Tour 2006 - Tour Diary
- Day 13: Thursday 4 May
- Day 12: Wednesday 3 May
- Day 11: Tuesday 2 May
- Day 10: Monday 1 May
- Day 9: Sunday 30 April
- Day 8: Saturday 29 April
- Day 7: Friday 28 April
- Day 6: Thursday 27 April
- Day 5: Wednesday 26 April
- Day 4: Tuesday 25 April
- Day 3: Monday 24 April
- Day 2: Sunday 23rd April
- Day 1: Saturday 22 April
Day 13: Thursday 4 May
Kristy Ninyette (Kelmscott Senior High School)
The house in which Mary, mother of Jesus, lived in after the death of her son. John the Apostle who preached in the area of Ephesus in the western part of Turkey brought Mary to this place to live her last days.
The city of Ephesus, the second largest ancient ruins in the world after Pompeii.
Today we made our way from the hotel to Ephesus which was the economic hub of the province of Asia during the Roman Empire. It was the most densely populated city in Anatolia.
Our first stop was the museum which contains artifacts from the archaeological site, including household items and columns which demonstrates how people lived during this time. Privileged families lived in the city centre while the other citizens lived on the outskirts of the city or beyond it. The houses of the wealthy citizens had lavish decorations including mosaics and ivory freizes. The terrace houses were extremely beautiful and were located in the centre and open to the sky which would provide light and fresh air to the houses. Most houses consisted of two to three stories.
We then visited the Virgin Mary's house high up in the mountains. It is believed that after the death of her son Jesus Christ, St.John the Apostle brought her to Ephesus where she is said to have spent her last days. The surrounding environment of the house is in a forest with beautiful greenery and is very serene. The house is built of stone and there is a pink line on the house separating the top half and the bottom half the former being reconstructed in 1951.
Now a place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics, the general public and tourists, the house has received the official sanction of the Vatican, and a commemoration ceremony is held on the 15th August every year for the feast day of Our Lady.
A ten minute drive and we were at the Basilica of St. John. Jesus' apostle was buried here when he died in the 1st century AD and when Emperor Justinian found the grave in the 6th century AD he built a massive church at the site. The ruins of this church still contain John's grave.
Then the exciting stop at the Turkish delight factory where everyone had a sweet tooth for the testers. Turkish delight is different than in Australia because our Turkish delight consists of a coating of chocolate. There is a range of flavours including nuts, honey, mint, rose and orange.
Next stop was at the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus, once the commercial centre of the ancient world. The city, whose wealth and patronage supported its splendid architectural program, is dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Ephesus is the second largest ancient ruin in the Mediterranean. The ruins include the biggest ancient theatre in Asia Minor, a massive agora, communal baths as well as the Library of Celsus.
Ephesus really appealed to me because of the ancient artifacts. In particular I liked the enormous theatre. All the members of the tour did an impromptu performance of Waltzing Matilda and Advance Australia Fair which was great. Finally Amy and Hayley did another duet on the stage which was really enteraining.
The night finished with the best view in town of Izmir and its foreshore, topped off with a fantastic dinner that everyone really enjoyed. Sadly it was our last night together as a tour group. I'm sure everyone has had an unforgettable tour.
Day 12: Wednesday 3 May
Elisha Clifton (Esperance Senior High School)
Students visited the ruins of the ancient city of Troy and imitated the scene of Homer's epic of the wooden horse.
The tour visited the site of the celebrated ancient city of Pergamon, founded in the 3rd century BC, is more or less the same as the modern Turkish town of Bergama, which is situated some 150km south of Istanbul in the old region of Mysia. The remains of the Roman city and its Acropolis are for the most part beneath the modern town, while the Greek city with the imposing ruins of its royal stronghold occupies a magnificently impressive location on the summit and along the terraced slopes of the hill which rises above Bergama to the east.
Today we visited the ancient city of Troy, famous for the epic poem by Homer of the beautiful Helen and Paris, Achilles and Hector and Ajax and Odysseus. Troy was important as it was in a strategic location, with the currents of the Dardanelles and prevailing northerly winds forcing ships bound for the Black Sea into Besik Bay. Troy was also sited on fertile plains. The Greeks desired to capture Troy because of its wealth and to enable expansion.
These days the ruins of Troy are kilometres from the sea, due to silt buildup from the river and land reclamation. Only a part of the original city remains.
