An old legend but a new story

To Senior Sergeant Peter Beames, the word Anzac means more than a memory. His resume shows a lifetime in military and policing roles: Narre Warren police officer, former navy electrician, member of Berwick RSL, and seconded member of the Australian Federal Police section of the United Nations forces in Timor- Leste.
It was when Peter went to East Timor in 2006 and worked under the protection of the Australian Army that his respect grew for the young servicemen and women who wore the Aussie uniform.
Peter was among 50 Australians deployed to the world’s newest country, two of them to the village of Gleno in the Emera district, as part of the Australian contribution to the UN police contingent.
He was there for eight months.
Back at his home in Berwick, as 25 April 2009 approaches, Peter thinks about how the Anzac tradition unfolds over and over again.
“The young army blokes in the village were professional and easy-going, with a concern for others and an ability to deal well with the local people,” he says.
“They keep the Anzac tradition alive and make it relevant today.
“Most had served in other places such as Iraq.
“They were the best young people.
“After I returned home I saw a picture of one of the young Australian soldiers I’d worked beside. In the picture he was now behind a machine-gun in Afghanistan.”
That is one reason why the dawn service, the march, and the 11am service at the cenotaph in Peter’s home town mean so much to him.
“Because it is not all about what happened years ago but what is still happening.”
Peter grew up in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs and joined the navy as a 16-year-old recruit.
By the age of 22, after deployments in south east Asia and New Guinea with three years on the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and a year on the River class World War II frigate and oceanographic survey ship HMAS Diamantina, he wanted a change.
The Melbourne had been the navy’s flagship at the time, but the Diamantina was the ship Peter enjoyed most. It carried CSIRO scientists working with the defence force. The ship is now a museum at Brisbane.
Soon after leaving the navy, Peter joined Victoria Police.
“It seemed like a similar lifestyle but closer to home. Many ex-servicemen at the time joined the police.”
Peter worked in the Licensing Gaming and Vice Squad, the Traffic Operations Group, and as a law instructor at the academy. He is now a uniform sergeant at Narre Warren.
Taller than most men, he must have carried some influence as a lawmaker in East Timor.
When he was selected to complete international deployment group training with the Australian Federal Police, he had no hesitation and was seconded in December 2006 to Timor-Leste, learning the basics of the local language, Tetum, in that time.
“Just the necessary phrases.”
It was a time of serious unrest: riots, rebel gangs, murders, displaced people, and political corruption.
“Australia had taken charge of security, and on 1 December the UN mandate kicked in,” Peter says.
“We were there to build up the Timor-Leste national police force (PNTL). We co-located with them and took a mentoring role.”
Rebels surrounded the village, many of them former Timor army personnel who had taken their weapons with them when they were sacked.
“There were constant problems with political factions, much civil unrest, and no easy way to earn a living.
“We attended violent crimes, most committed by political factions to control votes by retribution. Hundreds of houses burned, and there were about eight murders in Gleno in the month before we arrived. An 80-year-old man had his house burned after he had voted.”
Conditions improved while Peter was there, he says.
Of the 50 from Australia, 28 were from Victoria. They worked with police from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and other countries as part of the combined UN police presence.
“I’m very proud of what he has done since the age of 16,” wife Barbara says. “From when he joined the navy as a young lad.”
Barbara spent 30 years in the police force herself, before becoming a marriage celebrant, but those years had not prepared her for the time of separation from her husband when he served in Timor-Leste.
“I spent the first three months in tears.”
Like Peter, Barbara sees the Anzac tradition as having ongoing significance.
“I’m amazed at the number of children who go to the service every year. It is emotional to see them on their parents’ shoulders asking what it is all about.”
Peter will miss the Berwick Anzac service this week because he will be attending a reunion in Melbourne of the police who worked with the UN force.