are Australians” carried across the waters of Lake Galilee.

Sculptor Jennifer Marshall has captured the poignant moment when Trooper Jack Pollard, holding an Army issue New Testament, bends tenderly over the fresh grave of a fallen mate. His Waler horse bows his head with him. The statue carries the famous words “Greater love has no man than this”, spoken by Jesus of Nazareth. It’s sited on his native country. He had often walked and taught on this very ground two thousand years earlier. After all that time, Jack was one who believed in and followed him.
 
Another follower, Pastor Ray Minniecon from Queensland, was present with family members of Aboriginal soldiers at the reenactment and spoke for them all. “I can feel the spirit of our grandfather here … I’m very, very proud to be here…” Like Uncle Raymond, he expressed the hope that this place would stir gratitude in the hearts of new generations of Australians.

Photo Credits
Jennifer Marshall
Australian War Memorial
www.barbara-miller-books.com
 David Nisinman. Jerusalem Post
J-WIRE
Michael Huri /KKL-JNF