Anzac Salute

Australian Sacrifice Sustained A Little French Town

Shrine of Remembrance. Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The main street, called Rue de Melbourne isn’t in Melbourne, my hometown. The Victoria School isn’t in the state of Victoria, where I live.

They’re both in a French town called Villers Bretonneux. There in the school, the students still sing the haunting lyrics of Waltzing Matilda, the old Australian national anthem.


Yes, little French children sing the Australian words "billabong", "coolibah tree", "jumbuck" and "swagman". Emblazoned prominently around their school are several signs that say: "Do not forget Australia."

The Australian flag flies over this town. It is a fitting gesture of respect, for the Australian flag once flew over this town after a terribly bloody battle.


The story goes back to the northern hemisphere spring of 1918. German troops captured Villers-Bretonneux on 23 April and two Australian brigades were ordered to retake the town before the Germans pushed towards Amiens.

The attack began late on the night of 24 April and by dawn the next day the Australians controlled the town. But almost 1200 Diggers had fallen during the battle.


Publishing this salute to history and sacrifice is especially significant today, for it is exactly 91 years to the day that the Australians liberated the town. And for about five hours after this auto-posts on my site, hundreds of people, young and old, will be gathering in reverence and in silence here in Melbourne, at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Today is Anzac Day and the traditional dawn service will honour all those who laid down their lives to ensure our freedom.


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Lest We Forget

Come November, We Remember

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot of a major Melbourne landmark was taken about ten days ago. This is the main entrance to Flinders Street Station and it is one of the most photographed sights in the city.

The row of clocks above the entrance portal actually show the next scheduled departure on each suburban train line. Back in the pre-cell phone days, the clocks played an important role in city life, for they were a standard meeting place. Someone just had to give you a specific time and say "We'll meet under the clocks" and hey presto, it worked like magic.

Melburnians wear poppies with pride but I didn't know until I did some research, that the poppy was regarded as a weed because it once grew freely in corn fields. Yet we know them (as our parents' generation knew them) as Flanders poppies - because in that wartime zone of death the blood-red poppies flourished in the trenches and numerous bomb craters.


The image above was shot at the Shrine of Remembrance here in Melbourne - and yes, those are real poppies growing in the shape of a cross. I'd never really thought about it, but the poppies made their appearance in much the same way as eucalypt seeds are released by the heat of Australian bushfires and flourish in the lush ash beds that are completely clear of weeds.

In the same way, poppies grew freely in the Flanders battle zone, where artillery shells, mortars and slivers of shrapnel ploughed the fields in a harvest of sudden death.

This photograph (below) shows an endless array of carefully crafted artificial poppies. Today, these are the poppies we wear in the lapels of our business suits. Even schoolchildren wear poppies and, more importantly, they are taught why they are so significant.

Our parents, who lived through two world wars, wanted not just a symbol to commemorate those who laid down their lives but, more importantly, a symbol to remind us that it should never happen again.


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In Memory

The Light Shines On A Significant Message

When I was very little, I remember the joy of reading, because it opened up a whole new world for me. I clearly recall being in church each Sunday, at the beautiful Missions To Seamen Church called St Nicholas in Calcutta - and suddenly being able to read the brass plaques on the walls, between the high, narrow, arched windows.

One plaque honoured the memory of a sailor who had sacrificed his own life to save a shipmate who had fallen overboard. The inscription at the bottom of the memorial plaque read: "Great love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for a friend."

Those first five words are central to a very solemn part of Melbourne, the city that I have lived in for the past 20 years. In the Shrine of Remembrance on St Kilda Road, there is a special reverence that is hard to describe. This marble inscription is at the heart of the Shrine's interior and it has a very significant meaning.

When the Shrine was built, the architects were helped by calculations relating to astronomy and mathematics. The intricate design means that a ray of sunlight shines through the high atrium on a special commemorative day, to illuminate the word "love".

That day is the 11th of November each year. And the ray of light strikes the word "love" at exactly 11am, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The calculations ensured that this accuracy would endure for 5000 years.

But then the state of Victoria introduced daylight saving - which in turn meant that the careful calculations would be thwarted. That's when all sorts of solutions were considered - and the simplest one was put in place.

Now, a simple prism refracts the light ray by exactly one hour. And at the appointed time on Armistice Day, the sunlight still illuminates the word "love".

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Another Anzac Day Dawns

We Pine For Private Simpson

The pine tree at the Shrine. Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Under the clear blue Melbourne sky, there is a famous monument to one of the bravest men ever to wear an Australian military uniform. His name is Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick and he is enshrined in folklore as "the man with the donkey".

Today is ANZAC Day, a national day of commemoration in Australia and New Zealand to honour those who fought at Gallipoli in 1915, during World War I. The word Anzac is an acronym derived from Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and the solemn day here in Melbourne begins with a dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Not far from where the bugler sounds the Last Post and the Eternal Flame burns with an audible hiss in the reverent silence, old men with medals on their chests and a quiver on their lips stand to attention and the young children gather to honour the memory of those lost in battle, there is a tree. A pine tree. A historic pine tree. It is grown from the seeds of a pine tree that stood not far from where young men died in that battle.

Under the shade of that tree there is a statue. It shows a man in uniform leading a donkey by a tether. On the donkey is a wounded man. He slumps towards the muleteer, who supports him with his right arm. The man with the donkey is Private Simpson.

He was born in 1892 in England and as a young boy he worked with donkeys at a fair. Later, he joined the merchant navy but jumped ship in Australia in 1914. He then enlisted in the Australian army. Eight months later, as a stretcher bearer with the Australian Imperial Force, he was in the midst of the carnage at Gallipoli.

From the 25th of April onwards, Private Simpson risked his life several times a day to carry wounded soldiers to safety - on the backs of donkeys. On the 19th of May, while traversing Shrapnel Gully with yet another wounded soldier, he was killed by machine gun fire. He was 22 years old.

This morning, as the sun rises over the Shrine, they will utter the words: "They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the evening, we will remember them."

That is our greatest tribute to the Anzacs. We will remember them.

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ME AND POPPY McGEE: I have a huge appreciation for the way Google incorporates special graphics into the corporate logo on its home page to commemorate special occasions. And yes, I understand that these representations (for instance, the famous Google rendering of Lego) are not commissioned on the basis of "donations" or corporate payments in any way. But if you click on Google today, you'll notice an interesting error. The logo incorporates a poppy, not an Anzac symbol. Yes, the poppy is a generic symbol of wartime homage, but it is specifically connected to 11 November, which is Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. We wear poppies in our lapels on November. Today, Anzac Day, we wear badges to honour the Diggers. There's still time for Google to correct this ....

Hush Poppies

We Shall Remember Them

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The blood-red poppies are in full bloom at the Legacy Garden beside Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance. But as the world stops to commemorate 11 November, there are synthetic poppies dotted across the lawn in the forecourt of the Shrine.

The photograph above says it all in terms of the symbolism I wanted to project on this solemn day. It shows one of the synthetic poppies framed by the tall columns of the Shrine's entrance. To me, the image is a combination of sacrifice and commemoration.

And the second photograph (below) is a perfect validation of how the first generation of the twenty-first century is determined to honour the memory of all those who defended their countries. The child's script on this poppy says: "Harry Clarke - my great-grandfather" and it is signed by Mitchell Clarke. It was such a poignant sight for me and I was lucky to be able to photograph it without stepping on the grass.