THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL

Family Name:

van Moorst

Given Names:

Harry William

Gender:

Male

Birth-Date:

3 January 1947

Death-Date:

8 February 2022

Marital Status:

Married

Age Range:

20-26 years

Location:

VIC -Moe, Carlton

Occupation:

Temporary Secondary School Teacher, University Student

Primary Motivation:

Peacemaker, opposition to the Vietnam war and conscription

Reason for Court Appearance:

[1] Charged with obstructing traffic outside Prime Ministers’ Lodge

[2] Charged with offensive behaviour and non payment of fine

[3] Charged with assaulting a police officer with a loudspeaker, resisting a police officer and offensive behaviour

[4] Refusal to pay $5 fine after conviction for obstruction

[5] Charged with multiple unlawful handing out anti conscription bills and refusal to provide police with his name and address

[6] Incitement to breach the NSA and refusal to pay a fine

[7] Stealing s envelopes of the Department of Labour and National Service worth 40c

[8] Contempt of Court

[9Incitement to breach the NSA

[10] Harry brought charges of riotous behaviour against a Police Superintendent

Court Name and Location:

[1] Court of Petty Sessions, Canberra

[2] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[3] Magistrate’s Court, Melbourne

[4] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[5] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[6] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[7] Magistrates Court, Carlton

[8] Magistrates Court. Melbourne

[9] Unknown, Melbourne (probably Magistrates Court)

[10] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

Court Hearing Date:

[1] 19 May 1968

[2] 5 July 1968

[3] 29 October 1968

[4] 17 February 1969

[5] 12 February 1969

[6] 3 May 1969

[7] November 1970

[8] 25 November 1971

[9] 27 January 1972

[10] 5 June1972

Court Outcome:

[1] Convicted and fined $10

[2] Remanded to 12 July 1968 charged with offensive behaviour, ordered to serve immediately a 5 day jail sentence for non payment of fine from the Canberra demonstration on 4 May 1968

[3] Remanded to appear in the Magistrates Court, Melbourne on 16 December 1968. This court outcome is unknown.

[4] Convicted and sentenced to a short prison term for refusal to pay a fine of $%

[5] Convicted and fined $20 for distribution of anti conscription handbill and fined $5 for refusal to provide personal information and convicted of a second offence of distributing anti conscription handbills, fined $30 plus $1.50 costs. Charges were subsequently withdrawn

[6] Convicted and sentenced to 4 days jail for failure to pay a fine of $20

[7] Convicted and fined $50

[8] Convicted and sentenced to 3 days jail

[9] Convicted and fined $10

[10] Charges dismissed, complainant to pay $120 costs

Military Event:

National Service Act and Vietnam War 1964-1972

Further Information:

Harry William van Moorst was the son of Dutch migrant working-class parents. They were Catholic but later moved away from the church. Their migration was as assisted migrants to Victoria in 1955, and they settled at Moe in the La Trobe Valley. Harry completed his primary and secondary school at Moe and then won a scholarship to the University of Melbourne. There he completed an Arts degree. He found his partner Sue Graham in 1980, and together they had 3 children. They fostered a number of children and assisted a number young people who were facing crises in their lives.

Harry is honoured for his peacemaking during the Vietnam war years where he made a significant contribution towards ending Australian participation in the war and the suspension of the National Service Act 1964 (NSA). The NSA provided selective conscripts to bolster the army to fight in South Vietnam. He described both the war and conscription as unjust and immoral. His opposition to the war and conscription explicitly began on his arrival at Melbourne University.

His activism to the war and conscription was so extensive that only part is documented here.  His activism for peace, justice and social and environmental concern continued until his passing in February 2022. This included his work as Convenor of the Coalition against Poverty and Unemployment and the Western Region Environment Centre. In October 1968, Harry was an organiser to purchase a truck for the Gurindjis indigenous people. Later during the South African, Springbok tour of 1971 he was a sponsor of the anti-apartheid protest. During May 1974 Harry led an occupation of the Melbourne University Council demanding it provide childcare facilities.

Whilst Harry was very active in the Draft Resistance movement, he was not a Draft Resister. He registered under the NSA as he was compelled to do but he informed the authorities on his registration form that he would not participate in the Vietnam War. His birthdate was not selected for the 1967 intake of conscripts.

Harry was quietly spoken and articulate. His attributes included tenacity, passion, fearlessness, inspiration and kindness. He was skilled in quite oratory which enabled him to bring people together in a common cause. Fellow activists recall how Harry’s enthusiasm, vision and irreverent sense of humour made him a joy to work with.

