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This Anzac Day, the focus in Australia on Gallipoli seems stronger than ever. I guess it will continue to built up to the centenary in 2015, and maybe beyond.
Remember when we used to camp on Anzac Beach, and the deep impression the place made on most of us?
There's a picture I put in the Capricorn section of indiaoverland.biz which was taken at Anzac Cove in 1979, and later made it into a Sundowners' brochure. Capricorn's Carl was the driver on the India side of that trip, and Sundowner's Budgie was on the other.
I wonder how much of a part our tours played in the rise to prominence that Gallipoli has had in the years since? Peter Weir's 1981 movie Gallipoli clearly played a major role, but maybe the word of mouth reports of all our punters played a role as well. Obviously that's unprovable, but given the impression it made I think it's quite plausible that our tours played a major role as well.
Mike
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I just Googled to try to see if anyone had tried to answer that question. At http://www.slccs.uq.edu.au/PDF/school%20events/OzAbroad_Abstracts2011.pdfProfessor James McKay has an abstract of a paper called "Performing Gallipoli". In it he states:
"On one hand, burgeoning tourism has allegedly turned Gallipoli into a theme park, rock concert and drunken party, been implicated in the militarisation of Australian culture, promoted louche nationalism and generated shallow emotional experiences via staged-managed excursions. On the other hand, Gallipoli also is a place where even ‘accidental’ Australian tourists can have meaningful spiritual experiences, empathise with Turkish people and develop cosmopolitan national identities."
I honestly don't recall any drunken parties in the many times I went there. Sure we had the odd Efes or raki, and we had lots of drunken parties on the way, but it just didn't seem the right place for that to anyone in those days.
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Maybe it's happening now.
Further Googling (I'll stop now) showed that "Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska is soon to take up a 5-month exchange position at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU) in Turkey. This exchange builds on our research collaboration with Turkey on the History of Anzac Day" ( http://arts.monash.edu.au/jais/news/jais-achievements.php). Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska is the scholar I have mentioned before as being on ABC programmes re her researches on the history of the Hippy Trail.
Mike
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Gallipoli: Memories of the day we spent there on Sundowners TK159 come rushing back. Both Anzac Cove and Lone Pine had an atmosphere about them that made all of us speak in hushed whispers, almost as though to speak loudly would arouse the ghosts of 1915. Certainly none of us felt other than reverence in those two places. To wander through the headstones was a sobering experience - so many of them were so young - too young to experience what they went through. Although we did not camp there over night, I am sure none of us would have indulged in alcohol etc had we done so. It was just not that sort of place. When it was finally time to travel onwards, most of us felt reluctant to return to the bus, almost as though we were abandoning those who would be there forever.
Perhaps it was not the correct thing to do, but my husband, having accidently kicked something hard in the loose gravel, picked it up and popped it into his jacket pocket. Closer inspection showed it to be a badly rusted shell casing. which he subsequently brought home and had preserved. It now sits on a plinth in a special casing with a brass plaque explaining from whence it came and is a very treasured memento of our experiences at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine. With luck, I shall return there one day, though I know it will be vastly different from the place it was in 1977.
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Yes, Kathy; that is pretty much how everyone felt there. I don't know how much it was the place, and how much our knowing so much about it before we got there, but it seemed to have a feel about it that I have found nowhere else.
Especially the ages of the soldiers on the gravestones. So many were still just kids, really.
I reckon whoever's shell casing that was would be very happy to be remembered in the way that you and your husband have done.
Mike
PS on a more irreverent note, I was wounded at Gallipoli - twice!
Once, I stepped on what I have just found out on Wikipedia must have been a Weever ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weever). Poison came to into view, creeping up inside my foot. The pain, the pain, but thinking of the old Indian proverb "I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man who had no feet", I grinned (well, OK, grimaced) and bore it as a kind of tiny window into the experience of pain suffered there by so many in 1915.
The other time, not being a Kiwi and having been there many times before, I stayed on the bus while everyone else went off to Chunuk Bair. The driver (who shall remain nameless, especially because I really don't remember who it was; but, Simon, it DEFINITELY wasn't you!!) hadn't put the handbrake on well enough, so the bus started rolling down the hill. Fortunately, as no-one was there I had time to take of my disguise as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, and faster than a speeding bullet leapt into the drivers seat and stopped the coach. Unfortunately, I wacked my shin on the steering wheel as I did so, and got a lump the size of half a peach to prove it.
Moral: be careful of those ghosts at Gallipoli; some must have a sadistic sense of humour.
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Just a tip, next time try steering with your hands and not your feet. I am not the world's best driver but I am sure this should help prevent getting your shins damaged.
Also enjoying the thoughts and stories about Gallipoli.
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Vicar, I am not the world's best driver either, but after several years of watching some of the world's best coach drivers I had come to notice that in order to stop the coach as distinct from steering it, they did something tricky down there under the steering wheel with their feet.
