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Bill Coolburra: Stories of Service

31 May 2022
Community Palm Island (Bwgcolman)
Culture and cultural heritage
A young man wearing shorts but bare chested holds a shovel in his hand while he stands in a trench. In front of him is a pile of soil and beyond that is thick foliage.

Bill Coolburra was a Bwgcolman man from North Queensland and veteran of the Australian Army. Learn the story of this brave and dedicated army engineer through a new short video series called Stories of Service.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has produced a series of videos called Stories of Service. It celebrates the lives, experience and sacrifice of men and women who served Australia in the armed forces.

One of the stories is about Bill Coolburra, an Aboriginal man and Vietnam veteran from Palm Island.

He was born in 1945 and like his father and uncle before him, joined the Australian Army. He served as a ‘sapper’ with the Australian Engineers in Malaya, Singapore, Borneo and Vietnam.

In Vietnam, his troop was nicknamed the Tunnel Rats.

Their work was to enter and clear dangerous and complex tunnel systems constructed by the Viet Cong.

Learn more about Bill Coolburra and his best mate ‘Snow’ in this video narrated by Ray Martin AM.

Find out more

Read more of Bill’s story and learn about serving in the Vietnam War at DVA Anzac Portal.

Keep watching this space for more stories and videos in the Stories of Service series.