In an interview on 9 August 2015, he explained that on arrival at Melbourne University he was already aware of the Vietnam war and conscription for it.  However, he instanced the occasion when he projected a North Vietnamese film that impacted him about the ‘truth’ of the Vietnamese war. It compared unfavourably to what the government and the media was telling the Australian public. After that instance he became more involved in the protest movement. He also joined the Pacifist Society and served as its vice president in 1967. His first demonstration was outside the United States Consulate was on 4 July 1967. It composed a diverse number of groups.  He recalled that some others favoured throwing rocks and breaking windows which could have been considered violent. Obviously, these tactics were opposed by the pacifists and caused some soul-searching.

Harry was a co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society whilst at Melbourne University during 1968. It established the Centre for Democratic Action in Palmerston Street in Carlton. Meetings were held there and leaflets written and printed, on a Gestetner machine.

During 1968 there was a sit-in in Canberra outside the Prime Ministers’ Lodge. It attracted a diverse group of protesters from all over Australia. The police arrested 69 of the protestors.  Harry explained that he at last felt he was doing something.  Stones were thrown through windows and smoke bombs were used, which Harry did not approve of.  It was described as a melee or riot by the authorities. One act of civil disobedience was that the protestors marched on the road and did not confine themselves to the footpath as instructed to do so according to the police. Harry justified breaking windows but believed that there were probably people who attended with the express purpose of inciting violence. Harry was charged with obstructing traffic outside the Lodge and was summonsed to the Court of Petty Sessions in Canberra 19 May 1968. Magistrate Dobson convicted and fined him $10 but he indicated he would not pay it.  

Harry was an organiser of a demonstration outside the US Consulate in Melbourne on the 4 July 1968. The Victorian Government charged 10 of the demonstrators, including Harry, with offensive behaviour about a week later. He was ordered to serve immediately a 5 day jail term for non payment of a $10 fine imposed  after the demonstration at the Prime Ministers Lodge. Harry was remanded on 12 July 1968 to answer the charge of offensive bahaviour. He stated, I feel I must explain the position of the students without sounding though I am apologizing for them. The first point that must be realized is that we aim to change society-not demolish it. We are fighting against a filthy, immoral and unjust war. A war which was instigated and continually accelerated by the U.S., and which is fully supported by the Australian Government. The war is wrong and it is up to us to stop it…Maybe we should’nt smash windows, but what the hell is this compared with the napalming of children or the defoliation of crops?…the U.S.  and Australian administrations continue to ignore these pleas for peace-instead the bombing of Vietnam is now at a higher level than before…Perhaps some students did come with the express purpose of inciting violence, but there is no real evidence of this. All that has been shown is that different groups of students employ different methods of showing their dissent. Harry recalled that, I personally tried to negotiate with the police the day before the demonstration but no-one would speak to me.

Again, Harry was organiser of an Anti Vietnam war protest held in Melbourne on 25 November 1968.  He was arrested and charges were laid against him which included assaulting a police officer with a loudspeaker, resisting police and offensive behaviour. At the City Court in Melbourne on 29 October 1968 he was remanded to appear in the City Magistrates Court on 16 December 1968. The outcome of the court case is unknown.

On 19 February 1969, a newspaper report stated that Harry alleged that, two policemen roughed him up, knocked his head against a wall and shoved him into bannisters within the precincts of the Melbourne City Court last Monday. He alleges he was punched while in the City Watchhouse. The alleged assaults followed the sentencing of Mr. van Moorst to a short jail sentence for refusal to pay a $5 fine on an “obstruction “charge. The police who conducted him to the cells included one who had been cross-examined by Mr. van Moorst during the court hearing.  He has stated that friends witnessed part of the assault. It is unknown if Harry pressed charges. The $5 fine was from an earlier offence.

Harry recalled that in April 1969 he was part of a demonstration organised by the Save Our Sons (SOS) movement. They were distributing anti conscription leaflets in the CBD of Melbourne. Harry was amongst twelve people arrested including Jim Cairns, the Member for Yarra, Jean  McLean  and Joan Coxsedge of the SOS. They were all charged and convicted for violating the City of Melbourne by-law 418. At the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Harry was fined $20, and $5 plus $3 costs for his refusal to give his name and address to the police. He was fined $30 with $1.50 costs for a second offence of distributing the handbills. Consequently, he hatched a plan with Trades Hall for unionists to lead a boycott of Courage Beer. The Lord Mayor of Melbourne was chair of the Courage Brewery Board. The by-law was repealed within a few days of the arrests. All charges were withdrawn. There was no respite from the authorities because from then on, they used the Crimes Act to stop dissent, particularly the handing out of anti conscription and anti war information. Harry was summonsed to the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 3 May 1969. He did not appear. The magistrate ordered him to serve 4 days in jail because he had failed to pay the $20 fine previously imposed for him handing our anti conscription leaflets in the city on 30 October 1969. This was  before the charges were withdrawn.

