An ANZAC History

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First thing this morning we went for a lovely walk along the boardwalk near the caravan park before heading into the town centre to look around the National ANZAC Centre.







At the Centre we were each armed with a personal audio kit and a card giving the name and rank of one of the original ANZACs, the idea being you could put your card on a reader and you would learn more details of that Digger’s service history, which battles he fought in etc. Then as we pointed our audio kit at a display it became a personal speaker and we could listen to reports and letters that the soldiers sent home to their families. It was a very moving display; if people spoke, it was done in whispers. There was a Reflection Pool with all the names of those who left Australian shores to fight in The Great War and that was particularly poignant.







Albany is the town from which all troop ships departed for Egypt and the battlefields of WW1 – their last glimpse of Australia until the end of hostilities and for some the ultimate farewell. 30,000 Australian infantrymen on 28 vessels steamed out from King George Sound on 1^st November 2014 with a further 10 ships with approx 11,250 men in the second convoy.







My ANZAC was a Captain Charles Bean 1^st Division Headquarters Staff A.I.F. He was at the time an official war correspondent and would later become Australia’s Official Historian of the First World War. Upon his return to Australia he conceived the idea and lobbied for the construction of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.







To quote him: “Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made.”























We felt the need for a fish n chip lunch today so found our way to Hooked on Middleton – in 2018 they won the title of “Best Fish & Chips in Western Australia & Australia” and we can confirm that it was well deserved!







A visit out to the Mt. Romance Sandalwood Factory completed our afternoon where we watched a short video on the sustainable harvesting of the tree and the processes it undergoes to produce a pure Sandalwood product that is shipped worldwide. Oh, and we purchased a few scented products ….. as you do!

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