Archaeologists have discovered nine separate settlements, with the first dating back to approximately 3000BC. The ruins include the city walls from the 10th century BC, house foundations from approximately 2000BC, a temple and a Roman baths from the 1st century AD. In front stands the symbolic wooden Trojan horse commemorating the legend of the Trojan War.
The ANZAC Tour students were able to climb up inside the horse, taking it in turns to put their heads out of the windows. This horse was built from wood, unlike the horse used in the recent Hollywood movie that was made from polystyrene, which we saw in Canarkkale. This was just outside our waterfront hotel. Both horses are supposed to have been built to a similar size as from the Homeric legend.
We also visited the site of the ancient city of Pergamon, founded in the 3rd century BC. Pergamon is located on the summit of a hill approximately 900m high and along the slopes overlooking the modern Turkish town of Bergama, north of Izmir, the third largest city in the country.
Parts of the city are still evident such as the old, steep amphitheatre which could sit 10,000 people. Hayley and Amy put on a singing performance of the medley from Moulin Rouge at the bottom, whilst the rest of us stood at the top.
The Acropolis, at the top of the ruins, is similar to that of the famous Acropolis in Athens, with tall white marble columns. The Acropolis stands alongside a temple dedicated to Athena, a monumental altar of Zeus and remnants of the old celebrated library. We inspected baths and walked through the ruins of the palace. The people in Pergamon worshipped both the Greek and Egyptian gods.
In 1881 the Austrians began excavations followed by the Germans, who shipped the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, stone by stone, back to Berlin because no-one held ownership of the city and could therefore stop them. Now in Berlin, within a museum, stands part of the ancient ruins of Pergamon.
Day 11: Tuesday 2 May
Sarah Mulholland (Mount Lawley Senior High School)
May 2a: Students, teachers with Minister Ravlich, Mr Norman Moore and Mr Paul Albert at ANZAC Cove. This beach was where the first ANZACs landed on April 25, 1915 and is today one of the many cemeteries in the area.
May 2b: The tour group are joined by Turkish students at the 57th Regiment Turkish Memorial, where the ANZAC group held a commemoration service and placed a wreath.
Today was the long awaited trip to Gallipoli. Finally after three years, students on the Premier's ANZAC Tour got to walk the battlefields of Gallipoli. Everyone was extremely excited about getting to walk the same paths and feel the same breeze that the ANZACs did when they landed at Gallipoli on the April 25, 1915.
Our day began bright and early at 4 am in Istanbul for our 4 and a half hour bus ride to Gallipoli. It was great to see some of the Turkish coast and country on our way, but the most exciting part was when we all saw the Dardanelles. I thought back to all the text books I had read about World War I, the ANZACs and that famous waterway, and it was so fantastic to see where the ANZACS were rather than just trying to imagine where they were.
Gabe Tepe was the first stop on a long trek of places to see. This is where the first raid took place on the May 4 1915 by a company in the 11th Battalion. The attack was lead by Captain Roy Leane who received the Military Cross for his actions at Gabe Tepe. We were informed by the teachers that the ANZACs had been told to land their boats, attack the forts and then kill and capture. Seeing the terrain they had to try and scale really made you see how difficult a task they has been set.
Of course, ANZACs Cove was one of the main highlights of visiting Gallipoli. We held our own ceremony in honour of the ANZACs, which was a very special event. Students accompanied Minister Ravlich and Mr Norman Moore to lay a wreath at the Memorial on the beach.
ANZAC Cove was a imperative point for the Gallipoli campaign; supplies, reinforcements and ammunition were all stored on the beach for the 240 days of the campaign. It was also used for the evacuation of wounded soldiers.
Due to erosion, the beach is now slightly narrower than it was at the landing, yet it is just so astonishing to see the tiny beach 600 metres long and 20 metres wide and the steep terrain they had to climb thereafter. The most emotional part of the ceremony for me was the poem Amy read by Banjo Patterson called "We're all Australian Now".
Leaving our bus at ANZACs Cove, we scaled the same terrain of the ANZACs. We first visited Shrapnel Valley. The cemetery there contains Australian 527 graves, including Major Hugh Quinn.
Next we made a steep ascent to the cemetery at Plugge's Plateau, one of the smallest cemeteries in Gallipoli containing only contains 27 graves, 12 of those Australian.