The knowledge I acquired from them about driving a coach was not the only thing I learnt from them. When I started couriering, I must admit that my inability to swear appropriately was a major failing. However, by the time that happened the swearing I was able to muster showed that I had reached a highly advanced stage in that skill. The silence of Chunuk Bair was shattered, as it was for miles around. I understand that it is still spoken of with awe by the locals, in hushed whispers in tea houses along the trial.
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Mike, I can vouch for your inability to swear effectively in the early days but you did improve slightly with all the effort Phil and I put into your problem and I remember having a headache next morning as well.
It wasn't actually the swearing that was critical as I remember, it had more to do with attitude I believe.
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Simon, are you referring to Lahore? Or was it earlier, in Pokhara, when you and Phil told me what my attitude to the punters should be?
That wasn't just a headache in Lahore, Simon. You don't bake in the Lahore sun all morning after that night before and end up with only a headache. That must have involved an NDE.
Mike
PS You didn't reply a while ago when I asked whatever happened to Phil? It would be good to share a beer or two with him again. But I'm not so sure these days about how we'd go having a skulling race with a schooner of whisky each!
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Mike,
I was refering to Pokhara on the first night of your training with us when we detremined that you were too nice a person to be a Courier. I still remember the tears as you tried (and basically found abhorant) the combination of my favourate thing and your favourate thing in the one sentence.
I have lost track of Phil and English Mike, both of whom I had great adventures with. It is a small world though, and in 1982 a young lady approached me outside my office in Albury and although familar it wasn't until she introduced herself that I recalled her being Phills' girlfriend on the 80 day outward leg, she is now married with children and living not far way, she did ask after Phill but I had no information about his where abouts and I sensed that she still had very fond memories.
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Well, as the saying goes all's well that ends well, and I remain grateful for all that you and Phil taught me.
Let's hope that Phil is still around somewhere, and that one day he chances upon this forum.
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ANZAC DAY 2015 will be for all nations who fought at Gallipoli a special time to honour all those who fell in battle during that long and bloody campaign, the ANZAC spirit will again be on display in many different ways in just under three years time. Australian and New Zealand Surf Clubs as well as others from other parts of the world, will compete in a surf boat race.
This race will not be about winning, but the primary objective will be to highlight and give thanks to those who served,at this stage we have over fifty clubs entered and Australian and Kiwi Lifesavers have been invoved in training the very young Turkish Lifesaving Movement, most clubs will leave their surfboats over in Turkey to continue the Training ( I do suspect that some will up at at wharf somewhere along the coast selling fish )
I will be travelling to Turkey with my club Soldiers Beach ( Central Coast NSW) I have been given the role of team manager to look after the logistical side of things,impotrant questions have already been raised such as, whats the beer like ? can you drink the water (only if you put Raki in it) and other things that the first time traveller would. This will be a wonderfull experience for us all, it will give me another opportunity to visit Lone Pine where I have an Uncle buried due to family mysterys I was not aware that he is buried there, so I will pay my respects to him, If this little saga has left you wanting more please google Gallipoli 100 aand follow the prompts Cheers to all
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Hi Darcy,
How fitting is it that you will be representing Solidiers Beach in this very significant event at Gallipoli in 2015?
I do hope you still have you DUR hat still in operating condition and you will also have to take your GITMEK hat to be able to handle any contigency.
It is true that it is not important who wins the surf boat race but remember there are bragging rights at stake if we beat the Kiwis. You may be in trouble if the Poms are organising this event as you could end up on the beach in Kusdasi. Don't forget to pack your budgie smugglers.
Sounds a fantastic opportunity,so please pay our respects on behalf of those Austalians and Kiwis who can't make the journey.
Regards
Johnno
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Johnno, the world does not need to see me in Budgie Smugglers I would frighten all the little kiddies, it appears that there may be some Poms rowing as well as the French, so it will be an interesting two day event , and as always there will be the usual AUS/KIWI rivalry, remember the bledisoe cup? I will be doing my best to ensure that we at Soldiers are well trained in the after rowing events ( my research tells me that Efes Beer has branched out and produces a black beer ) as team manager my job will be to road test it. I would not mind ending up on the beach at Kusadasi there are one or two memories from there , but as the Vicar would say, no stories straight to?
The Dur hat is currently under reconstruction I will keep you posted on its progress
Cheers
Darcy
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Hi Darcy, Many thanks for the info about the two day rowing event to commemorate Gallipoli 100 as I was unaware that anything of that nature was to happen in 2015 other than the Anzac Day service. I will follow it with interest - just hope it will be well reported in the Aussie media. As an aside, just loved the comment about ending up in Kusadasi if the Poms have any input - absolutely cracked me up!!! But will a proud moment if your team beats the Kiwis!
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Dear Darcy,
Are we there yet?
Mike
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Locked
