Collie Senior High School - ANZAC Tour 2024
Collie Senior High School - ANZAC TOUR 2024 – Recollections by Yannick Peltier (Collie RSL ANZAC Tour Representative)
On April 7th this year, nineteen CSHS Students, nine Teachers and I left Collie on the ANZAC Tour of 2024. We travelled up to Perth then on to Dubai and London.
LONDON.
We had a very busy time during the four days we spent in London. Highlights were:
• The Collie Senior High School Tour Group (CSHSTG) visited and held a service at the Australian War Memorial in Hyde Park. The Memorial is made from WA granite (from Jerramungup).
• The CSHSTG then conducted a formal service with the WA Agent General, Mr John Langoulant AO. This was followed by a visit to Australia House where we met with Mr Stephen Smith AO the Australian High Commissioner. After lunch at Australia House, we went on to the British Museum.
• We visited the Imperial War Museum. The museum consisted of exhibitions and displays on WW1, WW2, and the Holocaust. That evening we all went to the Vaudeville Theatre where we saw - SIX (It’s a show about Henry’s VIII six wives).
• We visited the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The torture chamber was certainly interesting/frightening.
• The CSHSTG visited the Greenwich Royal Observatory. At the Royal Observatory you can stand on both sides of the Greenwich Time Line (one foot in each time zone).
• National Maritime Museum followed by a walk over the famous sailing ship “Cutty Sark”.
PARIS.
• The CSHSTG visited the Palace of Versailles where we had a good look round and then we went into the mirrored hall where the treaty of Versailles was signed ending WW1 (some would argue that treaty terms contributed significantly to the start of WW2).
• We then made our way to the Arc de Triumph for the lighting of the sacred flame ceremony.
• I was asked to translate to our party “the history of the lighting of the flame” which has been an event since 1923 (even during the WW Occupation of Paris). Mike Podgomy and I (as veterans) were invited, to assist in the flame ceremony and the signing of the official Book.
• I traced my French ancestry and discovered that my great, great, cousin, General Jean Pierre Francois Bonet who had served under Napolean, has his name on the east wall of the Arc.
• We visited the Eiffel tower and took the elevator to the top level. Unfortunately, the view was poor due to heavy fog and then a storm moved in, causing an evacuation of the top viewing platforms – bugger!
• We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was still closed to the public due to the fire in 2019. There was, however, a viewing platform.
• We then travelled to the Pantheon where many famous people are in crypts- including “Marie Curie”
Belgium
• Next day we travelled to Belgium on a tour bus with our tour guide Colin Gillard. Along the way we stopped at various sites of importance. It was here that I and the Tour Group begin to get a true sense of the loss and sacrifice that this war represents and the sheer immensity of that conflict.
• We would be staying in a beautiful town of Ypres.
• We laid a wreath at the Menin Gate at the nightly formal service.
• Visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the biggest Commonwealth cemetery in the world. 12,000 graves and 35,000 soldiers who have not been found!
• Next stop was the Langermark Cemetery (German), around 44,000 men as young as 13 are buried here. The movie “All quiet on the Western Front” covers this battle.
• Another day of exploring various Western Front cemeteries: Essex Farm Cemetery, Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
• At Lijssenthoek we conducted a service for two Collie boys:
o 3381 Private Walter Charles GRIST, Died of Wounds Received 20/09/1917, age 28yrs.
o 2738 Private James Cooper ROBB, Died of Wounds Received 13/10/1917, age 26yrs.
o Commemoration consisted of a reading of a poem, playing the last post and recital of the Ode.
• Visited the town of Puperinge where we visited the “cell and the execution post” - quite gruesome!!
• Back in Ypres we visited the Flanders Field Museum.
Road trip to Arras - France
• Visited Villers Bretonneux and the Sir John Monash Centre and the Australian National Memorial. We conducted several services for many Collie solders who had head stones. Visited the Canadian National Memorial. Vimy ridge Hill 145.Short trip to Fromelles where we had a formal service along with Matt Keogh MP at the Pheasant Wood Cemetery.
• Anzac Day at Villers Bretonneux.
o We arrived around 2:30AM (it was very cold “1 degree”). We were seated directly behind the VIP delegation. After the official speeches and other wreath laying, all the ANZAC Tour group laid a wreath.
o Next services were at Adelaide Cemetery, Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) military cemetery and at Diggers Memorial in Bullecourt.
• Last day before return to Australia we conducted for the students a “race around Arras”
o Students in teams were given clues of a place or a task where they had to find and take a selfie before getting the next clue.
• On the last night in Arras we had our final tour dinner, then it was back to our hotel to pack for our return trip to Paris and onto Perth and Collie.
On my return to Collie and reflecting on the sights I had seen I cannot avoid thoughts of the futility of war and that we as humanity haven’t learnt anything from our past mistakes. The quote below from the late Jimmy Carter sums this up nicely:
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always evil, never good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”