After retracing our steps, we next embarked on the hike to Lone Pine. More than 3000 Australian and 456 New Zealanders who fought and died in the battle between the August 6 and 9, are commemorated at Lone Pine Cemetery which is the major memorial for Australians at Gallipoli. Under the lone pine we had a reading and Hayley and Jodi spoke about things of special significance to them at Lone Pine. Hayley told us about her friend's great-grandfather Alfred Aspinal and Jodi also gave us some information about her great-grandfather. Both died in Gallipoli and are commemorated at Lone Pine. It feels very emotional when you find out that someone you know and care about was affected by the War. You can't help but question why they had the war and why when it had started and they had seen the horrific loss of life, it was not stopped.
We then continued our ascent to another battle site in the campaign for Sari Bair, Courtney and Steele's Post Cemetery which contains the graves of 167 men, many of them from the 14th Battalion.
We then visited a Turkish cemetery and memorial. As we did at ANZACs Cove earlier, we held a ceremony in remembrance of the Turkish soldiers who lost there lives at Gallipoli. We thought it was a great experience to see the Turkish memorial and we were lucky to meet some Turkish students who were also visiting the memorial. They were on a similar tour to us and we ended up taking photos and exchanging souvenirs with them.
Our last walk was to the Nek, a battle on August 7 which was part of a feint for the major push into Suvla Bay. Ten headstones lie in the seemingly small Nek cemetery and it is emotional when you find out that there are 316 bodies buried unidentified under the soil you walk on.
The final leg of our trek finished at Chunuk Bair which was the main objective of the ANZACs. It stayed in Turkish hands except for two days when it's trenches were captured by the New Zealanders. At this site Hayley made a very moving speech which reflected the day's events, concluding with Ataturk's famous words regarding those who died at Gallipoli being welcome to lie in the land of the Turks. There was hardly a dry eye among us. It was a fitting closure to a very emotional day.
After a very exhausting but absolutely amazing day we got back onto the bus and headed for the hotel in Cannakale. But not a normal bus trip. We took a ferry across the Dardanelles to get to our hotel.
The day was utterly incredible. I know that from now on whenever I read about or hear about the ANZACs and how hard the conditions were, I will be able to fully appreciate the sacrifice they made. I don't think you can really know what they went through unless you go to Gallipoli and at least experience a little bit of what they went through. It was the most amazing experience and certainly one that I will never forget.
Day 10: Monday 1 May
Hayley Davis (Leeming Senior High School)
Students toured the historic sites of Istanbul including a visit to the 400 year old Blue Mosque.
What a day! This morning we ventured out to get our first taste of life in Istanbul, the only city in the world spanning over two continents. After a unique Turkish style breakfast we stepped onto the street to smell the distinct spicy aroma in the air. We could tell it was going to be a great day.
First stop was Dolmabache Palace. This stunning Palace was built between the years 1843 and 1856 and was home to six sultans until the abolishment of the caliphate in 1924. It is 600 meters in length and built on 600 wooden pillars. As a result of its foundations, people within the palace can feel its sway. Standing in the Muayede Hall, we saw the world's second largest chandelier, weighing 4 and half tones. The movement of Dolmabache Palace became very noticeable when we could see the vibration of the chandeliers 664 candles.
It was then on to Topkapi Palace, the most extensive monument in Turkish civil architecture. The monument occupies 700, 000 square meters. It comprises of courts, pavilions, mosques and foundations. We got the opportunity to view the treasury with its priceless crowned jewels, the palace kitchens which at one stage cooked for 5000 palace staff as well as the homeless, and we also had a look at the second largest porcelain collection in the world.
After lunch while the group sat to admire a view over the Bosphorus River we were given the fright of our lives. Most people jumped to cover their ears from the deafening noise of five F16 jet planes racing over the river. Behind them trailed red and white smoke, the Turkish national colours.
I could hardly contain my excitement, because our next venue was the Hagia Sophia, one of the most extravagant constructions of the Byzantian Empire. Being an ancient history nut, I have always dreamed of visiting this place so it was absolutely awesome to be there. The Aya Sofya took 5 years to build and consists of stunning mosaics and a domed basilica. It remains an incredible feat of human architecture.
Before heading back to the hotel there was one last Turkish marvel to visit - the Basilica Cistern. This is one of the few early architectural examples that have survived till the present age. It is 143m long and 65m wide. There are 336 marble columns in this cistern each 9m in height. While in use the water level was at the tope of these columns. Nowadays we could walk through it, but that didn't mean we left dry because water still drips all around from the cistern roof.
