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First, we march on to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. But first, coffee in their adjoining cafe, complete with ANZAC biscuits.
...and as we finish our coffee, we manage to catch the start of a free guided tour of the complex. How fortuitous! The tour is given by a volunteer, and she was absolutely superb. Hands down, the most knowledgable, friendly and interesting tour guide we've come across in Australia. Once we had finished her tour, we both agreed that there wasn't much point hanging around by ourselves. It was THAT good!
The memorial building consisted of a large, but sensitively executed shrine. Leading up to the shrine was a Roll of Honour of ALL Australian conflict victims since the Boer War. And adorning the Roll of Honour were thousands of poppies strewn across the walls, but never falling to the ground. It was lovely. Underneath the shrine was an almost unending labyrinth of war museums that see the Melbourne effort, and then raises it some. You could spend a whole week here... Not days.
Given the sheer size of the complex, we were very grateful for the tour, then. Our tour guide periodically gave us long testimonials of selected fallen Australians, which were superb... But I did not have time to write them down!! Instead, here are a few selected factoids:-
- Although conceived during WW1, the War Memorial was only completed in 1941
- There are 102,000 Australian war dead listed on the Roll of Honour. Ordered into chronological order. No rank.
- 1992 brought back an unknown Australian soldier, from the Somme. Paul Keating, the then PM said at the ecology "He is all of them, and he is one of us." This comment was seen as so apt, it was later inscribed on the tomb itself
- The 15 stainglass windows inside were painted by a WW1 veteran who lost his right arm! He relearnt how to paint left handed for the work.
- There are 6 million glass tiles in the mosaic that adorn the interior of the Shrine
- The largest loss of life during WW2 was from the 460 Squadron. This RAAF squadron served with bomber command. Effectively replaced itself 5 times
- Gallipoli. We viewed a 1919 painting of Gallipoli that is crucial to understanding the landing on ANZAC cove. 8 months stalemate once they landed. Saw a boat that made the landing
- The battle of Poziers was the first Western Front engagement that Australia assisted. Before the assault, 36 hours of heavy shelling. This was the longest bombardment the Australians endured in WW1. The death toil was on a par with Gallipoli, and the battle was over 2 weeks. Gallipoli was over 8 months.
- HMAS Sydney. In Feb 1941, sent back from the Med to Australia, after serving there with no fatalities. However, once it reached the north coast of WA, it mistook a German Destroyer for a Dutch Freighter. Within 30 mins the battle was over, and the all 645 men perished. In 2009, the wreck of HMAS Sydney was discovered. It was so deep, robots had to dive for it. It was 3 weeks after this loss of the Sydney, Japan launched its aggression vs Australia.
- Darwin was bombed some 60 times by the Japanese! The government kept quiet about the frequency so not to induce panic
- Operation Jaywick. An audacious covert raid on Singapore harbour when occupied by the Japanese where Aussie secret service disguised themselves as Philappeano fishermen
- 100 Australians have received the Victoria Cross.
- The Mitsubishi Zero was a crucial airplane that helped the Japanese initially take the Pacific. Only the US Kittyhawk was a match.
After the tour finished, we hopped into the car to drive to the other end of ANZAC parade to watch Question Time!
Our tune for the ride was as follows:-
Who put the sand in the Vaseline?
What a dirty rotten trick, so callous and mean
And I'm not gonna use it, I know where it's been
Who put the sand in the Vaseline?
Slipping straight into our cheeky parking space underneath Parliament (we spotted it yesterday), we make it into Question Time, just in time. Unfortunately, we had to 'bag' our phones, so no pictures, but we really enjoyed the experience. LOTS of pressure on the Minister for Human Services and Veteran's affairs to resign, with Labor and the Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten baying for his resignation. Either that, or calling for the Prime Minister to 'resign' his enforcement of ministerial code.
"Thanks for your question, I refer you to my previous statement"
http://gu.com/p/4gtjj?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
After this, we ventured into Canberra to see if it's any better during the day. It isn't. But we had time for a funky cupcake & coffee.
Alice drove the next hour into Goulburn (through a freak hailstorm just out of Canberra!) for our hotel stay. A genuine Australian hotel.... I.e. Above the pub! Our first impressions weren't good. It looked proper dodge. But once we had found our actual room, we were pleasantly surprised! The best kind really.
Walk across the road to Coles, homemade cheese wraps, The Avengers, Bed.
Good day. Thanks Canberra! You were fun, but we wouldn't want to live there.
AF
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