The Battle of Fire Support Base Coral (1968) Oral History and Documentary Project

Audio/visual recording


Jones, Leonie E. and Sparkes, Daryl. 2006. The Battle of Fire Support Base Coral (1968) Oral History and Documentary Project. Toowoomba, Australia.
Title of Work

The Battle of Fire Support Base Coral (1968) Oral History and Documentary Project

Type of WorkAudio/visual recording
Creator/ContributorJones, Leonie E. (Director) and Sparkes, Daryl (Producer (Film))
Year2006
Place of PublicationToowoomba, Australia
Description of Work

The Battle of Fire Support Base Coral, May 1968, Vietnam was the biggest and bloodiest fought by Australians in Vietnam. More 'diggers' were killed and wounded during this battle than at any other time during Australia’s ten year involvement in the Vietnam War. It was a major political and strategic victory for the Australian Task Force in South Vietnam and the Australian Government, yet this battle has largely remained hidden from Australian history; few veteran narratives have been recorded and forty years after the event the public are still unaware of the battle or its significance. As a result, the veteran’s feel isolated, anonymous and disillusioned especially toward the public acknowledgement of the Battle of Long Tan which, because of its public commemorative practices arguably defines the Australian national narrative of the Vietnam War.

The aim of this research is to study war memory and commemoration as an integral component in re-representing the national narrative of the Vietnam War. To this extent, this research examines how one particular community of veterans remembers and commemorates the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral 1968 while renegotiating the Australian Vietnam War narrative in the lead-up to the 40th anniversary remembrance week, 2008. This research questions that re-presenting public memory constructed during the commemorative phase has provided veterans with a powerful, particular, vernacular for negotiating the grief and the trials of this community. Further, in order to help Coral veterans find a voice, this research aims to collect and preserve audio-visual oral history and artifacts in an accessible emergent digital repository as well as publicly commemorate the battle through the production of a one hour television documentary.

ANZSRC Field of Research 2020360505. Screen media
Public Notes

The documentary is commercially sensitive at this time and is currently being re-cut for major commercial release. Therefore, the documentary is not available for web streaming but can be accessed upon request to University of Southern Queensland.

The documentary is on DVD and is sold at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Creative Arts
School of Arts and Communication
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
EventThe Battle of Fire Support Base Coral (1968) - public screening
Event Details
The Battle of Fire Support Base Coral (1968) - public screening
Event Date
26 Aug 2006
Event Location
Toowoomba, Australia
Event Venue
University of Southern Queensland
Permalink -

https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q1772/the-battle-of-fire-support-base-coral-1968-oral-history-and-documentary-project

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