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from Canberra
Times Wednesday 26 April 2000
A new generation gathers at
Gallipoli to pay respects to Diggers
By JAMES GRUBEL
GALLIPOLI, Tuesday: They
came from all parts - Australians and New Zealanders, mostly young and
nearly all with backpacks.
On a cold, calm morning they
gathered on the shore at Gallipoli to pay homage to the men who fought and
died in the bloody Dardanelles campaign.
Up to 15,000 made the pilgrimage -
more than one for every Anzac killed in the eight-month fight at Gallipoli
- to mark 85 years since the original Anzac Day.
And like the Diggers they came to
remember, most of the crowd were in their mid-20s, representing a new
generation of Australians seeking to pay their respects to the soldiers
who helped forge a sense of national identity back in 1915.
Prime Minister John Howard and
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley led the Australian dignitaries, alongside
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark, at the first service at a new
commemorative site on North Beach, a few hundred metres from the first
landing site at Ari Burnu.
The new memorial had to be built
because of the growing popularity of the Gallipoli pilgrimage.
It was here in 1915, below the
rocky outcrop known as The Sphinx, that waves of 16,000
Anzacs stormed ashore, only to be met by fierce resistance from Turkish
forces who held the high ground.
North Beach was also the place
where Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick - the man with the donkey - began
his dangerous task of ferrying the wounded back to safety.
More than 600 Anzacs died on that
first day and a further 1000 were injured. By the time they evacuated in
December, more than 8700 Australians and 2700 New Zealanders were dead and
almost 100 allies were wounded.
Today, about 200 people who wanted
a better view of the Dawn Service climbed the steep ridges the original
Anzacs tried to scale 85 years earlier.
With only two Australian survivors
of the Gallipoli campaign, Mr Howard said the Anzac legend was now passing
into history.
"Only now, from the sheltered
safety of our time, can we comprehend what was dared and what was done
here," he said.
Later, the Prime Minister paid
tribute to the 2700 Australians killed in the battle of Lone Pine.
"In the faces revealed through fading photographs, we see our
friends, our workmates, our neighbours and our sons," he said.
"We are the same people,
possessed of the same courage, the same determination, the same spirit.
Within us all is carried the seed of Anzac."
For London-based Australian
backpackers Alan Bate, 24, and Karina Maddison, 23, the pilgrimage to
Gallipoli was something they always wanted to do.
"I was always hoping for the
opportunity to come and look around to try and get a sense of what
happened here," Mr Bate said.
For Vietnam veteran Dennis Gist, of
Melbourne, the pilgrimage had a more personal link. He came to find the
grave of his great-uncle, who landed on Anzac Day and died two days later
at Quinn's Post.
After four days at Gallipoli, he
has achieved his goal. "I found his grave and went up there to lay
some flowers," Mr Gist said. "It was quite extraordinary."
Neville Fowler, 28, of Darwin,
typified the attitude of many in the crowd. "I think this is
something we all should do," he said. Mr Fowler was keen to follow
another Anzac tradition when he pulled a two-up stick from his backpack
after the service.
"I'm looking for any takers
now," he said. - AAP
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