Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial 4th annual service, 10th August 2019. Photo Jim Claven 2019 |
"Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan): Last Saturday I joined my colleagues Mr Neil Angus and the Honourable Robin Scott from the Assembly and Ms Nina Taylor from this place at the commemorative service at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial at Lemnos Square in Albert Park. Despite it being a very chilly Melbourne winter morning, we were reminded of the conditions that our servicemen and the Australian nurses who served in the Gallipoli campaign had to endure day after day, year after year. Lemnos played a strategic part for the 50 000 Anzac soldiers prepared for the landings. It was where they were able to rest after battle and where they were cared for by nurses who put their hand up to also serve our great nation. The sacrifice and service that Australian men and women gave to our country to ensure that we all enjoy the freedoms we have today should never be forgotten.
Those who spoke at the service gave various accounts of the strong Anzac connections of Lemnos and how Lemnos played a major part in the First World War. It was Lemnos which was the location of Australia’s hospitals and where 130 nurses served, caring for those servicemen ill and wounded who had returned from the horrors of the battlefield of Gallipoli. The generosity of the people of Lemnos, who welcomed the Anzacs, should not be forgotten also. The ties of Greece and Australia remain strong and welcoming today and give rise to the great multicultural community we have in Melbourne. I would like to acknowledge all of those involved in putting together this year’s commemorative service and their ongoing work to ensure awareness of Lemnos’s role in the Gallipoli campaign. Lest we forget."
Jim Claven
Secretary - Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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