The Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, and the Special Minister of State, Senator Michael Ronaldson, have delivered speeches at ANZAC Day services overseas.
Ronaldson, who is also the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC, spoke at the Gallipoli Dawn Service and the Lone Pine Service, in Turkey.
Bishop spoke at the Dawn Service at Villers-Brettonneux, in France. [Read more…]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has delivered ANZAC Day speeches at Gallipoli.
Minister Warren Snowdon spoke at ceremonies at Villers-Brettoneux in France.
This is the text of the speech delivered at Lone Pine, Gallipoli, by the Minister for Defence, Senator Robert Hill.
Speech by Defence Minister Robert Hill at Lone Pine, Gallipoli.
We gather at this now peaceful spot to honour all those who served and those who never returned from battlefields like these. On this day we remember the loss of so many Australians and the grief that their deaths caused in so many homes.
Lone Pine has a special place in the hearts of Australians. At this place some of the harshest fighting of the Gallipoli campaign took place. Given a near impossible task, the ANZACs managed to capture this position, though at a dreadful cost.
The attack tied up significant Turkish forces and incidentally helped our friends from New Zealand who were attempting to take Chunuk Bair, just a few kilometres north of here. [Read more…]
Speeches by Federal Treasurer Peter Costello at the ANZAC Day services at Gallipoli, Turkey.
5.30am – Dawn Service at ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey.
As we stand here, with the light about to break, we wonder what they must have felt as they looked out from their landing ships and thought about what lay before them.
They were volunteers. They were young. They were half a world away from their homes. And the balance of their lives lay before them.
They would have been anxious, nervous, frightened yet exhilarated. Many had joined up out of a sense of adventure. And now the landing was about to begin. How would it go for them? And how would it go for the men of the ANZAC Corps? [Read more…]