Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 791 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I also pass on my condolences on this sad day. A magnificent, remarkable, gracious lady has left the scene after contributing so much in terms of public service not only to Britain, not only to the former British Empire and the British Commonwealth, including Australia, but also to the world as a whole, and the world is very much sadder for her passing.

Question resolved in the affirmative, members standing in their places.

Death of Brigadier Alf Garland

Motion of condolence

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Affairs and Minister for Women): Mr Speaker, I move:

Mr Speaker, it was with sadness that I learned of the death of Brigadier Alf Garland on Saturday, 9 March 2002 at the age of 69. Brigadier Garland served the Australian community both abroad and at home. He had a great history of service with the Army for some 35 years and then as, firstly, the ACT president and then the national president of the Returned and Services League.

Alf Garland was born in Sydney in 1932. It is not surprising that he joined the military as he came from a family with a strong service background. Both his father, Major William Garland, and his eldest stepbrother, Colonel Ron Garland, had a record of distinguished service in the military.

Brigadier Garland was a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he graduated at the end of 1953. He served in Korea, Borneo and Vietnam. In February 1965, in response to British requests, Australia agreed to send one squadron of the Special Air Service Regiment to Borneo. Major Garland led the deployment, which made him the first Australian to lead an SAS company overseas.

In 1967 he served as second-in-command of the 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment in Vietnam, where he was mentioned in dispatches for skill and bravery. Back in Australia, Alf Garland filled a number of staff posts at Army headquarters and did the Joint Services Staff College course before joining the Joint Intelligence Organisation as a colonel in 1974. In early 1980, he was promoted to brigadier and became Chief of Staff at Training Command. He was also awarded an AM in 1980.

In 1984, after 35 years of distinguished service, Brigadier Garland retired from the Army. In his later years, increasingly beset with motor neurone disease, he became prominent in the Australian Federation of Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Ex-Servicemen and Women, initially as ACT president and then as national vice-president and president.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .