Help us promote Lemnos' link to Anzac - Make a donation now

Our Committee is raising funds to create a lasting legacy telling the story of Lemnos' link to Gallipoli and Australia's Anzac story. Our projects include the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park, the publication of a major new historical and pictorial publication and more. To make a donation you can also deposit directly by direct debit into the Committee's bank account: Account Name: Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Inc; Bank: Bendigo Bank; Account No: 188010037; BSB No: 633000; Include your surname in the reference section. For further information on our legacy projects or to make a donation please contact either Lee Tarlamis 0411553009 or Jim Claven 0409402388M

Monday 24 February 2014

Our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Statue - Peter Corlett's Model

 
 

These are some image of the model of the beautiful memorial statue that we will erect in Port Melbourne during the Centenary Year - 2015.
It key features embody the most endearing aspect of Lemnos' role in the Anzac story - the nurses and the sick and wounded soldiers. Inspired by the many moving images taken on the Island in 1915, our sculptor Peter Corlett, OAM, has created a wonderfull and striking image of healing and care during war.
The statues will rest on a stone plinth or catafalque, which will be adorned with images representing Lemnos - including the names in Greek and English of the villages that became so well-known and welcoming to the Anzacs all those years ago.
In this way, the memorial will represent the links between Lemnos and Anzac - 1915 - 2015.
We hope that there will be a identical sister memorial erected on Lemnos as a companion to our own in port Melbourne - linking Lemnos and Australia.
If you could like to make a contribution to our fundraising campaign or like some more information, please download our donation and information form by clicking here.
We hope you enjoy these images.


Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee


Monday 17 February 2014

Glorious Days - Australia 1913

Exhibition Banner, National Museum of Australia
"The popular myth is that Australia came of age amid the carnage of World War I. But years before Gallipoli, this young nation was internationally admired for its progressive policies, sporting dash and bold optimism."

A new exhibition celebrating Australia in 1913 is open to the public at the National Museum of Australia.
It is titled Glorious Days - Australia 1913.
The year 1913 was a fascinating and important time for Australians, although the events of the following year have tended to cast a retrospective shadow over it.In places as far apart as Antarctica, Papua and Great Britain, Australian ambitions were high; the new navy was a source of national pride; the arts flourished and the motor car and movies were having their first impacts.The political landscape and the lives of working men and women were rapidly changing, and the foundation stone for the new capital was laid.
Most importantly, the exhibition seeks to correct one of the most persistent myths in Australian history - that Australia's sense of national unity, even Australia's birth, was on the beaches of Anzac Cove on 25th April 1915. As Andrew Sayers, Museum Director, writes:
"Like all myths, it has an element of truth ... but Australians in 1913 would have seen things very differently - there was a strong sense of Australian confidence in that year and there are many events and achievements ... that are evidence of a definable national experience.",

Souvenir photograph from Victor Trumpers testimonial match, 1913. National Museum of Australia
Indeed as Historian Ross McMullin writes in reviewing the exhibition, Australia was admired across the world for its achievements in many fields in years before Gallipoli - women's suffrage, Mawson's antarctic exhibitions, Victor Trumper, Nellie Melba and a remarkable social cohesion - being some of these. With the outbreak of war, hope died. He writes of the devastation caused to Australia by the First World War. The war would bring 60,000 deaths, 150,000 wounds and terrible damage to Australia's social cohesion, delivering a crippling emotional and economic legacy for Australia. He quotes the Historian Bill Gamage on Australia after the war:


“Dreams abandoned, lives without purpose, women without husbands, families without family life, one long funeral for a generation and more after 1918.”

As Ross McMullin states:
"The popular myth is that Australia came of age amid the carnage of World War I. But years before Gallipoli, this young nation was internationally admired for its progressive policies, sporting dash and bold optimism."
For Ross McMullin's full article from the Sydney Morning Herald click here.As Australia approaches the coming Centenary of Anzac, this exhibition is a telling reminder of how Australia was before the war and a future that was lost on the battlefields of the First World War.
Lectures
The exhibition website also includes access to a series of informative lectures exploring what was happening in Australia 100 years ago, inspired by our Glorious Days: Australia 1913 exhibition.These include audio and transcript from each lecture in this series:
  • '"Adulation, fame and money": Sport and celebrity in 1913' with historian Dr Guy Hansen on 8 October 2013
  • 'Women in White Australia' with historian Professor Rae Frances on 24 September 2013
  • 'Leisure time: 1913' with historian Professor Jill Julius Matthews on 27 August 2013 - audio and transcript
  • '"Gone to Navy": Defending Australia' with historians Dr Peter Stanley and Dr David Stevens on 30 July 2013 - audio and transcript
  • 'The state of photography 1913' with historian Helen Ennis on 5 June 2013 - audio and transcript
  • 'Australians in Antarctica 1913' with environmental historian Professor Tom Griffiths on 28 May 2013 - audio and transcript
  • 'Australian art and artists in 1913' with National Museum Director Andrew Sayers on 30 April 2013 - audio and transcript
  • 'Surveyors at the snowline: Surveying the ACT–NSW border 1910–15' with Canberra historian Matthew Higgins on 12 April 2013 - audio and transcript
  • '1913: Australia's place in the world?' with historian Dr Nicholas Brown on 26 March 2013 - audio and transcript
Click here to listen or download these lectures.
For more information on the exhibition, click here

Australian actress Louise Carbasse, about 1913. Photograph by Rudolph Buchner. Dickson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales PI/304.
The Exhibition Book
The exhibition also has a richly illustrated book revealing life in Australia in 1913, from the experiences of ordinary Australians, to the emerging place of this new nation in the world.
Seventeen fascinating essays look at the political landscape, the fashions, the music, the art and the events that defined the year.
Glorious Days: Australia 1913 was edited by Michelle Hetheringon, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia. The book explores the inauguration of Canberra, the exploration of Antarctica, ongoing tensions between the states and the experiences of Aboriginal Australians, for whom 1913 was far from glorious as governments sought to impose greater control over their lives.
Andrew Sayers, Director of the National Museum of Australia, writes:
"This book is an in-depth look at life in Australia a century ago. Readers will get a real sense of how we have changed – but equally, how we are still grappling with the same ideas and issues as our ancestors of that fascinating period."

If you can get to Canberra, catch this important exhibition or you can order the book from the National Museum of Australia.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Saturday 8 February 2014

Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Stall at Melbourne's 2014 Antipodes Festival A Success


Our Stall at the Festival. Photo Lee Tarlamis 2014
Our information banner. Photo Lee Tarlamis  2014
For the second year in a row the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has participated in Melbourne's pre-eminent Hellenic heritage festival - the Anitpodes Festival.
It was a great weekend for the Festival - a glorious Melbourne sunny weekend - ensured thousands of Melbournians came out to enjoy this celebration of Hellenic culture, with great food and music.
This years stall was very successful. The stall was very busy all day, with well over a hundred of our new fundraising badges sold, as well as new memberships and donations.
It was great to receive such warm support from across Melbourne's community - both Hellenic and non-Hellenic.
It was particularly heartening to receive support from the many nurses and former nurses who visited the stall and expressed support for our Memorial Statue.
The stall again provided a great opportunity for the Committee to spread its story of the need to include Lemnos in the coming Centenary of Anzac in 2015 - as well as to seek community support for our Memorial Statue project.

The Committee's Ken Volaris welcomes Victorian Premier Dennis Napthine and Victorian Multicultural Affairs, Citizenship, Energy and Resources Minister Nick Kotsiras to our stall - both sporting our commemorative badges! Photo Jim Claven
A highlight was the visit of many important visitors, including the Victorian Premier, Dennis Napthine, MP, the Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Citizenship, Energy and Resources, Nick Kotsiras, MP, and the Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Andrews, MP.
Federal Assistant Treasurer, Senator Arthur Sinodinos expressed his support for our work.
Thanks to Commitee members Malama Varvara, John Cook, Terry Kanelos, Peter Volaris, Ken Volaris, Ange Kenos, Sofia and Costas Kotanidis and Stan Kayalikos.
Lee and Sofia Kotanidis, with George Zangalis. Photo Jim Claven 2014
Malama Varvara with Lee at our Stall. Photo Jim Claven 2014

Sofia and Lee sell some more badges, well done. Photo Jim Claven 2014

Stan sells the Lemnos Gallipoli story to some interested visitors. Photo Jim Claven 2014
A great festival to be at. Photo Jim Claven 2014
Stan and some visitors to our Stall talk to Lee. Photo Jim Claven 2014
Also a big thank you from the Committee to our President, Lee Tarlamis, MP, for his great effort in organising, setting up and staffing our stall over two sunny but very hot days. Thanks Lee.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee 

Some more photos of the 2014 Antipodes Festival (from Jim Claven)

Photo Jim Claven 2014
The Messinian Association banner. Photo Jim Claven 2014
The Maniot Association banner. Photo Jim Claven 2014
Photo Jim Claven 2014


Photo Jim Claven 2014
Photo Jim Claven 2014
Photo Jim Claven 2014

Photo Jim Claven 2014
Photo Jim Claven 2014

 


Friday 7 February 2014

Victorian Premier's Anzac Student Prize Winners to Tour Lemnos for First Time!

Mudros Senior High School students and teachers at the 2012 Anzac Day Commemorative Service, East Mudros Military Cemetery. Photo Jim Claven 2012

Today - Friday 7th February - the Victorian Premier announced the winners of the Victorian Government's annual Anzac Student Prize.
The Prize is awarded to 12 Victorian Secondary School Students who have been selected after taking part in an Anzac history competition and having successfully submitted an essay on Australia's Anzac story. The 2014 Prize winners are:
The 12 recipients of the Prize were selected from a shortlist of 28 state finalists. The recipients are:
  • Laura Bishop, Westbourne Grammar School;
  • Claire Fitzgerald, Clonard College;
  • Charlotte Frost, St Brigid's College;
  • Bianca Gerrard, Beaufort Secondary College;
  • Otis Heffernan-Wooden, Lilydale High School;
  • Breanna Janson, Nagle College Bairnsdale;
  • Michael Manoussakis, Marymede Catholic College;
  • Samuel Penfold, St Kevin’s College Toorak;
  • Travis Reid, Fountain Gate Secondary College;
  • Stephanie Schwarz, Goulburn Valley Grammar School;
  • Sanduni Thomas-Hewage, Pascoe Vale Girls College; and
  • Lila Van Breugel, Trafalgar High School.

The Prize includes a major study tour - led by the eminent Australian Anzac historian, Professor Bruce Scates, of Melbourne's Monash University. Professor Scates is a supporter of our Committee and has successfully advocated the inclusion of Lemnos in the annual Tour. The Tour will take them across the major First World War battlefields at Gallipoli and Western France.
The students will be issuing a blog report as they progress on their tour - it will be great to read about there experience and impressions as they walk Lemnos' Anzac trail.
Gallipoli, Western France - and now Lemnos
However for the first time the Tour will include a three day tour of Lemnos and its key Anzac sites. The Tour will visit Lemnos on 6-8 April 2014.
The Tour participants and their parents receive a briefing on their coming Anzac Tour at Anzac House, Melbourne. Photo Jim Claven
Lemnos - Walking in the Footsteps of the Anzacs - 1915-2014
Jim Claven, Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, has been working closely with the Tour organisers - the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet - to ensure that the students tour is a good one. Today Jim addressed the Tour participants with a new PowerPoint presentation - Lemnos 1915-2014 Walking in the Footsteps of the Anzacs. The presentation explained Lemnos beautiful natural environment, the ancient and modern history of Lemnos and its people, including its liberation in 1912, the arrival of the Anzacs and the nurses, their experience of Lemnos and its people, the moving Anzac graves that remain at East Mudros and Portianou, and the legacy in Australia - Lemnos and Shepparton.



This presentation was well received, with many of our Memorial Badges being sold.
On behalf of the Committee, Jim wished the students best of luck, knowing that they will be welcomed in Lemnos as the Anzacs were in 1915.
The Committee Helps the Students Tour
Some of the aspects of the Tour that we have assisted with are:
  • Identifying the key Anzac Trail sites on Lemnos - from Mudros Bay and East Mudros harbour, to Sarpi and Portianou, the Turks Head Peninsula and Myrina. The Tour will obviously include commemorative visits to the two Commonwealth War Cemeteries at East Mudros and Portianou - as well as the Muslim Cemetery on the Turks Head Peninsula;
  • The Tour will also include visits to the main Ancient sites on Lemnos - Poliochni, Hephaistia and Kaberion;
  • Establishing links with the Lemnos Municipality, who will welcome the Tour participants to the Island;
  • Establishing links with Mudros Senior High School and Head Teacher, Mrs. Papapanagiotou, whose students will take part in a commemorative ceremony at East Mudros Cemetery on 7 April 2014 as well as a joint educational forum at Mudros Secondary College;
  • Identified Australian soldiers buried on Lemnos and nurses who served there in 1915 from the areas of Victoria where the students reside. This list will be used by the students as part of the "Adopt a Digger" research component of the Tour; and,
  • Provided a detailed Presentation for the Study Tour participants at Anzac House (the Victorian RSL HQ) on  Friday 7 February.
Good News for Lemnos 2015
This is a great development for the Lemnos-Gallipoli link and the work of the Committee. The inclusion of  Lemnos in this Tour has already boosted the awareness of Lemnos' role in Gallipoli amongst key Victorian Government stakeholders, educationalists and others. The publicity the Tour will receive - both on Lemnos and in Australia - and hopefully its Lemnos component - will add further weight to our argument for the inclusion of Lemnos in the coming Centenary of Anzac in 2015.
Hopefully this will be the first of many Tour's of Lemnos for the Vicotrian Premier's Anzac Prize winners into the future.

Thanks to Professor Bruce Scates and Patricia Pollard, Premier's Spirit of Anzac Prize Program Manager, for their recommendation to include Lemnos - and thanks to Demetri Boulotis of the Lemnos Municipality and Mudros Senior High School for welcoming these young Australians to Lemnos.

And Congratulations to the Victorian Prize Winners and best wishes for their coming Tour.

Note that the Victorian Premier also announced today that entries were now open for the 2014-15 Prize and all eligible and interested students should check www.veterans.vic.gov.au for details.
To read the Victorian Premier's Media Release announcing the winners click here.
For information on the Spirit of Anzac Prize click here. 
To read the blog on the 2013 Spirit of Anzac Tour click here.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee



Wednesday 5 February 2014

Melbourne Antipodes Festival - Help Staff our Stall!


Yes, the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee will be having its stall at the annual Antipodes Festival in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, this coming weekend.
This is the pre-eminent festival for Melbourne's Hellenic community and the ideal forum for us to get the message out about Lemnos and Anzac, promote our Memorial project, recieve donations and sell our great new bedges! Our donation pledge document can be downloaded  here.
If you can spare an hour or two please let us know urgently!
We are a community group that can only survive through the work of volunteers - and we always need more!
So contact us ASAP - Lee Tarlamis on 0411 553 009 or lee.tarlamis.mp@parliament.vic.gov.au

Sunday 2 February 2014

From the Trenches - New Book on Anzac from Mark Dapin



 
For all those interested in the history of Anzac, a new book has come out that tells the story of the Anzac experience from the words of the soldiers and nurses themselves.
As the Publisher Penguin Books says "Others have written the myth, but the Anzacs themselves wrote their stories."
2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of The Great War. The War started on 28 July, 1914 and lasted for four gruelling years. It was also the beginning of the legend of the Anzacs and Australian mateship. Soldiers came from all walks of life including writers and artists. They fought on the battlefield, worked as ambulance drivers and as nurses in the war.
We've heard of the British writers like Siegfried Sassoon who immortalised their experiences of the trenches but what about the Australians and New Zealanders, the ANZACS, who put pen to paper about what were often horrific conditions?
Journalist and novelist Mark Dapin has delved into the writing of this time and has collected diary entries, memoir, poetry, letters and reportage in his book From the Trenches: The Best Anzac Writing of World War One.
This collection reminds us that the Anzac legend is rooted in real and tragic circumstances on a heartbreakingly human scale. Belying the common perception of the laconic digger, these compelling voices convey the range of wartime experience, from the desolation and horror to the unbridled excitement and camaraderie. Through it all runs the bleak toll on young lives.
This volume could well be regarded as the definitive record of the personal experiences that forged the emerging national identities of Australia and New Zealand.
The author Mark Dapin talks about this new book on the ABC's Books and Arts Daily Show. Click here to link to the interview.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Lemnos Heroes - Murphy the Donkey and the Donkeys and Mules of Lemnos


 
Gallipoli and its Donkeys
One of Lemnos' least appreciated contributions to the Gallipoli campaign was its role as a major source of animal labour - the thousands of donkey's and mules from the Island who helped out the Anzacs on the peninsula.
Donkey's - the beasts of burden of the Gallipoli campaign. Photo AWM
These poor and hardy animals were real beasts of burden, doing all the heavy lifting.
They dragged ambulance wagons to and fro, hauled steel guns, water tanks, shovels and all manner of important equipment from the barges on the Gallipoli coast to the trenches uphill and inland.
Photographs show them, forty at a time, in single file, traversing the steep gullies that ran up from Anzac Cove.

Where did these animals come from?
Well they came from a variety of sources - from Egypt and Palestine, from Cyprus - but many of them came from the nearby Islands of the Aegean, and especially Lemnos.
Donkey's and mules were certainly a mainstay of Lemnos' life and economy. To have a donkey or mule was an important requirement for Island families, essential for transport and work in the fields. Some Australians expressed sympathy for these hard and often over-burdened animals.
A Lemnian villager with his donkey at an Anzac camp on Lemnos. Photo AWM
The Anzacs and the Lemnian Donkeys
Certainly many Lemnians hired out their donkey's to the newcomers - soldiers and nurses who wanted to make the most of their few hours of recreation by traveling across the Island to see and partake of its sites and places of interest. These were essential to their many visits to the distant towns of Therma, Kontias and Myrina for example. There are many lovely photos of Australian nurses and soldiers enjoying a ride on a Lemnian donkey.
Nurse Evelyn Davies enjoys a donkey ride on Lemnos. Photo AWM
Australian nurses enjoy a donkey ride on Lemnos, probably on the Turks Head Peninsula. Photo AWM
There are also many examples of Anzacs purchasing and "lightering" donkey's on Lemnos for use on the peninsula. For example, the British intelligence officer, seconded to the Anzacs, Lieutenant Colonel Aubrey Herbert, purchased six donkeys on Lemnos for his use on the peninsula, keeping one as a mascot.
Donkeys and their handlers on board ship, to Gallipoli, 1915. Photo AWM
Simpson's Murphy
Yet the most famous Lemnian donkey has to be "Murphy", the donkey that worked with Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick carrying the wounded from the battle front to the medical services in the rear and on the near the beaches. Simpson would become revered by his Anzac comrades in the field and turned into an icon following his death from a machine gun bullet only a few weeks after he's arrival at Gallipoli.

Simpson with Murphy at Gallipoli, April 1915. Photo AWM.

Pre-war portrait of John Simpson Kirkpatrick. Photo AWM
Simpson's grave at Gallipoli. 1915. Photo AWM
Other "Simpsons and Murphy's"
It is true that a number of other donkey's were enlisted by Anzacs to help with moving the injured but Murphy remains the most famous. There are many images in the AWM archive of Anzac medical staff with donkey's being used in the same way as Simpson used Murphy. Some of these are reproduced below.


Where did Simpson acquire Murphy?
There are many stories of how Murphy came to be on the peninsula. Some talk of Greek water-carriers with donkeys who landed with the Anzacs on 25th April, only to be removed soon after, their donkeys straying up into the gullies of the peninsula. Another argues that donkey's and mules were captured from the Ottoman troops.
However the most detailed and contemporary account is from Captain Longmore of the AIF's 16th Battalion Machine Gun Section, who reported the story of his comrade Captain H.J. Sykes:
"Abdul was one of two donkeys purchased by members of the 16th Battalion Machine Gun Section at Lemnos. these optimists thought they would need assistance in carrying their guns to Constantinople and they paid 12 pounds and 15 shillings for their long-eared transports. At Anzac they dropped them overboard and saw them swim ashore forgetting all about them until they saw one of them in partnership with Kirkpatrick..."
Other reports confirm the purchase of two donkeys by the unit's quartermaster, Lieutentant Gorman, and their having been put over-board at Anzac, freely swimming to the shore. Another recollection by Private H. Thorne reports that the donkey's became separated from their unit during the disembarkation at Anzac and they were pushed over-board to make their own way to the shore.
An Indian soldier leads his horses and donkey's up from Anzac Cove, 1915. Photo AWM
What happened to Murphy?
It is generally agreed that after Simpson's death Murphy was adopted by an Indian unit, the 6th Mountain Battery, staying on the peninsula for many more months, yet its identity and whereabouts became confused. Following Simpson's death and the publication of his story, attempts were made by the Australian authorities to bring Murphy to Australia before the evacuation of the peninsula. But apparently Murphy could not be located by then. So Lemnos' most famous donkey may have wandered the peninsula following the evacuation of the peninsula.
Stories tell of Murphy having been returned to Lemnos along with his Indian minders on one of the transport ships - during the evacuation - and was subsequently let free as the troops departed Lemnos for Egypt and Western France in 1916. Some argue he was taken by the Indian soldiers to India.
I think its more likely good old Murphy would have been set free after the end of the campaign - on his native Lemnos.
So Murphy the Lemnian donkey may well have returned to his home on Lemnos. And therefore his descendents may be wandering the Island to this day.
So if you see a donkey on your travels on Lemnos, have a thought that you might be looking at a descendent of Murphy, Simpson's famous donkey.
Murphy's descendent? A Lemnian donkey on Lemnos, 2013. Photo Jim Claven

