SYDNEY GHOST TOURS PARANORMAL HAUNTED HOUSE DISCOVERY TOUR SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA
  • Home
  • Our Ghost Tours - Sydney
    • Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour
    • "Ghouls Night Out" Ghost tour Sydney
    • Full Moon Ghost tour
    • Family Ghost Tours
  • Anzac History Tours
  • Group Ghost Tour bookings - corporate team building and social groups
  • Gift Certificates
  • Local Restaurants
  • Hera - the Ghost Guard dog
  • About Us
  • Why come on Sydney Ghost Tours
  • Terms of trade
  • Blog

Anzac Day tours 2011

4/15/2011

3 Comments

 
It is hard to believe that in nearly three years, it will be the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. The memory of these people has passed into legend, and the last of the Anzacs, Alec William Campbell, who was a 16 year old kid at the time of the landings, passed away in May 2002. All that remains of these men and women is in books, letters, on plaques in public buildings, monuments and cemeteries.

We walk past these things every day – just one more detail in an information overloaded world.  We normally ignore these things, like the other minutiae of life,  just to be able to concentrate on what is at hand. Yet, they stand as mute reminder of a time past. A time when the collective hearts of our country were broken,  by a level of tragedy that we find hard to imagine in 2011. Yet this experience is part of what we rely on as part of our national story – who we define ourselves to be.

In the rush to embrace the heroic and admirable, in the midst of all of the tragedy, there is a tendency to want to “dry-clean” the past. The details of the more complete picture get downplayed, and left out entirely over time. All too ugly and painful – who wants to think about that? Focus on the things that make us feel good – and leave all of the rest behind.  “Less-(that) we remember” seems to be the order of the day in the early twenty-first century – or at least, a very, very selective memory seems to be in operation.

It seems to forget one basic principle… in order to appreciate the candle light, you need the dark background so that the stark contrast brings it into focus.

As Aussies, we forget that it was not some kind of a prolonged cricket match, between us and Turkey alone.  In fact, even putting us and the Kiwis together as a group, we were only a fraction of a number of landings that took place on the Dardanelles peninsula that day – one beach area out of six invasion beaches, on the first real “D-Day” in World War One.  We were a part of a much bigger whole.  We were tens of thousands, when hundreds of thousands of troops from other parts of the commonwealth, and our allies like the French, with their colonial allies, were also landing further around that part of Turkey.

We also overlook that our troops, landing on those beaches were “green” troops, most of whom had never been in combat, that are prone to make stupid mistakes. There were only a few handfuls of veterans from the Boer war and the Boxer rebellion who had seen any combat before in the troops that landed. While there was a lot of youthful enthusiasm and zeal from troops who were blissfully ignorant of what war really was, this is no substitute for being able to rationally work as a team when you are being shot at, as we found out the hard way.

Those stupid mistakes early in the piece, like bunching up during the landing, and then staying put too long on the beach, gave the Turkish defenders the chance to bring in reinforcements and artillery, and to bottle up and bleed the invaders dry by a rain of gunshot and shell.  Anzac beach, or that stretch of “Z” beach at Ari Burnu, is the bottom of a kind of natural amphitheatre, where Anzac beach is the centre stage, that everyone up on the hills can see, shoot at, and kill people, from kilometers away. Nobody seems to have said:

“ Fellas, we are in the wrong place. The Beach we are supposed to be on is about 3km south, and this beach is a shooting gallery where any bastard with a Mauser rifle and ammunition sitting up on those hills is going to feel like he is practicing to win a prize at the Easter show. Lets go to where we are supposed to be!”.

It also seems to be forgotten that most of the officers and NCO’s that knew what the plan was supposed to be, were shot and killed, or injured and evacuated right at the beginning first few hours. This left those remaining troops and officers on the beach, milling around like sheep in a slaughter yard, or huddling behind whatever they could find, rather than get as far inland as fast as possible, and away from the beach, up to defendable positions before Turkish reinforcements and artillery could arrive.

In other words, We ( the Aussies and Kiwis)  got lost. The people who were supposed to be running the operation and knew the plans and orders were killed or injured and taken away in the first few hours. Then, without those instructions passed on, we flat out did not do what we were supposed to be doing. Yet, instead – it seems to be the “done thing” long after the fact, to pretend that all of the death and misery caused there was the fault of bad English management.

