MATTERS OF INTEREST

VILLERS-BRETONNEUX

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (15:25): Several weeks ago, it was my privilege to officially represent the South Australian government at the 2011 ANZAC Day service at Villers-Bretonneux, France. This visit to the Western Front of World War I was personally significant to me as both of my grandfathers served on the Western Front, one of them being seriously wounded there.

The ANZAC Day service at Villers-Bretonneux recognises one of the most important events in Australia's military history and a key turning point in the outcome of the First World War. The daring night-time battle that took place on 24 and 25 April 1918 to recapture Villers-Bretonneux has been described as perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war. The capture of Villers-Bretonneux represented the high watermark of the German Spring Offensive and its speedy recapture by Australian forces on ANZAC Day 1918. It was soon followed by a new allied counteroffensive which led to the end of the war seven months later.

To commemorate the 19^th anniversary of the battle, in 2008, a dawn service was held at the Australian National War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, the first official dawn service at the memorial. The Australian National Memorial is located at the back of the Villers-Bretonneux military cemetery, which contains 2,144 graves, 780 of which are Australians. The memorial itself commemorates the 10,771 Australian casualties who died in France and who have no known grave.

An estimated 5,000 visitors attended the 2011 commemoration, including hundreds of school students from all over Australia. They are part of the growing Australian pilgrimage to the Western Front to pay tribute to the troops (in many cases their relatives) who demonstrated such heroics, but at great cost in human life.

Nine of those students attending Villers-Bretonneux were recipients of this year's Premiers Anzac Spirit School Prize: Cassandra Roccisano of Charles Campbell Secondary School; Nick Falcinella of Loxton High School; Edward James of Loxton High School; Maggie Rutjens of St Marks College Port Pirie; Monique Champion of Immanuel College; Joseph Chu of Glenunga International School; Clair Coat and Jade Pass of Loreto College; and Alison Wilson of Pembroke College.

The ANZAC Spirit School Prize was established in 2007 by the South Australian government in association with the SA branch of the RSL. Applications for the prize each year are open to all year 9 and 10 students in South Australia. To enter the competition, students tell the story of a South Australian who served on the Western Front and discuss what the experience means to them today.

Those shortlisted are then interviewed by a panel. The selected students travelled to Canberra in January to learn more about Australia's wartime history before departing on their tour of World War I battlefields in Belgium and France. There they visited and were involved in a ceremony, with the support of the RSL, at the graveside of the service person they researched as part of their application.

The students were very ably supported by Jock Statton, the President of the Returned and Services League of Australia (South Australian branch); Claire Forsyth, a teacher from Aberfoyle Park High School; Paul Foley, a teacher from Loreto College; and Bev Smart, the Acting Chief of Protocol in the Premier's department and tour coordinator.

I greatly enjoyed meeting with these students and teachers in Amiens. It was evident that these students are exceptional young people who are outstanding ambassadors for South Australia. Our state can be proud of them. It was also evident that the students had learnt much from their travels, gaining a broader outlook and world vision. One of the students (Monique Champion) had the honour to be selected to read at the ANZAC Day ceremony.

My relatively brief encounter with this party of school students was sufficient to assure me that the Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize is achieving its objective for young South Australians to recognise, connect with and maintain the Anzac spirit. Having confronted the scale of human sacrifice which forged that spirit, one can only agree with the comments of the then Governor of South Australia, Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven when he unveiled our own national War Memorial in Adelaide. Back in 1931, he said:

It is not only for ourselves that we have erected this visible remembrance of great deeds, but rather that those who come after us and have not experienced the horrors of war, or realise the wanton destruction and utter futility of it all, may be inspired to devise some better means to settle international disputes other than by international slaughter.

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