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TRANSCRIPT: SPEECH AT RICHARD NORDEN STATUE OPENING, SHERIDAN STREET, GUNDAGAI, 14 MAY 2026

15 May 2026

Subjects: Richard Norden Statue Unveiling
E&OE
STARTS 11.12AM

MICHAEL McCORMACK
This is a special place. This is a special town, and this is a special man.

Gundagai, you should be very proud today.

One of your own sons is being remembered in a most magnificent way, an appropriate way.

A true bronzed Aussie. A son of Gundagai, a son of the Riverina, a son of Australia.

Gone, as the Governor-General Sam Mostyn AC has just said, way too young. Twenty-four years young, when he lost his life, again serving his community as police officer in Canberra.

We pay tribute to his service, not just as a soldier, not just as a police officer, but as an individual, a proud son of a proud town, which has given so much to this nation.

Gundagai is quintessentially country Australia. It is real Australia. It has produced heroes from many decades, Yarri, Jacky Jacky, of course we all know “On the Road to Gundagai”. We all know about the Dog on the Tuckerbox. Now, appropriately, we will all know about Richard Leslie Norden Victoria Cross.

Thank you to George Hulse, for your perseverance and your persistence to make sure that Richard Norden was given this apt honour. Thank you for your service to all Veterans who are here today, and we have many. I know many of you have made a big sacrifice to get here today, just as you made a huge sacrifice to protect lives, Australian lives, for your service in uniform.

Many important people have been acknowledged and appropriately recognised today and it’s a rare day that we get three Governors-General all in the one place at the one time. And I do pay tribute to General David Hurley and General Peter Cosgrove and, of course, our current Governor-General and she’s doing a fantastic job and I pay tribute to that. She’s getting around, as did her predecessors, to every corner of this wide brown land. It’s important because it’s great that we see the nation’s number one office holder be able to touch and feel and reach out to everyday, ordinary Australians. I’m so very pleased today, as the Governor-General mentioned, that we have so many young people. Because, boys and girls, it is your solemn duty to carry the ANZAC legacy forward, to make sure that you tell everybody that you were here on this day, that you were here at Gundagai when Richard Norden VC had his statue unveiled.

And Richard Norden comes from a long line of khaki. His grandfather, Fredrick Carl Norden, served at Gallipoli. His father, Wal, fought against the Japanese, the Owen Stanley Ranges, and on the Kokoda Trail. His brother, Robert, also fought in Vietnam. But he had also uncles, he had many, many family members who wore the khaki. And aren’t we also very lucky today to have Gerard Kearns with us. I know we’ve got the Chief of Army, but I sometimes cheekily say that the most important person in Army is the person who runs Kapooka Military Base at Wagga Wagga, because it is the Home of the Soldier, it is Blamey Barracks, it is 1st Recruit Training Battalion, and the Colonel Kearns is here today along with the band, along with members of the Catafalque Party from that tri-service city, Wagga Wagga.

We’re very lucky as well to have, as I say again, so many Veterans, Veterans from the Battle of Coral-Balmoral. We’re lucky to have a Gundagai Sub-Branch that has done so much to make this day possible. From President Jim Sharman to Paul Vercoe to John Knight and I do thank you all, each and every one of you and the Ladies’ Auxiliary, who do so much of the fund-raising and the work behind the scenes to make the sub-branch what it is. A permanent reminder of the service of this magnificent town, in this magnificent region which has produced such a magnificent soldier.

I also do thank the media and, particularly, Helen Castles for also making sure that the story of Richard Norden has been preserved and retold and will be continued to be retold in the future.

Visitors to Gundagai, to Sheridan Street in the future, will come to this place, there will be a lot less people here and they will see this statue, they will read the interpretive signs, and they will know that somebody very special came from this special place. They will know that he gave his life in service to this nation. They will know what this country gave, not just in the Vietnam War, but in all wars, to keep our nation safe.

Lest we Forget.

ENDS 11.18AM

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