A NATION BECOMES AUSTRALIA (Part Two)
It’s been mentioned to me that the title of the ANZAC article might have raised some questions, so as a form of clarification, I’ll explain why I worded it in that manner.
I used it as a sort of play on words, but one that goes directly to the heart of the matter.
Australia was settled by the English as a penal colony in 1788, and each year we celebrate that exact date on the 26th January, Australia Day, our National Day.
That first fleet took eight and a half months to get here in 11 ships, mostly containing 780 male and female convicts.
Also in that fleet were their guards, officers, and men to set up the penal colony, (who also brought their families with them) and the ships crews, led by Arthur Phillip, an English Naval Captain, who was also the first Governor of Australia.
It took a number of years before settlers actually sailed out from England, and nearly all the convicts were sentenced to one of three terms, 7 years imprisonment, 14 years imprisonment or transportation for the term of their natural lives. In all reality, every prisoner who came here stayed here, because it wasn’t like at the end of your term, you just hopped a ship and sailed back to England, so they all either stayed here as convicts or settled here when they were released.
Australia stayed as an outpost colony of England, mostly as a penal colony, because convicts were transported right up until 1868.
Australia officially became a nation, and no longer a colony, when the 6 States Federated into one nation. We were still part of the British Commonwealth and still are to this day, but we officially became the Commonwealth of Australia on January 1st 1901.
So even though at the time of that first ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, Australia as a country was 14 years old, it was the first time an Army had been raised under the heading of Australia, as before that, we were always just the colony of six States, and our units served under the British. Australia has a proud military history in the tribal wars in Africa in the middle years of the 1850’s/60’s, and then the Boer War in South Africa around the last years of the 1890’s.
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Gallipoli in Turkey from space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli
However, at Gallipoli, instead of being an adjunct of the British Army, we served under our own Officers as Australia. When news got out of the landing, it was not just English forces landing at Helles and on the Peninsula, but the English landing at Helles, and the headlines were all about the Australians at Gallipoli, and the bravery of that (comparatively) small force against such huge odds.
So at ANZAC Cove, a former convict penal colony of Britain became the nation of Australia, when we stood on our own two feet as Australians and not just British subjects.
It is often misunderstood why a Nation would even want to commemorate what was in all reality a huge failure, but that is missing the whole point. People pointed to the campaign at Gallipoli and noticed how Australians were doing such a valiant job. Not how the battles were going badly for the English forces, but looking at Australia as a separate entity.
Australians finally had something to be proud of. Proud of the fact that they were being recognised as AUSTRALIA.
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This is the scene from the service at ANZAC Cove Gallipoli at 4.30 AM Friday (Local time)
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This is the scene from the 4.30 AM (Local Time) service at Villers Bretonneux France, the first Australian dawn service held here at one of the sites of the numerous significant Australian battles during the Western Front campaign on the Somme from 1916 to 1918.
The following two photo galleries are courtesy of the ABC Australia Network. The gallery can be paused on individual photographs by using the arrow buttons, and for the text to each photograph, hover the mouse over the photograph and the text will display at the bottom of the photo.
This picture gallery shows images form the remembrance services in Australia.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2008/04/25/2227198.htm
Here’s also a picture gallery of photographs from that original first landing.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2008/04/22/2224268.htm
