About this site
This site is primarily about the author’s research in Australian Aboriginal servicemen in the defence of Australia. The purpose of this site is to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and non-Indigenous Australians a free online resource on an aspect of our history that is not very well known. Basically, a site for Koories by Koories*.
Garth has given a lecture on behalf of the National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council at the State Library of New South Wales, on the topic of Aboriginal ‘Diggers’ of World War One.
If you have any Aboriginal ancestors or family that you believe served in the Australian Army, Nursing Corpos, Flying Corps or Navy, Garth would be pleased to help you research your own family history and document his or her service.
Much of the success of this website is due to the great feedback and assistance that the author has been given by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians over the past few years.
Garth O’Connell (Munro)
About the author, Garth O’Connell
Garth O’Connell is a descendant of the Gamilaroi clan of North- Western New South Wales. His father’s family are from Moree, NSW and his mother’s family migrated from Co. Tipperary in Ireland and settled in the predominantly Irish immigrant town of Jamberoo NSW.
Garth is related to two Aboriginal World War One veterans. Robert Munro (Killed in Action) and William Irwin – who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1918. Bill was killed while achieving his daring feat.
Garth’s maternal grandfather was a soldier of the 12trh Light Horse Regiment in World War One who participated in the
Charge of Beersheba. Trooper O’Connell was wounded during the war and died in 1932 as a result of his service.
His son, Garth’s grandfather Brian, served with the 2/13th Battalion – the only unit to have marched in and out of the epic Siege of Tobruk. He was severely wounded in action at Tobruk, was evacuated back to Australia and never saw action during the war. Garth’s uncle Kevin was a National Serviceman during the Vietnam War, who fortunately did not see an active service.
Garth himself joined the Australian Infantry in 1995 and since then he has travelled over much of the country and overseas. He regularly comes across many other Koori and Murri diggers in his time in the Army.
In May 1999 Garth’s unit was asked to provide volunteers (on 48 hours’ notice) to assist in the disaster relief of the massive hail storm that hit Sydney in mid- April. This effort was called “Operation Holdfast”. Garth’s company provided the largest contingent of Army Reserve soldiers to this effort. They were led by another Aboriginal soldier, Lieutenant Jack Pearson (originally from FNQ), who is an infantry platoon commander in the company. After 10 busy days of assisting the volunteers (SES, bush fire brigade etc) and ‘regular’ services such as the police and fire brigades the company was stood down from duty. Garth was awarded ‘best soldier’ award by his fellow diggers. Among the ‘push’ or effort was another Aboriginal soldier from the South Coast of N.S.W.
Garth’s reasons for joining the army are varied; one of course is the family history which was taught to him from a young age. Garth remembers being shown a front page newspaper picture of his late Grandfather in action at Tobruk, (AWM neg 07486), a well known image which has featured in many Australians at War books and publications. Footage taken by photographers Damien Parer and Frank Hurley featuring Garth’s grandfather has been used in several documentaries and continues to be played in the “Orientation Gallery” at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Garth graduated from University with an Applied Science Degree in Cultural Heritage management. His civilian career continues at the Australian War Memorial. Sporting interests include Ice and Inline Hockey (Go the Vancouver Canucks!) competitive military shooting and scale military modeling.
In 2008 Garth was deployed to the Solomon Islands in his role as Army Reservist.