The day still wasn't over yet. After a very quick rest in the hotel the ANZAC Group met up with the Minister for Education Ljiliana Ravlich and Director General Paul Albert. To top off the night we visited a very entertaining Turkish restaurant. Performing were traditional female belly dancers and male folk dancers. Their costumes were amazing and their moves even more so. At one stage a few of us even got to break out some moves of our own. It was a fabulous way to experience the culture of Turkey.
Bed time finally came and most of us were out like a light. It had been a whirlwind day and a wonderful introduction to our time in this country.
Day 9: Sunday 30 April
Students at the entry of Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. The Palace was built in the mid 1800s and it was here that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey spent his last days and died.
Day 8: Saturday 29 April
Rachel Michael (Toodyay District High School now Year 11 Santa Maria College)
The ANZAC Student Group with Minister Ravlich, Director General Paul Albert, Norman Moore and Agent General, Noel Ashcroft and Mrs Susan Ashcroft prior to the ANZAC Day ceremony at Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme.
The morning air was bitterly cold on our last day in France, as we made our way in to the Villers Bretonneux Cemetery. Dressed in formal attire, we watched the official ANZAC ceremony take place. Speeches honouring fallen ANZACs of WW1 were given in both English and French, students of a Melbourne school choir performed, an Australian student sounded the Last Post, the Ode was read and wreaths were laid.
The Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux commemorates more Australian soldiers than any other World War I memorial.
In 1918, the Australian troops freed the village from the Germans in a battle in which 1,200 Australian lives were lost.
The military cemetery at the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux also includes a huge wall containing the names of 11,000 soldiers whose remains were never found: a sad testament to this terrible war. They are "Unknown soldiers of the Great War, but known unto God".
The people of the town celebrated Australia Week while we were there and the climax was the ANZAC Day commemorations.
At the cemetery, I was introduced to a young French girl named Chloe. She is a student of the Villers Bretonneux/Pozierres Primary School, and had volunteered to assist Luke and myself lay a wreath at the Memorial on behalf of the Toodyay RSL.
The whole experience of the ceremony was moving, especially when the three of us walked back hand-in-hand. Looking around at the hundreds of headstones surrounding us, it was hard to contemplate the loss of life that took place in the battles there almost 100 years ago.
The next ceremony was held in the town of Villers Bretonneux, at a memorial commemorating the French soldiers who served in war.
We then crowded into Victoria Hall at the Villers Bretonneux Primary School, where we awaited the announcement of the Sadlier-Stokes Scholarship Winner. This scholarship is annually awarded to one young student of the seven surrounding districts to carry on their education in France or Australia. It is named in remembrance of two recipients of high military bravery awards of the First World War: Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier (VC) and Seargent Charles Stokes. They both served in battles defending Villers Bretonneux. They were both West Australians.
Morning tea was held in the school courtyard, under the boldly painted and honoured words: DO NOT FORGET AUSTRALIA. We mingled with locals and had the opportunity to hand out some Aussie souvenirs. I was touched to receive kisses on both cheeks by some young boys, upon giving them a koala or kangaroo teddy.
We bid au revoir to France and caught a bus back to the Paris airport. Our plane landed in Istanbul late at night. We arrived at the hotel with one thing on our minds: sleep. It wasn't until I looked out of my window on the fifth floor, with a view overlooking the Marmara Sea with bats circling a nearby mosque that it fully dawned on me that I was in Turkey. and on our way to Gallipoli.
Day 7: Friday 28 April
Luke Owen (Exmouth District High School)
After the Australian soldiers liberated the village, the Victoria School in Villers-Bretonneux was built with money sent from Victoria and the village and the school have never forgotten the contributions made by Australians.
The day started with a visit to the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. This memorial is devoted to 11,000 Australian soldiers who fought on the Somme but whose bodies were never found, and also to the 1200 soldiers who fell defending and liberating the town in the two battles of Villers-Bretonneux in March 1918. We held a small ceremony at the memorial and discovered that our own group had connections with this Australian Memorial. Both the Agent-General, Noel Ashcroft and Year 12 student Courtney Terlick, had family members buried there. Courtney presented a touching speech commemorating her great-great uncle. Val Downing, a teacher from Corrigin District High School, laid a wreath made by the students from her school.
We then moved into the village itself to visit Victoria School, the local primary school built using funding from the community of Robinvale in Victoria, which is now Villers-Bretonneux' sister town.
