ANZAC Day Tours 2014
In 2014, Mount Lawley SHS has four members travelling the world to commemorate Anzac Day.
Hell Fire Pass and Kanchanaburi
This year we have two young year 11 students, Monroe and Alexander, travelling to Thailand with the Quiet Lion Tour group to participate in Anzac Day services at Hell Fire Pass and Kanchanaburi.
This place of torture was the 'home' to many Australian POWs between 1942-1944, during their enslavement to build the Burma-Thai railway.
The railway was to be a significant supply link for the Japanese military in their push to invade and conquer India.
The conditions the men endured were unimaginable.
One light to rise to the Japanese challenge was Edward (Weary) Dunlop.
As an officer he was highly respected, as a doctor he was gifted and stoic.
He is credited with saving many thousands of men, when many were dying around them.
On this tour Monroe and Alexander will travel with two former POWs (Snow Fairclough and Neil McPhearson), listening to their stories; stories of Weary; looking at the stones they shifted; and walking the quarries they dug.
Snow survived the Thailand side, while Neil survived living on the Burmese side - where very few survived.
Sabah and Sarawak
Izaak is travelling to Sabah and Sarawak to commemorate the many men who died in Japanese captivity during the building of the Sandakan Airstrip, in WW2.
This airstrip was to keep the Japanese air-force moving in and around northern Borneo.
When it was apparent to the Japanese that they were going to lose the war they forced the POWs to embark on the three Sandakan death marches between March and September 1945.
Only six Australian men survived these months of torture, out of nearly 1,800.
These men only survived because they escaped the eyes of their Japanese guards and disappeared into the jungle.
Izaak will be commemorating ANZAC Day in Sabah, along with many others who return to remember their family members who never returned.
Gallipoli
I am lucky enough to be travelling to Gallipoli this year to commemorate ANZAC Day on the Gallipoli peninsula.
I will be travelling with eight students from around the country for this emotional experience - truly an experience to be remembered forever.
This year is an important year as the centenary year of the beginning of WW1.
On November 1st it will be 100 years since Australian troops first left Australian soil; Albany was to be the last Australian location many saw.
These men travelled to Egypt to resume their training, then they were directed to Gallipoli, where they landed at dawn on 25th April 1915.
As they say, a date that went down in history….
Lynne Noack
Head of Learning Area: S&E
