#55 National Day of Mourning - Quentin Bryce's message

Much of the nation will have paused for the airing of the National Day of Mourning, Together for Victoria, memorial service held in Melbourne yesterday, 22nd February 2009, as the Victorian bushfire victims, survivors, emergency and volunteer workers, and the charity and compassion shown by so many were honoured and remembered.

Sunday is usually our day out, but yesterday was exceptional - we stayed in, and together my husband and I watched the service after breakfasting in the park. It was a commendable ceremony - appropriately respectful, sombre but not morbid, tasteful but not pompous.

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Speeches were brief but befitting the occasion, delivered with sincerity by appropriate dignitaries and invited guests. Victorian Premier, John Brumby, didn't do his words justice with his hasty delivery, but otherwise, I considered the addresses excellent, particularly those of Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Bendigo Youth Choir, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, vocalists and other musicians and artists were splendid, especially as rehersals must have been limited by the tight time frame for organisation. Singer Deborah Cheetham led the National Anthem, and singer Bruce Woodley led We Are Australia for which he had penned two additional verses for the event.

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The stadium was alive for the singing of Hallelujah. The haunting, yet soothing sounds William Barton expertly produced from his didgeridoo were extraordinary. One minute's silence followed. The service ended with Michael Paynter's rendition of the Noiseworks song Touch - I would have preferred to hear a more gentle interpretation, but the audience clapped and sang, so I guess it worked.

Congratulations to all who had a hand in making this the special occasion it was intended to be.

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Speech by Ms Quentin Bryce

Governor-General of Australia

Your Royal Highness. My fellow Australians.

Thank you for gathering this morning. Gathering here, and in the countless places across our country and world. For filling up the spaces with your warmth, compassion and understanding.

Thank you, for being present in this moment. And for exercising your humanity in the most human way. It is a good thing that we know what to do. That it is as natural to us as life itself. And that we know it is good for us.

In the last two weeks we have experienced and witnessed in Victoria devastating ruin, bereavement and pain.

For the months and years and decades hence, those struck down will reassemble what has been dismantled of your lives, your property, and your communities.

The helpers - the fire-fighters, emergency support workers, aid workers, neighbours and strangers - will reach out and deep to give of ourselves whatever we are able. We each have our separate tasks - we know what they are. And together, we know the responsibilities we share.

In time, what was, will be restored, no matter how colossal the effort.

Today, however, we must pause to give time and due to what has passed, to what has brought us to this point.

The unthinkable, we must think. The unimaginable, we must see. The unspeakable, we must speak. The unbearable, we must weep.

We must allow the thoughts and images and words that have so recently scorched and swamped us to gently settle, and find their proper and worthy place in our hearts and minds.

We must recognise these memories as an inseparable part of us. They are the makeup of our growing wisdom and our fresh intent. We are altered by them, yet they are what will forever sustain us.

We must tend to the gaps left by those we have lost, and we must keep their smiles always in our sights.

We must hold onto the pride we feel in what we've built, the admiration and gratitude we have for others' strength and courage, and our belief in our own.

To be a whole person, or a whole nation, is not to enjoy a perfect, untrammelled life, untouched by challenge or catastrophe. Rather, it is the blisters and cracks, the scars and loss, the failures and sorrow, and our honesty and hopefulness in all, that are the essence or our resilience, unity and completeness.

Australians here and everywhere, today we acknowledge that life is indeed not perfect, and we give thanks to one another for being whole.