During 1970 there was a police raid on the offices of the Students for a Democratic Society in Palmerston Street Carlton. In the premises Harry was living the police seized a number of Department of Labour and National Service Envelopes worth 40c. Harry was summonsed to court during November1970 and was convicted of stealing the envelopes and was fined $5.

Harry was a co-founder of the Victorian Draft Resisters Union (DRU) during 1970. A common tactic of the DRU was for draft resisters to go underground, then they would surprisingly appear in public and then escape the clutches of the authorities. Harry with Jean McLean (SOS) established an underground network of safe houses. These were acts of defiance and proved embarrassing for the police and government. The DRU established a ‘resistance commune’, which was an idea of Harry and Michael Hamel-Green, in the student union of Melbourne University. It had a pirate radio station called Radio DR. It broadcast anti war  material and the voices of underground draft resisters to the local communities  around the University. It was a challenge to the authorities. It commenced on 28 September 1971. It was on 30 September when the police arrived. Harry stated, At 6 a.m. 150 police arrived at the Union building main doors and were met by the University Registrar, Brigadier ‘Ding’ Bell who offered them keys to get in. Instead of accepting the keys they brushed the Registrar aside and commenced to smash down the doors. Once having gained entry they raged through the ground floor searching for the draft resisters and the radio. Finding nothing they then turned to higher floors. While 200 supporters sat on the third floor of the Union (after securing the safety of the draft resisters), the police, seeing the large pile of chairs blocking their passage up the stairs, used bolt cutters to cut the chain that was holding the bottom chairs in place. They were terribly surprised when the chairs fell downwards hitting several policemen. The realisation that they were not above the law of gravity slowed the police down as they exhibited greater care in removing the chairs to make their way up to the second and third floors. As they reached the second floor many of them spread out to continue the search while a number of senior police continued to the third floor. There they were met by the seated and voluble activists. The Commonwealth Deputy Commissioner of Police, who had flown in especially from Canberra to control operations, now felt it necessary to inform the large group that they would be trespassing in their own Union if they did not leave the building immediately. To his obvious chagrin, and despite his megaphone, he could not be heard above the two hundred voices singing John Lennon’s ‘Power to the People’ in a continuous chant. This went on for over an hour while the police frantically searched the building but began to realise their failure to find any draft resisters, two of whom remained hidden in a specially prepared alcove while the other two were spirited off campus at the first warning of the raid. Throughout the police raid students and other supporters had gathered outside the student Union and had virtually blocked all exits in case any draft resisters had been caught. Eventually the police abandoned their efforts and left, leaving a substantial amount of wreckage in their wake. A student meeting consisting of about 1,000 students was held that lunchtime; it strongly condemned the police actions and voted to demand that the Commonwealth pay for the thousands of dollars of damage done to the building. For the draft resisters it was a substantial victory and showed that the government could not simply impose its will on an organised and determined opposition.

Such activities showing the ability of draft resisters to make public appearances without being apprehended continued throughout the next twelve months, in Sydney as well as Melbourne. They appeared at various events on campuses, at church meetings and even at student exams in the Exhibition Buildings in Carlton. Draft Resisters Michael Matteson and Michael Hamel -Green hid in a cavity of the wall during the police search and were undiscovered. The raid attracted great public attention and weakened the authority of the government and the police.

Bruce Cornwell, a draft resister, appeared in the Carlton Magistrates Court on 25 November 1971, and was fined for non-registration under the NSA by Magistrate KJ O’Connor. Harry was amongst 13 people who were supporting Bruce. During the court hearing they all sang Happy Birthday to Bruce. One threw confetti into the air and the others put on party caps. Magistrate O’Connor ordered the police to arrest the protestors, and they were taken to the Carlton watchhouse. The magistrate sentenced them all to 3 days jail for contempt of court.. The thirteen supporters clapped and cheered the magistrate after he sentenced them when leaving the court room. They left singing ‘Power to the People’ and giving clenched fist salutes

