Sir Edward `Weary` DunlopPrint Page

The sculpture commemorates soldier-surgeon and war hero Sir Edward `Weary` Dunlop (1907 - 1993).  On the steps leading to the sculpture are the names of other doctors and medical staff who also cared for Prisoners Of War.

From March 1942 to the end of World War Two , he was a Prisoner-of-War under Japanese command in Singapore and, from January 1943, in Thailand where he worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. Unintimidated by the Japanese he became a legend with the Australian prisoners for his modesty and his remarkable efforts in scrounging food for the sick, building makeshift hospitals and operating with hand-made instruments.

It is known that, of the 5600 patients he had handled by October 1943, only 56 had died under conditions of extreme deprivation and brutality. Yet he managed to bare no hatred towards the Japanese and became deeply devoted to the peoples of Asia. After the war he acted as a medical adviser in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Vietnam. Named Australian of the Year in 1977 and a Knight of St John in 1982 he published his best-selling war diaries in 1986.

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