The school is also home to a museum, which houses numerous items of Australian war history from WW1. A lot of us were surprised by the gratitude of the locals towards Australians.
In the main courtyard of the school is a huge sign saying "Never Forget Australia" which is a stark reminder of the gratitude the locals show towards Australians, nearly 90 years after our soldiers first liberated the small village. All around the village, the preparations for Australia Week were beginning to take shape. Australia Week is a whole week in the Somme area devoted to commemorating the memory of the Australian soldiers who were lost and strengthening the relationship between Australia and these French communities.
After a small picnic lunch, we discovered the effect of the long lunch break in France: dress shops were closed much to the girls' dismay.
We then visited the Battle of the Somme Museum in Peronne. This museum was spilt up into the different periods of the war. We watched an amazing movie which showed the effects of the war on individual families and the soldier's friends. While moving around the museum, we studied uniforms of the various combatants and numerous weapons and personal effects from the war.
After the museum visit, we travelled through the beautiful French countryside to the village of Le Hamel, an Australian War Memorial and park, similar to the Canadian memorial we had visited the day before. On the way to Le Hamel we passed a large statue of a digger in the village of Mont St Quentin. The manner in which the locals respect Australians and our soldiers was amazing and this was one example of this.
At Le Hamel the military men (Mike and Phil White, Bob Somerville and Milton Butcher) demonstrated the tactics used in the attack and defence of Le Hamel, which was one of the only battlefields in the war which saw involvement from the Infantry, the Air force and tanks. The activities involved lots of running, dropping and getting ordered around by the military men which was a lot of fun, but it did teach us some important lessons about the fitness of the soldiers, the evolution of infantry combat in WW1 and the important of the command.
After visiting Le Hamel we returned to our hotel, ready for another busy day tomorrow, when we are to attend the formal Australia week ceremony at Villers-Bretonneux
Day 6: Thursday 27 April
The Australian Memorial on the site of the ruins of the Pozieres windmill on the Somme battlefields of 1916, pays homage to the 2nd Australian Division who liberated the village On this hill top Australia lost more than 8000 men, more than on any other battlefield in World War I.
This morning we left Lille and headed to Albert, near Villers Bretonneux. On the way, we visited cemeteries and Australian memorials at Beaulencourt, Pozieres and Somme River villages. I was particularly looking forward to visiting the areas in the Somme, as I know they were severely affected during many battles over the course of the Great War. Whilst on the coach, we read out some of the epitaphs we found on the graves at Tyne Cot cemetery yesterday. It's been really interesting to hear some of the words that families choose to have as the lasting remembrance for their loved ones who died in war.
At Beaulencourt, Val Downing, one of the teachers on tour, paid tribute to her great uncle, Arthur Holroyd, who is buried there. She gave a short reading, and it was incredibly touching to see her eyes fill with tears, as the emotion took over. We learnt that he had been a farmer from Tammin, and she said it was fitting that he now rested in such lush, rich countryside, and I think she is absolutely right. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful and tranquil, and I find it extremely hard to comprehend that such a peaceful place was once the site of bloody and brutal warfare.
Our next stop was the Pozieres Windmill Memorial, where we held an impromptu ceremony in the company of Monsieur Pouton, who is in charge of the Historic Association of Pozieres, and a local bagpiper.
It was extremely moving to lay poppies on the plaque and have the bagpipe playing 'Waltzing Matilda' at the same time. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride to be an Australian. Monsieur Pouton then talked about the battle at The Windmill, where 23000 casualties were the result of 19 days of fighting.
One story that I found particularly heartwarming was that of Captain Cherry, who led the Australians at The Windmill. All the Australian and German troops had died, except for Cherry and a German officer. Cherry was grazed on the neck but the German fell dead. Before he died, the officer desperately flung a stack of letters into Cherry's hands, which Cherry later sent to the German's family. Two men, once divided by the great barrier of war were, in the end, united by the very same thing.
After lunch, we visited the Australian 1st Division Memorial, also in Pozieres. This division played a big part in the battle of the Somme over the 23rd and 24th July 1916, where there were 5200 casualties. Interestingly, this was the only objective captured in the initial battle of WW1, and three West Australian battalions, the 11th, 16th and 28th, fought here. The obelisk commemorating the battle sits on the ridge which was fiercely contested by both sides.
A special moment of the more recent kind also occurred here, when a fellow student, Sarah, was reunited with her Scottish family, including her 87 year old grand father fought in World War II, who she has not seen in 8 years. Quite a few of us, including myself, had teary eyes, and I felt lucky to be able to share Sarah's special day with her.