Harry was active in the Vietnam Moratorium campaigns. The major aim was to advocate for the end of Australian (and American) participation in the Vietnam War. A significant event occurred in Melbourne on 8 May 1970. It was the march to the centre of Melbourne, called Stop Work to Stop the War. It was led by Jim Cairns. Harry was a vice-president of the Melbourne Moratoriums. He organised a mass rally at Melbourne University and then marched to the Melbourne CBC to form up with perhaps the largest protest ever held in Australia, estimated to be 100000 persons. Harry stressed it must be peaceful and non-violent as Jim Cairns did. Conservative politicians, including Billy Snedden, Minister of Labour and National Service described the protesters as, Political bikies, pack -raping democracy. The moratorium was peaceful.  Harry was also importantly involved in the two other Moratoriums held in Melbourne. The second was on 18 September 1970, which attracted about 50000 protestors, and the third on 30 June 1971, which attracted about 100000 protestors. At the third moratorium, the well-known American child psychologist and anti Vietnam war campaigner, Dr Spock, was a speaker. He appeared on a truck with five ‘underground’ Draft Resisters who dared the police to arrest them. Harry suggested there was a considerable police presence, both uniform and plain-clothes, but they were overwhelmingly outnumbered by protestors. After the speeches, the truck was driven back to Melbourne University with suitable protestor protection. The five draft resistors were ‘spirited’ away as planned. The authorities looked foolish and incompetent, which was a main aim of the protest.

Harry and several others on 21 January 1972 were handing out Anti conscription leaflets at the Melbourne Town Hall. Eventually Harry was arrested and charged with Incitement to breach the NSA, under the Crimes Act. He was summonsed to court on 27 January and was convicted and fined $10. It was clear that Harry was singled out by the Federal Police as a notorious protestor. They wished to avoid the political embarrassment of arresting a large number of people. At this stage the government was ‘refusing’ to arrest large numbers of draft resisters for the same reason. The police had expected Harry to receive a harsher penalty given his record. Later in 1972 Harry took an uncommon act to lay charges against Police Superintendent GJ Hickey for engaging in riotous behaviour during an anti conscription (Don’t Register) demonstration in Melbourne on 16 May 1972. Magistrate Froude dismissed the charges and ordered that the complainant pay $120 costs.

Harry was part of a delegation that visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during August 1972.  He recalled some of his impressions of the war which was published in Tharunka. He said, The fight for freedom is seen as part of their lives and their destiny as  well as  being their duty to those who have sacrificed their lives, to the  future generation of Vietnamese, and the world  movement for freedom and independence…What is painfully  clear from these  and other examples, is the fact that the Nixon administration is pressing a  conscious policy of  bombing the Vietnamese population in the  hope of breaking their morale. It is nothing short of aerial terrorism bordering on genocide.

On 3 December 1972 the Whitlam Labour Government was swept into power.  Australian troops had already been withdrawn, as the conservative government had largely given up the prosecution of the deeply unpopular Vietnam war. The new government suspended the NSA; all court cases under the NSA, and then a little later, those under the Crimes Act were stopped; draft resisters serving time in prison were released. The influence of Harry van Moorst on the achievement of these long-fought for, and long-desired for goals cannot be underestimated. He was a giant of the anti Vietnam War and Anti conscription movement 1964-1972.

Confirmatory Sources:

Australian War Memorial, Hell No We Won’t Go, Harry van Moorst Interview, 9 August 2015, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2125091

Canberra Times, 21 May 1968, p.10; 6 July 1968, p.1; 9 July 1968, p.3;17 July 1968, p.1; 30 October 1968, p.8; 13 February 1969, p.12; 19 February 1969, p.12; 9 April 1969, p.15; 10 April 1969, p.1; 16 April 1969, p.12; 18April 1972. p.9; 26 November 1971, p.3; 6 June 1972, p.9.

Tribune, 17 July 1968, p.1: 19 February 1969, p.12: 16 April 1969, p.12.

Tharunka, 12 September 1972, p.5.

Sydney Morning Herald, The man with the activists edge, by Michael Hamel-Green, 10 June  2022, https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-man-with-the-activist-s-edge-20220610-p5asw3.html 

Harry van Moorst: Opposition to the Vietnam War, Australian Living Peace Museum, http://livingpeacemuseum.org.au/s/alpm/page/hvm-vietnam

H Van Moorst, 2015, The Vietnam Moratorium: protest and resistance. In: breaking out: memories of Melbourne in the 1970s. Backburn S, (ed.), Hale and Iremonger, Willoughby, NSW, pp.30-54.

Mick Armstrong, 10 February 2022, A Radical to the End: A tribute to Harry Van Moorst, Red Flag, https://redflag.org.au/article/radical-end-tribute-harry-van-moorst