It is this background of the sheer blood-letting , ugliness and suffering that was the norm of fighting around Anzac cove, that makes the heroism, gallantry, good humour and gentlemanly conduct worth remembering. They were living a waking nightmare, in the most hellish of places. Something else to keep in mind, is that the men wearing the slouch hat were not all 6 feet tall plus, blue eyed blonde, “Clancy of the Overflow” type tanned bushmen and athletes. They were as diverse in their backgrounds from factory workers, to shop clerks, to tradesmen and every other kind of profession you can imagine.  Many of the first people to enlist were from the cities.  Two battalions of which signed up on the north shore of Sydney, where SydneyGhostTour.Com runs its tours, within days of war being declared.  It was their very ordinariness – the fact they were fathers, sons, mothers and daughters, spouses and sweethearts that make their super-human efforts even more remarkable. 

Yet it was because they were all of these things, that makes their loss so keenly felt. The empty place at the family dinner table,  the clothes that would remain hanging in the wardrobe in mute reminder,  and the Christmases that would never be shared again with that loved one, became a feature of many Australian households.  It isn’t an exaggeration that 1918 as a year where the whole world was in a state of shock and grief. Of all of the best and brightest who went off to war, so many did not come back. Many of those families, not knowing if their loved one would be remembered in any formal way, made memorials to them on the family plots and mausoleums in the St Thomas Cemetery in Crows Nest, and in the Gore Hill Memorial Cemetery on the Pacific Highway, right next to Royal North Shore Hospital. Lone Pine, Quinn’s Post, the Nek , Passchendaele, and many other places that they fell, are memorialized in stone in these lower North Shore Cemeteries. Surprisingly, no one has made the concentrated effort to tell their stories, up until now. 

This Anzac day 25th of April 2011, there will be two tours, the first starting at Cammeray Square at 9.45am, and the second starting at 1.45pm at The Forum Plaza @ St Leonards railway station, that will tell the stories of these men and women, to whom we owe so much. Advance bookings are essential and can be made on 02 8197 0363, or on www.sydneyghosttour.com. The cost of the tours are Adults $35.00 per person, students and concession card holders $25.00 per person. 10% of profits of SydneyGhostTour.Com are always used to restore and preserve historic sites on all of our tours, however, 10% of the profits from these two Anzac Day tours will be donated to Legacy NSW.  Please go to our tours page, or put your details into Crypt Insiders to book your tickets now!

3 Comments
    shareYahoo Invisible
    LikeUs

    Author
    Daniel Phillips, Principal, SydneyGhostTour.Com

    Archives

    January 2017
    July 2016
    September 2013
    June 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010
    December 2009

