Thursday, 17 October 2024

 Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (09:58): We lost a great Australian over the weekend. John Bryant was just 19 years old when he was enlisted in the national service in 1967. Within eight months he was in Vietnam with the 3rd Battalion, seeing active duty in the Battle of Coral–Balmoral in 1968, which included 26 days of fighting. Like so many of his comrades, John returned home to an Australia that wanted to forget his service, with health effects, both physical and mental, that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. In the mid-1990s, with his physical health failing, John went to Dargo with a mate to spend some time in the bush with a hound hunting crew. Every aspect of hound hunting was restorative for John: the camaraderie, the self-sufficiency, the challenge and the simple salve of time in nature. John quickly became a part of the deer hunting community. His quick wit, larrikin charm and natural polish soon made him MC of choice for the hunters’ dinners and functions. John moved from south-eastern Melbourne to Stratford to be closer to the bush and lived there happily on his small acreage for the past quarter of a century. John also returned to Vietnam, where he travelled regularly, not just confronting his own ghosts but working tirelessly with his former enemies towards a profound reconciliation. Over the past five years John dedicated his life and his life savings to a search for the B-52 crater at the Balmoral battle site that served as a mass makeshift grave. On April 1 this year John’s efforts saw the discovery of 20 North Vietnamese soldiers whose families have been able to lay them to rest more than half a century after they left their homes. John’s own remarkable journey ended on the weekend; a great Australian from a great generation, may he rest in peace. Vale, John Bryant.