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

2015 News - Australian Government announces next steps for the Gallipoli 2015 Ballot

Anzac Cove after the Gallipoli campaign. Photo AWM
The Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs, Michael Ronaldson MP, yesterday released the following Media Release detailing the next steps for those who have applied to be part of the ballot to participate in the 2015 commemoration of Anzac Day at Gallipoli. The Media Release states:
 
42,582 applications were received from Australians planning to attend the Dawn Service at Gallipoli in 2015, marking 100 years since the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops during the First World War.
Anzac Cove, 2013. Photo Jim Claven 2013
 
The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson, said the government’s contracted ticket provider would now begin the process of confirming applications.
 
“Ticketek will review and remove any duplicate, incomplete or incorrect applications before the ballot is drawn. The ballot draw is automated and comprises of four cascades, providing some preference for direct descendants and veterans with qualifying or overseas service,” Senator Ronaldson said.
 
“Outside the ballot, there are places for Australian First World War widows who will be included as part of Australia ’s official representative group and 400 places for secondary school children and their chaperones.”
 Ari Burnu Cemetery, Anzac Cove, with the Sphinx formation rising in the distance. This Cemetery contains the grave of Greek Australian Anzac, Private Peter Rados. Photo Jim Claven 2013
Senator Ronaldson said all ballot applicants, successful and unsuccessful, will be notified of the outcome before Anzac Day 2014.
 
“Successful applicants are encouraged to make and pay for all travel arrangements as soon as they receive confirmation of their success in the ballot.  This needs to include flights, accommodation, transport and travel insurance. Proof of travel such as an airline ticket or tour package must be provided to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs by 25 October 2014 in order to receive attendance passes,” Senator Ronaldson said.
 
“Those who are unsuccessful, and who elected to be on the waitlist, will be notified of any passes that may become available from those who can no longer attend, up until 31 March 2015.
 
“Alternatively, unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to visit Gallipoli at another time in 2015, attend another Anzac Day service overseas such as Villers-Bretonneux in France , or watch the broadcast of the Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux services live on the ABC on Anzac Day.”
 
Senator Ronaldson said a full program of activities would be rolled out over the Anzac Centenary period 2014-2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of Australia ’s involvement in the First World War. He encouraged communities across Australia to get involved by applying to their local federal Member of Parliament for funding under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program.  There is funding of up to $125,000 per electorate which needs to be applied for before 30 May 2014.
 
For more information on Gallipoli 2015 visit www.gallipoli2015.dva.gov.au or the Anzac Centenary visit www.anzaccentenary.gov.au
 
Media inquiries:        Minister Ronaldson: Brad Rowswell 6277 7820 or 0417 917 796
                                    Department of Veterans’ Affairs Media: 02 6289 6203
 
Ballot System Cascade
 
The ballot will operate in four cascades (omitting widows of Australian First World veterans and 200 double passes (400 places) for secondary school students and their chaperones to be distributed outside the ballot.)
 
Cascade
 
Inclusion in ballot
Outcome
Unsuccessful applicants
1st
Applicants who have indicated “Direct Descendent” with preference to first generation – sons and daughters
400 double passes (800 passes)
Those who have also indicated “Veteran” go to 2nd cascade.  Those who haven’t go to 3rd cascade
2nd
Applicants who have indicated “Veteran”
400 double passes (800 passes)
Go to 3rd cascade
3rd
Applicants who haven’t indicated either “Direct Descendent” or “Veteran” (i.e. the Australian public), plus unsuccessful applicants from 1st & 2nd cascades
3,000 double passes
(6,000 passes)
Those who have indicated willingness to be placed on a wait list go to 4th cascade.  Those who haven’t are out of the ballot
4th
Applicants who have indicated willingness to be placed on a wait list
Establish a priority order for allocating passes as they become available
 
 
  Click here for a copy of the Media Relase.