Digger with Torres Strait Light Infantry finally gets his medals

Palm Stephen was an unknown soldier of a long-unheralded first line of defence against the Japanese.

Tony Abbott presents Palm Stephen with his medals. Picture: Brain Cassey

Up until a few weeks ago, Palm Stephen was an unknown soldier of a long-unheralded first line of defence against the Japanese in World War II.

With his band of four brothers serving in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, the then 15-year-old Stephen Island local used his youthful guile to beat ­enlistment officers who had ­refused to sign him up.

Changing his name to Steven and his home to the fictitious Steppson Island, the now 86-year-old recalls how so many of his friends lied to volunteer to do “our bit to protect Australia’’.

“We were young and strong and we wanted to be part of it, to defend the country,’’ he said at a ceremony yesterday to honour the Torres Strait Islander Diggers on Thursday Island attended by Tony Abbott. While the sleight of his handiwork in enlisting led him to war in Papua New Guinea, and then back to Horn Island, it was only last month that his service was acknowledged by the army — which had no record of him.

Sleuthing by local federal MP Warren Entsch discovered that the service files of Stephen, whose only surviving brother is Jerry, 102, remained in the name of ­Private Steven of Steppson Island.

The Prime Minister yesterday presented Mr Stephen with his service medals before paying tribute to the contribution of Torres Strait Islanders, 1100 of whom volunteered from an estimated population of 4000 — the highest volunteer rate in Australia.

The region suffered the loss of 156 lives from eight bombing raids, mostly ­concentrated on the airstrip of Horn Island.

Mr Abbott said most Australians would be unaware of the ­region’s wartime experience or the service of the people who were not counted in the census.

“If volunteering to serve is the ultimate mark of commitment to country and patriotism, no part of Australia has been more patriotically Australian than the Torres Strait and its citizens,’’ he said.

“It is a remarkable fact that at a time when we hardly acknowledged indigenous Australians, ­indigenous Australians acknowledged us.

“It is a remarkable fact that at a time when indigenous people were not even counted in the census, Australia could count on indigenous people.’’