    Categories

    All
    100th Anniversary Of Anzac
    100th Anniversary Of Gallipoli
    15 Minutes Of Fame
    1st Battalion Aif Ww1
    Anzac
    Anzac Day 2011
    Armistice Day
    Armistice Day Tour
    Artarmon
    Australia Day
    Australia Day Hidden Heritage Ghost Tour
    Blues Point
    Cammeray
    Cemetery Tour
    Chatswood
    Christmas
    Christmas Ghost Tour
    Christmas Ghost Tours
    Christmas History In Australia
    Christmas Office Party
    Christmas Party
    Christmas Traditions
    Classic Rock 95.3 Fm
    Crows Nest
    Eco-cremation
    Emf Meters To Find Ghosts
    Family Friendly Ghost Tour
    Family Ghost Tour
    Family Ghost Tours Sydney
    Family Ghost Tours Sydney Halloween
    Famous Burials At Rookwood
    Famous People Buried At Rookwood
    Flushing Your Relative Down The Drain
    Friday 13th Ghost Tour
    Friday 13th Legends
    Friday The 13th
    Friday The 13th January
    Gallipoli
    Ghost Date
    Ghost Haunt
    Ghost Hunt
    Ghost Hunting
    Ghosts
    Ghosts Of Christmas Past
    Ghost Tour
    Ghost Tour Display
    Ghost Tour Groups
    Ghost Tour Of Historic Sydney
    Ghost Tours
    Ghost Tours In Sydney
    Ghost Tours Picton
    Ghost Tours Sydney
    Ghost Tours Sydney Australia
    Ghost Tours Sydney North Shore
    Ghost Tour Sydney
    Gordon
    Gore Hill
    Green Cremation
    Halloween
    Halloween Ghost Tours
    Halloween Ghost Tours Sydney
    Halloween Parties
    Halloween Songs
    Halloween Tours
    Halloween Week
    Haunted
    Haunted Ghost
    Haunted Haunted
    Haunted House
    Haunted House Sydney
    Haunted Mansion
    Haunting
    History Of Artarmon
    History Of Blues Point
    History Of Cammeray
    History Of Chatswood
    History Of Christmas
    History Of Crows Nest
    History Of Gordon
    History Of Gore Hill
    History Of Halloween
    History Of Hornsby
    History Of Killara
    History Of Lane Cove
    History Of Lavender Bay
    History Of Lindfield
    History Of Milsons Point
    History Of North Sydney
    History Of Pymble
    History Of Roseville
    History Of St Ives
    History Of St Leonards
    History Of Thornleigh
    History Of Turramurra
    History Of Wahroonga
    History Of Waitara
    History Of Warrawee
    History Of Waverton
    History Of Willoughby
    History Of Wollestonecraft
    Holiday Ghost Tour
    Hornsby
    How To Deal With A Haunted House
    How To Find Ghosts
    How To Hunt Ghosts
    Inflatable Skull
    Is My House Haunted
    July School Holidays
    Killara
    Lane Cove
    Lavender Bay
    Lindfield
    Liz Vincent Ghost Tours
    Lower Picton Ghost Tour
    Messenger Ghost
    Milsons Point
    Mortuary Railway
    Mortuary Station
    North Shore Anzacs
    North Shore Anzac Tour
    North Shore Ghost Tour
    North Shore Ghost Tours
    North Sydney
    Organising A Ghost Tour
    Paranormal
    Paranormal Activity
    Paranormal Activity In My Home
    Paranormal Experiences
    Paranormal Ghost Tour
    Paranormal Ghost Tours
    Paranormal Haunted House
    Paranormal Investigation
    Paranormal Tours
    Picton Ghost Tour
    Picton Ghost Tours
    Picton Ghost Tour Shut Down
    Picton Ghost Tour Wollondilly Council
    Picton History Tours
    Poltergeist
    Poltergeists
    Pymble
    Remembrance Day 2010
    Remembrance Day Tour
    Residual Hauntings
    Resomation
    Resomator
    Rookwood
    Rookwood Cemetery
    Rookwood Necropolis
    Roseville
    Rules For Office Christmas Parties
    School Holiday Activities
    School Holiday Activities Sydney
    School Holiday Fun
    School Holiday Ghost Tour
    School Holiday Ideas
    St Ives
    St Leonards
    Sydney Anzacs
    Sydney Ghost Tour
    Sydneyghosttour.com
    Sydney Ghost Tours
    Sydney Ghost Tours Rocks
    Sydney Historic Ghost
    Sydney North Shore Ghost Tour
    Thornleigh
    Top 10 Classic Rock Songs
    Top 10 Songs
    Trick Or Treat
    Trick Or Treat - Don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
    Turramurra
    Valentines Day Ghost Tour
    Valentines Day Ghost Tours
    Valentine To Die For
    Victorian Cemetery
    Victorian Era Cemeteries
    Wahroonga
    Waitara
    Warrawee
    Waverton
    Weimaraner Sing Along Music
    What Is A Ghost
    What Is Halloween?
    Why Do People Wear Halloween Costumes
    Willoughby
    Wollestonecraft
    Ww1 Memorials

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!


Hours

Open 7 days

Telephone

+61 02 8197 0363

Stay in touch

Become a " Crypt Insider"! details on our home page...

  • Home
  • Our Ghost Tours - Sydney
    • Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour
    • "Ghouls Night Out" Ghost tour Sydney
    • Full Moon Ghost tour
    • Family Ghost Tours
  • Anzac History Tours
  • Group Ghost Tour bookings - corporate team building and social groups
  • Gift Certificates
  • Local Restaurants
  • Hera - the Ghost Guard dog
  • About Us
  • Why come on Sydney Ghost Tours
  • Terms of trade
  • Blog