SUTHERLAND Shire’s new memorial to Australian service personnel and their families, the Woronora Military Memorial, was officially opened by NSW Governor David Hurley last Thursday August 6, on the centenary of the Battle of Lone Pine.
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Several hundred people gathered just before sunset for the ceremony which concluded with a whistle blown at 5.30pm to mark the exact time the diggers left the trenches and the Battle of Lone Pine commenced.
The battle resulted in 2277 Australian casualties and 6400 Turkish casualties.
One-hundred years later and half-a-world away, a gift of two saplings, a ‘‘Lone Pine’’ which has a direct heritage to pine cones gathered by diggers on the battlefield in Turkey, and a Wollemi Pine representing Australia, were presented by NSW Environment Minister and Cronulla MP Mark Speakman to the Turkish vice consul Cafer Akik as a symbol of friendship between both countries.
Nearby, the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish flags were at half-mast.
Standing inside the main gate of Woronora Memorial Park, the new memorial has a statue of a WWI digger with two children; his son holding up a note saying ‘‘Miss you Dad’’, and his daughter holding a poppy.
The memorial has three plaques honoring the three Victoria Cross recipients who rest or are commemorated at Woronora Memorial Park - John Patrick Hamilton, William Matthew Currey, and Walter Ernest Brown. (See photo gallery above).
A granite bench has been placed nearby to allow contemplation and Gallipoli roses have been placed in a granite pot.
Woronora Memorial Park chief executive officer Graham Boyd said the memorial was unique in that it incorporated children.
Mr Boyd was motivated to install the memorial after attending a state funeral at Woronora Memorial Park for an Army Commando killed in Afghanstan and watching his children releasing doves.
He wanted them and other families to have a place to come to in the future and know that the community supported them and shared in their loss.
NSW Governor David Hurley said remembrance is expressed in two ways, through memorials, such as the new one at Woronora, and through living memorials such as the pines saplings
Of all Australian soldiers killed in WWI, no identified bodies, except one, Major General William Bridges, were brought back to Australia, he said.
There were no graves. The memorials fulfilled the role of graves for grieving families.
Then there are living memorials, represented in the two pine trees, the saplings of the Gallipoli Lone Pine and a Wollemi pine.
Remembrance is also expressed through the 2277 small wooden crosses displayed at the memorial and made by the students of St Patrick’s Primary, Sutherland.
The crosses carry a message from the students — ‘‘We will remember them, Lest We Forget’’ — for Australian soldiers killed or wounded at Lone Pine.
They will be sent to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra who will send them to military cemeteries throughout the world.
