RAAF dad reunited with family this Anzac day after 10-month Covid separation

An RAAF dad is grateful to be celebrating Anzac day with his family in Ipswich today, after being separated for almost a year. Read their story about how they kept in contact.

RAAF Officer Christopher Hawkins is celebrating Anzac day with his family in Ipswich today after being separated for 10 months due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The air traffic controller travelled down to Victoria last January for a training course, expecting to be able to return to visit his wife and three children on a semi-regular basis.

Due to restrictions, Mr Hawkins didn’t see his family again in until October, 10 months later.

“I had initially planned to come home on those dates, you know, come home for Easter … And all that got taken away at the last minute through circumstances out of everyone’s control,” Mr Hawkins recounted.

His eldest son Aaron said it was “really special” to have his dad back for Anzac day this year.

“Last year, he was meant to do it with us,” he said, “but unfortunately, he was stuck locked down a couple of days before, so we did the walk just the three children last year.”

This year, Mr Hawkins laid a wreath at his children’s school’s Anzac day ceremony, flanked and supported by his family.

17-year-old Aaron led the school in a prayer:

“We pray that we, and all the people of Australia, gratefully remembering their courage and sacrifice, may have the grace to live in the spirit of justice, generosity and peace.”

West Moreton Anglican College is the seventh school Aaron has attended, and Australia is the fifth country he’s lived in.

The Hawkins family moved regularly throughout Aaron’s childhood due to his father’s work, and only arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom in December of 2020 – just a month before his father was separated from them.

“It was definitely a tough time for because it was a new country, new school, no real friends.”

“Harry took it the hardest – he’s the youngest, so obviously, he‘s not as used to dad going away as me and Holly,” said Aaron.

Mr Hawkins was often forced to be away when his children were younger, having served three tours of Afghanistan, four months in Iraq, and many shorter periods away throughout his time with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force.

“He would still be able to come home at periods – unfortunately, missing stuff like Christmas and my birthday – but whenever he could get away, he would,” Aaron recounted.

“With this, he actually couldn‘t.”

Aaron’s mother Emma chose not to work for several months after the family moved to Ipswich so that she could support the children full-time.

“I knew that they needed a parent to be present – like completely present,” she said.

“We’ve moved so many times and coming into another big school – when they’re teenagers as well for [Aaron] and Holly – it’s a really difficult period of their lives.”

Aaron said he had struggled to reconcile the fact his dad couldn’t attend important school events last year, such as his performance in the school’s production of Wicked.

“There was times that he was meant to come home and we were really excited, but then he unfortunately couldn’t come because of Covid,” he said.

Lieutenant Harrison Dowling attending West Moreton Anglican College’s ANZAC Ceremony, on Friday April 22nd 2022. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Aaron said being able to communicate over the phone and send his dad videos of performances really helped.

“We had FaceTime and video calling, which is great. We’d do it every day,” said Mr Hawkins.

“It a lot better now than my first time deployed away from them, where it was just handwritten letters.”

Mrs Hawkins recounted that after Aaron and Holly were born she used to mail photographs of them to her husband overseas so he could see them.

“I‘ve been a defence wife for years, and I’m ex-defence myself, so we get it – but this was one of the most difficult experiences,” she explained.

“You find different ways [to adapt]. And then it becomes your new normal. And then you adapt again when they come back.”

She said West Moreton Anglican College’s support program for defence students was a huge help to both her and the children last year.

“I‘m so grateful to Jenny and the defence mental program.”

Ms Jenny Sheehan is the only full-time Defence mentor in the Ipswich and Brisbane West region for a Prep-Year 12 school, providing support to students at West Moreton Anglican College five days a week.

“Ms Sheehan really took the time like to fully understand our story, and our brains,” said Aaron.

“It just made my school experience so much better – always having that someone that I can go and just talk to or rant to.”

Inspired by Ms Sheehan, Mrs Hawkins now works in a similar position part-time at Ipswich State High School.

"Lest we forget" wreath at West Moreton Anglican College's 2022 ANZAC Day. Picture: Nicola McNamara

Mrs Hawkins said the children are “still not a hundred per cent settled – it takes a long time. I don’t think they could ever be one hundred per cent settled.”

Now he is back in Ipswich, Mr Hawkins said he was grateful to have this time with his family.

“We’re going to have a time of stability, a time of getting back together as a family and a time of exploring Australia and Queensland,” he said.

He will be sporting four medals for his service to the RAF today, and Mrs Hawkins will be wearing one of her own from her time served in Iraq.