SPASA's Suzy Wilson appointed Anzac Day 2026 Ambassador

Victorian SPASA team member Suzy Wilson has been invited by RSL Victoria to serve as an ANZAC Day 2026 Ambassador.

In this role, she will participate in and lead the Melbourne ANZAC Day March, and complete a lap of honour at the MCG alongside fellow Ambassadors prior to the ANZAC Day AFL match.

As a First Gulf War veteran, and one of the first seven women to serve in a combat role in the Australian military, this recognition reflects her service and dedication.

The 2026 RSL Victoria ANZAC Day March will be focused on peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Six Ambassadors have been appointed to represent veterans, families and locally employed workers, such as interpreters.

Wilson has been appointed as Ambassador for First Gulf War veterans and will be joining the other Ambassadors in leading the march down St Kilda Road to the Shrine of Remembrance.

One of the first front line serving women

When Wilson was serving as a radio operator on HMAS Westralia in the Middle East in 1991, the ship received an unusual flashing light signal from the Argentinian Navy ship, The Almirante Brown during a refuelling.

The Westralia and the Almirante Brown were both part of the Multi-National Force fighting in the First Gulf War to push Saddam Hussein’s Iraq back out of Kuwait. But the message from the Argentinian vessel was not related to the war.

“They wanted to know if we really had women on board,” Wilson says.

Just prior to Wilson joining the Westralia, the Australian government had overturned a ban on women being able to serve on the front lines. She and six other women on the Westralia were the first Australian women to serve in a combat zone.

“The men on the Westralia made me take my long hair out, which I was not happy about,” she says. “Just so the Argentinians could see I was a woman through their binoculars.”

The Australians signalled back to the Argentinians that they had seven women on board, something that not even the United States Navy had at the time.

“The Argentinian’s answer was very sweet though,” she says. “They signalled back: Seven to us is the world.”

When she joined the Navy, the Sex Discrimination Act had just been passed by the Federal Government, leading to a radical shake up in the way women served in the armed forces. As with any change there was some resentment, particularly from the men who would now be competing for roles with the women for the first time. But for Wilson it presented the opportunity to do the sort of technical work she loved, such as being a radio operator.

“There was so much to learn, I could already touch type but there were so many codes and different types of radio equipment, so it was a really interesting technical role.

“Going out to sea and doing the job I was being trained for as a radio operator at sea, was always the dream for me,” she says.

Wilson says she is immensely proud to have been selected to be an Ambassador for the 2026 ANZAC Day march and wants to use the opportunity to talk about the things that should be at the very heart of what the RSL is in the 21st century.

“To me it is about advocacy. I want to use this opportunity to talk about the fundamental role of the RSL. It is about the RSL advocating for the right and entitlements of veterans and their families. I am so proud to represent all the veterans of the First Gulf War and to shine a light on the men and women that served there”.

This article draws on extracts from Steven Baras-Miller’s article on the RLS Victoria website. For the full article go to: https://rslvic.com.au/news.

IMAGE: Suzy Wilson RSL ANZAC Day Ambassador – First Gulf War Veterans. Photographer Matthew Martin