5 June 2025
Canberra did not put on its best to welcome Arianna and Irwin Yunkaporta – the two Army Reserve soldiers from 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment, were shivering in their new ceremonial uniforms.
Private Arianna Yunkaporta is used to warmer temperatures in her home town of Aurukun, 150km south of Weipa on the Gulf of Carpentaria’s eastern shoreline.
“If you come to Aurukun, you can’t walk on the ground in bare feet. It’s so hot,” Arianna said.
It was just 7 degrees at the Australian War Memorial for the Last Post ceremony that they attended.
The reservists made the journey south to commemorate their great-great-grandfather Private Waal Waal (Charlie Bob) Ngakyunkwokka, who served and died in World War 2.
Private Ngakyunkwokka joined the Army in September 1943 and was first posted to 2nd Australian Water Transport Group, before being transferred to 14th Water Transport Operating Company on Thursday Island.
He piloted Army water transport vessels in the Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria, moving personnel and stores from land and ship to flying boats. The work required constant vigilance to threats from Japanese aircraft and enemy sea mines.
In March 1945, he transferred to the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, which saw its ranks swell with almost every able-bodied Indigenous military-age man in Torres Strait volunteering for service.
Private Ngakyunkwokka died of pneumonia in Aurukun on April 20, 1945, while home on leave. He is the only Australian Army soldier buried in the Aurukun Mission Cemetery.
“We only found out about Charlie Bob last year,” Arianna said.
“It made me so emotional to hear about him. That we were in the same Army together. To find out about him I researched his life all day for two weeks, talking to all my relatives.
“I knew I would be very emotional during the Last Post ceremony.”
Irwin and Arianna’s story is not unusual in the 51st Battalion.
'It made me so emotional to hear about him. That we were in the same Army together.'
Commanding Officer 51st Battalion Lieutenant Colonel Luke Wessell said many of the soldiers in the unit had a strong familial connection to Army service.
“Today, many 51st Battalion soldiers have a similar connection to their great-great-grandfathers’ service,” Lieutenant Colonel Wessell said.
“The most well-known examples are in the Torres Strait Islands, where almost every able-bodied, military-age man volunteered to serve and defend their homeland in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, even though it was racially segregated.
“Charlie Bob’s wartime experience was quite unusual, because he served in both non-segregated and segregated units, and his service in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion is particularly unusual because he wasn’t from Torres Strait.
“Our soldiers are proud to share this history, and proud to serve in a unit that helps protect Australia’s northern borders and their homelands.”
Private Irwin Yunkaporta, 27, is a patrolman within 51st Battalion, and Private Arianna Yunkaporta, 23, is a combat support officer.
“I prefer to be on the land, so I am training to be a patrolman later this year,” Arianna said.
The Last Post ceremony for Private Ngakyunkwokka was held on the first day of National Reconciliation Week and coincided with his name being updated (it was incorrectly spelt) on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour.
Soon after the ceremony concluded, both soldiers were inundated with text messages from relatives in Aurukun.
“Everybody watched it on YouTube and now they all want photographs,” Arianna said.