The impressive Lochnagar Crater Memorial, at 100 metres in diameter and 30 metres in depth, was our next port of call. It was here that the Canadians dug underneath the Germans and blew up the ground with explosives. The next place we visited was the rather imposing Thiepval Memorial, whose red brick walls bear the carved names of 73, 367 French and British men who have no known graves - the "Missing of the Somme". It is incredible to try and comprehend such a huge loss of life, and it really hits home when you realise that this is a number greater than the total loss of Australian lives for the duration of WW1. Our final destination was the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial, which as well as commemorating the Canadian soldiers who fought and died in the region, also comprises actual trenches used during the battle. It was a fascinating experience to walk through these trenches, and it gave me vivid images of what war would have actually been like, in a way that no textbook can offer.
All in all, it was a fantastic, jam-packed day which left me a little weary, but also extremely satisfied and full of new knowledge and appreciation of what our ANZACs went through all those years ago.
Day 5: Wednesday 26 April
Courtney Terlick (Applecross Senior High School)
The ANZAC student tour group returned to the Tyne Cotte cemetery where on ANZAC day they laid a wreath on behalf of all WA school students. Tyne Cotte is the largest World War I cemetery in the world and the students are seen here in front of the Memorial built on the site of a bunker captured by the Australian 5th Division..
Today we began our day in the Flander's Field Museum in the great cloth hall in Ypres. The museum was an incredibly emotional experience, and all of us were deeply moved and affected by its contents. Each person was given a small swipe-card, and this contained the life story of different soldiers who fought in the area during WWI. As you progressed through the museum, you swiped a card and read the progressive biography of the particular person. This was just one of the many interactive features the museum offered. Personally, the most touching exhibits were the poetry room and the medical tent.
In the poetry room was 3 poems, printed on large panels on the walls. The first was "In Flanders Fields" by the Canadian, Major John McRae, the second a Belgian poem "De Gas" and the third, a famous Wilfred Owen poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est". The poems were read out through a loudspeaker simultaneously and each had different lighting and sound effects. "Dulce et Decorum Est" was extremely moving as it vividly described a gas attack, and comments on the irony of encouraging the youth to go and fight and die in war. The room contained large cylinders that displayed gas masks within. When the line "Gas! Gas, boys! Quick!" was said, these cylinders were filled with an eerie green gas. It truly put into perspective the horrors of warfare. This sort of interactive, haunting technique was used throughout the museum to create graphic accounts of the gore faced by so many soldiers. The medical display was also extremely confronting as it contained graphic and tragic facts about the medical side of the war. This included tales, photographs and footage of amputations without anaesthetic, and emergency surgery performed, sometimes to patch people up in order to ensure they will return to the frontline. Many of these doctors knew that there was little point injecting time, energy and resources into men who would most likely die regardless. I was also saddened to read of shellshock, which was not a recognised disease and was not seen to be a mental illness. One doctor is quoted to have described shell shock as "A mixture of immense immaturity and femininity, and there is not a cure for either of these." Many sufferers were executed for desertion, which I found extremely saddening and is as fair and just as executing a person for having cancer. It is not preventable and cannot be helped by the sufferer.
After lunch we visited Tyne Cotte cemetery where the rows and rows of graves really hit home the sheer numbers of men who died in battle. This was the same place where I laid a wreath yesterday. We looked at the cenotaph and some incredible touching headstones, including:
- thank my God upon every remembrance of you.
- Dear son of my heart, beneath a foreign clay God rest your soul, it is a mother's prayer.
- Too good in life to be forgotten in death.
- Sweetest of memories is all that is left.
- Duty called, he answered
- Goodnight Beloved
- Dear Laddy, always cheery and willing, always happy and busy
Day 4: Tuesday 25 April
Daryl Eagle (Clarkson Community High School)
ANZAC Day: Education and Training Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich is helped by Jodi Fryer (left, Rockingham Senior School) and Brigette Garbin (St Brigid's College) to place a wreath at an official ANZAC Day ceremony at Ypres, Belgium on what was the Western Front of World War I. Among the 55,000 names engraved on the walls of the great archway of the Menin Gate Memorial, are over 6000 Australians who died in the Flanders region and have no known grave.
