FOR Hubert Hondermarck, his formal education about Australia began the moment he walked into the school grounds in his hometown in France.
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On a shelter overlooking the playground was a sign that read, “Do Not Forget Australia”.
“The very first time I heard the word ‘Australia’, I was probably four years old at school,” recalls 53-year-old Professor Hondermarck, as we sit beside the long shadow of a war memorial in Wallsend.
“I didn’t know a single word of English at the time, but the school teacher translated it to me. N’oublions jamais L'Australie.”
Yet young Hubert had been living amid memories of Australia from the moment he was born. His hometown is Villers-Bretonneux, a beautiful and bucolic community today, but a key World War One battleground in 1918. On this day a century ago, Australians took back Villers-Bretonneux from German forces, after weeks of intense fighting.
“The story of the battles for Villers-Bretonneux are taught at school,” explains Professor Hondermarck. “So from very early on, they learn why they should not forget Australia.
“When the Germans advanced west towards Amiens, the objective was not only to try reach Paris but to get to the coast and cut France from England. And it was actually the Australians who stopped them.
“What people in France keep is that the Australians blocked the German advance in Villers-Bretonneux, and that was the beginning of the end for Germany. It was a turning point.
“The people see Australians as liberators. That’s the way it was in 1918. The town was literally liberated by Australians.
“The Australians apparently stayed around, they didn’t leave straight away. They participated in rebuilding the place.”
Among the buildings reconstructed with Australian help, including money given by schoolchildren on the other side of the globe in Victoria, is the school Hubert Hondermarck attended. And above the Victoria School is a small museum, filled with artefacts from the war and reminders of the enduring link between the French town and Australia.
Professor Hodermarck recalls wandering through that museum and seeing the displays of Australian uniforms, including the “cowboy-style” slouch hats. He was intrigued by those hats, because they looked as though they were from “a movie, a western”.
Beyond the school, there were other reminders of Australia. On the town hall’s facade were images of kangaroos, and residents could wander along Melbourne Street, one of the main roads in Villers-Bretonneux.
Each Anzac Day, Hubert Hondermarck and his classmates would participate in the commemorative services at the military cemetery and Australian National Memorial, rising from the fields and overlooking the Somme Valley, just beyond the edge of town. Professor Hondermarck recalled learning the Australian national anthem and “Waltzing Matilda”.
He can still whistle that tune, and “sometimes I do this without even realising!”.
On windy days, young Hubert and his mates would head to the memorial, not to remember the impact of war but to fly their kites.
At age 15, Hubert Hondermarck moved to Peronne, another town battered during World War I, and fought for by Australian forces.
While he left Villers-Bretonneux, the lessons of the town never left Hubert Hondermarck. He never forgot Australia.
In 2011, having become an acclaimed professor of biochemistry, Hubert Hondermarck accepted an invitation to work at the University of Newcastle. He leads a cancer neurobiology research group, studying new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.
“It’s like I’ve followed the track to Australia,” he says.
Yet what Hubert Hondermarck found when he arrived here was that Villers-Bretonneux, and the battles to save it, had been all but forgotten by Australia.
“I was a bit surprised Villers-Bretonneux was not known more than this,” Professor Hondermarck says.
Yet one who knew about the Australians’ role in the French town was Professor Hondermark’s university colleague, Jim Denham. As well as being a leading researcher in the field of clinical oncology, Professor Denham is a history buff.
Having grown up across the English Channel in Britain, Jim Denham knew little about what the Australians did on the Western Front. But after touring the northern French battlefields with his wife, Liz, in 2006, Professor Denham was hungry to learn more about Australia’s role. And he believes Australians should know a lot more about Villers-Bretonneux.
You know what we say ... is that Villers-Bretonneux is actually Australia in France
- Professor Hubert Hondermarck, University of Newcastle researcher and former Villers-Bretonneux resident
“What I did was I asked a whole lot of dinky-di Australians did they know anything about Villers-Bretonneux, were they told anything about this in school, and the answer was ‘no’,” Professor Denham says. “And I thought to myself, ‘This is ridiculous. The Australians have actually played a big part in finishing that terrible war, and we over here in Australia don’t celebrate it, and nobody knows about it’. I found that offensive!”
Hubert Hondermarck and Jim Denham often talk with each other about the decisive World War One battles around Villers-Bretonneux, and they encourage others to join in the conversation.
“I’d really love to see this becoming something, where there’s an appreciation of this battle,” says Professor Denham. “Because this is where the true Anzac spirit resides.”
“I should put it this way,”, adds Professor Hondermarck, “Do not forget Villers-Bretonneux.”
On Anzac Day, Hubert Hondermarck will watch the broadcast of the service held at Villers-Bretonneux. He will watch out for his sister, who is the principal of the local high school, and whose students will be playing a role in the commemorative service. And he will think about how this little French community shaped him, and how Australia shaped his hometown, and his life.
And just as he always has, Hubert Hondermarck will feel pride in being French, and in being in Australia.
“There’s something magical about Viller-Bretonneux’s relationship with Australia,” he says, smiling.
“You know what we say in Villers-Bretonneux is that Villers-Bretonneux is actually Australia in France, a part of Australia in France.
“So maybe I’ve always been from this country.”