Dick Rogers had survived the Thai-Burma Railway. More than 60 years later, Mackay North State High School students went looking for the mates who hadn't.
They found some of their graves and brought photographs home to the former prisoner of war who had shared his memories with them.
Now, another generation is rehearsing for Remembrance Day in the Anzac Square garden he dedicated in 2008.
Mackay North State High School students rehearse
in the Anzac Commemorative Garden ahead of the school’s 2026 Remembrance Day
service.
Former North history teacher Michael Goodwin, also a Medal of the Order of Australia recipient, remembers the profound impact Mr Rogers' visits had on his students.
They had researched wartime cruelty. In Mr Rogers, they met a survivor who could speak about it without bitterness.
“He talked about the cruelty, but he never derided the Japanese," Mr Goodwin said.
“And yet he was such a gentle, friendly, forgiving man."
Mr Rogers told students about constant hunger and repeated bouts of illness during captivity.
“He could have died, but his mates helped him and he helped his mates," Mr Goodwin said.
The retired history teacher recalled getting to know Mr Rogers while preparing students for North's 2004 commemorative tour, which would take them to the Thai-Burma Railway.
Mr Rogers became the Lest We Forget project's patron, sharing his experiences with the 2004, 2006 and 2008 tour groups.
“He was very keen to share his experiences with the younger generations, which was always fantastic," Mr Goodwin said.
His family later told Mr Goodwin how much the connection had meant in his final years.
“He was just always talking about the kids and what they were doing and how proud he was to be involved."
Former prisoner of war Dick Rogers shares his
experiences with Mackay North State High School’s 2004 commemorative tour
group. Picture: Supplied
Born in Cairns on June 5, 1919, Aubrey Elwyn “Dick" Rogers enlisted on June 21, 1940, shortly after turning 21.
He served in the 2/26th Battalion's Signals Platoon and was captured when Singapore fell on February 15, 1942. His captors later sent him to work on the Thai-Burma Railway.
Allied prisoners of war and Asian labourers carved the 415km railway through rugged jungle from 1942-43 to supply Japanese forces in Burma, at a cost of about 2800 Australian lives and tens of thousands of Asian lives.
Mr Rogers was forced to labour near Three Pagoda Pass. He never understood why his captors expected men to build a railway while denying them enough food to survive.
“He said (they) were always hungry, always scraping for food, whatever (they) could find," Mr Goodwin recalled.
Australian and British prisoners of war lay
track on the Burma–Thailand railway in Burma, about 1943. Picture:
Australian War Memorial, P00406.034
Discharged in November 1945, Mr Rogers then spent 25 years as a Commonwealth public servant before arriving in Mackay with his wife Amelia in 1971.
He supported servicemen's widows and dependants through Legacy, earning a Centenary Medal in 2001, and served through the RSL, Meals on Wheels and the Ex-Prisoner of War Association.
Mr Rogers died on January 4, 2009, aged 89. His Medal of the Order of Australia, announced that June, recognised service to veterans and Mackay.
Before his death, he donated $5000 towards North's 2010 tour, whose students visited the railway and Hellfire Pass.
His family later donated his OAM to North, where it remains framed with a dedication.
A framed tribute at Mackay North State High
School brings together photographs of Dick Rogers, his Medal of the Order of
Australia and an account of his life.
Mr Rogers opened the school's commemorative garden on May 16, 2008, at a ceremony attended by about 150 people, including the then Queensland RSL president, Mackay's mayor and local MPs.
The garden's railway feature represents the line on which he laboured. Nearby plaques bear the names of North students alongside the servicemen they honoured on overseas commemorative tours.
Those journeys brought years of classroom research to life. Across 11 tours from 1999 to 2023, Mr Goodwin helped students trace soldiers' stories, uncover the lives behind Mackay street names and pay their respects where those men lay buried.
Dick Rogers unveils a memorial plaque with
Mackay North State High School student and 2008 commemorative tour member Aaron
Brooker. Picture: Supplied
Mr Goodwin warned that knowledge of Australia's wartime history and the sacrifices of those who served could be lost unless older generations passed it on to young people.
“It'll fade away, and we can't let that happen," he said.
“So young people are the key to the future of commemoration."