ANZAC Day - the most important day for the ANZAC Student Tour 2006 started early with a morning ceremony at Zonabeke, near Ypres, Belgium. Beginning with a short series of speeches, including a very emotional one by our Education and Training Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich, we moved to the Church memorial next door for a short service where Bridget and Jodie laid a wreath with Minister Ravlich.
We then moved to the cemetery of Tyne Cotte, the largest World War I cemetery in the world, where more than 11,500 soldiers were laid to rest. Regrettably, only around 4,000 of these soldiers are named, the others only "Known to God".
Belgian soldiers also played the Last Post. It was at this point that I and many others fully understood the impact of war. Seeing this massive loss of life one could realise how there were very few Australian families unaffected by the war. A father, brother and in some cases mothers and daughters would have been lost during the war, many of these never found. Many of them still lie in Tyne Cotte.
Courtney and Tamara with Ms Ravlich laid a wreath on behalf of the AZNAC Student Tour at the official ceremony at Tyne Cotte.
On the completion of the service, the ANZAC Student Tour returned to the city centre and joined a march through the City of Ypres to Menin Gate where Haley and I, with the Minister, laid a wreath.
The official reception which followed at the Ypres Town Hall had some interesting speeches representing different views including a Western Australian perspective from Minister Ravlich.
While the delegates had an official lunch at the Town Hall, the ANZAC Student Tour group undertook a tour of the cemeteries and memorials around Ypres.
At Polygon Wood, we paid our respects at the graves of even more fallen soldiers of the battles in Belgium. This cemetery is the only cemetery in Belgium and Northern France where the Cross of Remembrance is not in the actual memorial but rather across the road next to it.
The Polygon Wood memorial is particularly poignant when one realises it is dedicated to the Australian 5th Division who were led by the West Australian Talbot Hobbs. Lt General Sir Talbot Hobbs not only led the 5th Division with great distinction but designed the memorial for the men he led. As a student familiar with the cenotaph at Kings Park designed by Hobbs, I found it moving to see a similar cenotaph as the centre piece of the 5th Division memorial so far away from home.
It was then on to Hill 60 the site of a fierce battle between German and Australian troops. We saw first hand the undulating ground which was a result of hundreds of shell explosions; some as large as 75 meters across and 25 meters deep. German fortifications known as 'pill boxes' can still be seen at Hill 60. It was seeing these great holes in the ground that really put into perspective the severity of the situation Australian soldiers fought under.
One can only imagine the hardships and terror our Australian WWI soldiers must have endured, yet another rude awakening to the horrors of war for the ANZAC Student Tour.
Day 3: Monday 24 April
Amy Ellis (All Saints College)
This memorial to the Australian soldiers is called Cobber. It shows an older World War I Digger rescuing a young Digger, and it is a touching sight in the middle of the Western Front's noman's land battlefields of Bullecourt on the border of France and Belgium.
Today the plan was to visit cemeteries and memorials on the French side of the Western Front before reaching our final destination of Ypres across the Belgian border.
We first made our way to Bullecourt Memorial driving along the famous Hindenburg Line of the Western Front. While driving along the Western Front we came across many battlefields nestled in the landscape. One thing which stood out about the memorials and cemeteries we visited, such as Bullecourt, was how immaculately maintained they are with the land being donated by the local community reflecting the gratitude of France and Belgium to those who died on their soil.
The Bullecourt Memorial consists of a monument called Digger.
After Bullecourt we visited the cemetery of Noreuil near Bullecourt. At this cemetery we conducted our own ceremony to commemorate those buried there. Hayley and James were the "masters of ceremonies" for this particular cemetery. Their job was to give a brief history of the place and to recite the ode before we moved off to wander between the graves.
We had poppies to place on the graves of soldiers, and I placed my poppies on three graves of unknown soldiers. I believe that even though these people were never found or identified, we should remember their contribution. At this particular cemetery there was a young boy from Coolgardie which really brought it closer to home for me.
After lunch, we passed through Bassee on the way to Fromelles. Whilst on the bus, we passed a famous German bunker called "Hitler's Bunker". Hitler did fight at Fromelles but it is still unknown as to whether Hitler actually used this particular bunker or whether it is mere folklore
We conducted another ceremony at Fromelles' VC Corner cemetery with Daryl and Tegan leading. VC Corner is a cemetery dedicated to Australians who were lost in the battle of Fromelles and whose bodies were never found. It is the only Commonwealth cemetery with no headstones. Instead all the names of the missing are inscribed on the back wall of the memorial. It was indeed emotional for all of us when brothers Phil and Mike White (two teachers on the tour) talked about their Great Uncle who is commemorated at VC Corner.
