ANZACS

Anzac commemorative site above North Beach, Gallipoli with the islands of Imbros and Samothrace on the horizon.
This site was created as a joint effort of the New Zealand and Australian governments in cooperation with the Turkish government. It was dedicated by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, her Australian counterpart John Howard, and the Turkish Minister of Forestry on Anzac Day 2000. They unveiled a plaque stating that the Gallipoli Peninsula Peace Park is dedicated to the pursuit of peace, harmony, freedom and understanding.

We must look to values of Anzacs

When Francis Walter Isaacs died at the age of 102 this month, Western Australia lost its last Gallipoli veteran. But the legend that he and his fellow Anzacs forged on that distant shore long ago lives on in the hearts and minds of Australians as the embodiment of the values to which we should aspire.

In life the Gallipoli veterans have been venerated as national treasures. In death they are honoured as the men who helped to give a young nation its unique identity. Time has failed to diminish the legend. Indeed, Anzac Day has continued to grow in significance as an occasion when Australians publicly affirm their pride in the nationhood that the Anzacs helped to define. It and Australia Day are now the most important national days on the Australian calendar.

Past criticism of Anzac Day that it somehow glorified war has faded. This is partly because it was wrongly based in the first place. But it is mainly because the spirit of what we celebrate and honour on Anzac Day has engaged the community with the message that it conveys about our values.. It is no longer a mainly military occasion and not only a time for families and comrades to remember those who have fallen in wars , although this is an important part of the ceremonies. Certainly Anzac Day commemorates those who died in wars and honours Australians who fought in them.

Wars are brutal expressions of the dark side of humanity. But the Anzacs showed-and other Australians in other wars inherited their spirit- that men and women who find themselves in wars can reach a nobility through sacrifice. Their actions have forged for the Anzacs a tradition of honour, valour, mateship, sacrifice and duty above self that has been adopted as embodying the key values in the Australian national character.. And it is these values that we celebrate on Anzac Day. As we do so, we should reflect on the deeds of the Anzacs and those who followed in their tradition-on their refusal to accept defeat in the face adversity their commitment to their fellows and their spirit of self-sacrifice.

It is a time to ask whether we-individually and as a nation-have honoured their contributions to the nation by respecting their values. They fought-and many died-for freedom, decency and a fair go. It is from them-as much as from anywhere else-that we draw an egalitarian ideal that is distinctly Australian.

Would the men who gave their lives for these principles on the other side of the world feel let down by what Australia has become? Are we a nation of which they would be proud? Australia at the end of the century is a much different place from the one they knew. The growth of population and industry has been necessary for the nation to prosper-as has been the move to become and outward-looking country whose economy can compete in international marketplaces.

Change of that type is inevitable but Anzac Day gives us an opportunity to question whether we have changed in other ways as our society has evolved over the century. And the most important question we can ask ourselves is whether we are true to the values by which the Anzacs lived and died-and which they bequeathed to us as a legacy of honour.

It goes without saying that Australian Forces through out many wars and conflicts have followed these traditions and although one should not glorify war as such one must be prepared to stand by and live up to these principles and traditions otherwise is not their sacrifice in vain. One would hope not, to the contrary one would hope that is continues to set a precedent for future generations of the nations youth. Not in the making of war but in the association of the principles and traditions set forth of self sacrifice by the Anzacs.






We must never forget them