When the black and white photographs come to life...

For many years ANZAC day was a day where we honoured the memories of the Australian soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in 1915. Whilst that is still a focus today, Australians have broadened their scope of recognition. In 2023, we will acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of all Australians who have fought and died while representing this country.

Considering that the youngest of the original ANZACs were approximately 18 years of age, the latest that they would have been born was 1897. No-one who served in World War 1 is alive today. For those who served in World War 2, they would currently, if still alive, be in their nineties. In recent decades, our memories of the Diggers are of men and women who have become old and frail due to the passing of time.

In many homes around Australia, there will be photos – some displayed in frames in living rooms, but most in albums, stored away under houses, in attics or beneath beds. However, a look through these albums will tell their own story. For there you will find a world of black and white, where young, fit, athletic men and women stand or sit in the center of photographs. They are not likely to be smiling as this was not the practice 100 years ago. There is perhaps a signature in the bottom corner and the photo itself is creased, dog eared, or turning yellow.

Looking through the images tells many family stories. They are youthful versions of great grandparents with many a vision of a young man who bears a resemblance to a brother, cousin, or uncle who is alive today. Sadly, many of these young men and women never returned from the war. It can be very powerful to reflect, to take a moment to wonder what they would have become. Who would they have married? What career would they have forged for themselves? Who would have been born into families that never eventuated?

For many of us today, that is why we march on 25 April. That is why young children, adolescents, and adults, proudly pin the ribbons and medals of past uncles, aunts, or grandparents to their chests. Not to honour war, but to honour the memory and the sacrifice of the young man or woman, who bears a striking resemblance to others in the family fold, but who gave up their youth so that we could have ours.

The photos may be static and decaying, but the images contained within them live on for all time.

Thank you to Mr Vince Haberman, a guest at our ANZAC Liturgy last Thursday, for his kind donation of the following book:

The Lost Boys: The Untold Story of the Under-age ANZAC Soldiers Who Fought in the First World War. Some of the boys were as young as thirteen, having lied about their age.

Removal of trees - the trees on our oval have been removed to allow for the extension of our ovals and the re-alignment of the existing spaces.
It is always sad to have to remove trees and the College does not do so lightly. As we have done in the past, we will replant the number of trees lost elsewhere on our property.