Like so many others buried in the area he too was a young man whose life was robbed by the horrors of war.
Day 2: Sunday 23rd April
Jodie Fryer (Rockingham
Senior High School)
Students and teachers in front of the breathtaking cathedral in Reims where many French Kings, including Louis XIV, were coroneted.
Today we departed Paris, which is graced by amazing architecture, on our way to another significant French city named Reims. Before arriving in Reims, we stopped in a little town called Compiegne, where in a railway carriage in a forest clearing the armistice of November 11, 1918 was signed to end World War I.
We visited the memorial which is today a museum and displays a replica of the railway carriage where the armistice ceremony took place. Ironically this is also the site where in June 1940 the French surrender was accepted by the Germans to end the fighting in France.
On the way to Reims we traveled along the Champs des Dames or The Ladies' Way. It is sad to think that this beautiful countryside was very strategically placed and saw a lot of fighting throughout World War 1. The ridge we visited was once defended at great cost to the French, but was also used as an underground hospital and barracks. For me this was a very moving experience to stand overlooking a place that saw such tragedy.
Reims is a 2000 year old city and is known for its numerous coronations of the Kings of France, including the Sun King Louis XIV. This city is known for its world- renowned major sight, The Reims Gothic Cathedral.
We walked from our hotel to the Cathedral Notre Dame of Reims, which was absolutely breath-taking. I was intrigued by the colours and design of the windows and amazed to see such a tall and intricately detailed building with such beautiful architecture and high ceilings, and to think it was built without cranes or the modern technology available today.
After visiting the cathedral we dined at a nearby restaurant which served exotic French food such as the entrée; cappuccino, air dried beef served with parmesan cheese and capers topped in an olive oil; the main course; fish wrapped in cabbage topped in a creamy white sauce typical of the region. This proved to be an interesting introduction to regional French cuisine.
The night ended nicely with a walk back to the hotel. After the experiences of the evening, the food, the visit to the cathedral and the walk back to the hotel, there was no mistaking, we were partaking in a sample of semi-rural France.
Day 1: Saturday 22 April
Tamara Jones (Lockridge Senior High School)
The tour group on the Champs Elysees with the Arch de Triomphe, home to the grave of the French unknown soldier, in the background.
The long-awaited day of our departure, 21 April dawned bright and early with fourteen excited students boarding the plane that would take us from Perth to Dubai and onto Paris. Twenty-four hours later, tired but excited, we arrived in the romantic and brightly-lit city of Paris. Traveling from the airport through Paris at night, we got to see and hear about the historic side of the city thanks to our knowledgeable guide.
Our first day in Paris started with a true French breakfast, including croissants, sausages, potato gems, yogurt and hot cups of coffee/tea. Later boarding our tour bus, we took in the famous sights like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Invalides Military Museum, the Arch de Triomphe, a 3,300 year old obelisk and the Louvre Museum. The Arch de Triomphe is home to the grave of the French unknown soldier, and commemorates the military campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte. Every night, there is a service to commemorate all the people who have died in war and don't have a named grave.
The Invalids military hospital is huge, but has a simple building design with fine detail. It has special significance to the French people, and even today any French soldier who dies in war has a formal funeral service in the impressive courtyard. This magnificent but imposing museum is the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte, his son and other French military leaders. The accompanying chapel is breathtaking with a crypt for French Ministers of Defence below.
After lunch in a quaint underground Parisian restaurant, it was time for a walk down the most famous avenue in the world, that famous last leg of the Tour de France cycle race; yes the Champs Elysees. Next it was a walk through the Place de la Concorde which sprouts statues every few metres, fountains and street side vendors. At the other end is the famous Louvre Museum which we unfortunately could not get into due to the crowds of tourists (including many French students who are currently on holiday), but the impressive glass pyramids and building where enough to give us an idea of the magnificence of the area.
The evening began with a boat cruise on the Seine River. Starting at the Eiffel tower, we followed the left bank all the way to the Finance Minister at Bercy and on the right bank to a duplicate Statue of Liberty, a gift from America to France in recognition of the more famous original which France gifted America. The food was delightfully French and we enjoyed a selection of live music. The climax of the evening was under an impressively lit Eiffle Tower. Truly a fitting end to a memorable April day in Paris and a great start to our Anzac Tour of France and Gallipoli.