Oliver of Otterburn and Anzac Day

Oliver of Otterburn and Anzac Day

I have been pretty slack since my last report but I have been enjoying
travelling around in the south west corner of Australia. I have spent
some time, with Ray and Margaret in the vibrant sunny city of Perth,
capital of the booming state of Western Australia.

It was here that I experienced the Anzac Day national holiday on the
25th April. This day commemorates the anniversary of the day in 1915
when the soldiers of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, along with
British and French troops stormed the cliffs of Gallipoli in an attack
on the Turkish forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was an ill-conceived,
ill-planned and ill-fated campaign that failed after eight dreadful months of terrible casualties. But the anniversary is revered in Australia and New Zealand because it marked the first battles
involving the soldiers of those two new nations, and the soldiers
acquitted themselves wonderfully well in the face of tremendous
difficulties of landscape and climate.

In Perth large numbers of citizens line the streets for the march past
of veterans, current forces, brass bands, pipe bands. It is not a dayto glorify war, it is a day to pay tribute to those who have served
the country in military conflict.

Especially, it is a day to remember
those who did not return and paid the supreme sacrifice. It is really
gratifying to see many young people taking part, especially when the
significant conflicts of the Great War and World War II are now long
in the past.

After the march we walked up to the magnificent War Memorial in Kings
Park, high above the city and the Swan River. It is here that a Dawn
Service is held and many, many commemorative wreaths are laid on the steps of the Memorial.