City of Newcastle's strong commitment to commemorating the Anzac spirit has continued in 2019 with a $100,000 Presenting Partner sponsorship ensuring the delivery of the second largest Anzac Dawn Service in Australia.
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City of Newcastle will provide a number of vital services to ensure the smooth delivery of this iconic event, including free Park and Ride services for Hunter residents eager to pay respects at this year's Nobbys Anzac Day Dawn Service.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes announced the free park and ride service and a $75,000 sponsorship of Anzac Day events ahead of today's Combined Schools Anzac Service.
"The Anzac spirit will never be diminished among Hunter residents and the City is proud to be Presenting Partner with a $75,000 sponsorship to the City of Newcastle RSL Sub-Branch for the Dawn Service at Nobbys Beach, the march from Hunter St Mall and the United Commemoration Service in Civic Park as major events for the region," the Lord Mayor said.
"Large numbers are once again expected at both the 5am Dawn Service and 9am march, so we are pleased to provide Novocastrians with a free park and ride option by funding the $20,000 cost of the service. We strongly encourage anyone intending to attend Anzac Day events to take advantage of it or to link up with the early light rail services."
City of Newcastle RSL Sub-Branch President Ken Fayle said he expected the Anzac Spirit to remain resurgent into a second century, a year after the Centenary commemorations ended.
"I'd like to thank the Lord Mayor for the City's ongoing support and ensuring the Dawn Service continues to honour all war veterans, and I expect Hunter residents will turn out en masse once again in 2019, 104 years after the legend was born," Mr Fayle said. "I'm proud to say we've exceeded our wildest expectations since we relocated the Dawn Service from Civic Park to Nobbys in the year 2000, and we're grateful to both the City and Keolis Downer for further strengthening what is now a fine tradition."
The Lord Mayor also announced the City's $10,000 sponsorship of the schools event held at Civic Theatre today.
The combined schools performance, the first of 16 commemorations across the city in 2019, saw Hunter schoolkids come together for the 64th consecutive year.
"Organised by year-11 students from public, Catholic and Independent schools, this year's theme is peace keepers and peace keeping telling the story of local veteran peace keeper Major Pete Green OM", Combined Schools Anzac Service Secretary Michael Voorbij said.
"The Combined Schools Anzac Service is highly regarded by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, educators and the broader community. With the City of Newcastle's ongoing support, this event proves the relevance of Anzac Day shall not weary."
Park and Ride & Public Transport
Buses will depart McDonald Jones Stadium for Queens Wharf from 3.30am, just as the light rail begins from Wickham, thanks to Newcastle Transport's decision to start services earlier than normal to transport Dawn Service crowds.
Information on Park and Ride services and Newcastle Transport services is available at newcastletransport.info.
Book Launch
A book about the World War One experiences of Newcastle dentist Ben Champion, who returned from Europe an amputee, will be launched at Newcastle Library on Tuesday 30 April.
Ben and his Mates The war diaries, letters and photographs of Lieutenant Ben Champion 1st AIF, 1915-1920 is a comprehensive and moving wartime account of the adopted Novocastrian, who wrote devotedly to his sweetheart Francis Julia Niland (Frank) from Tarro.
Written by his granddaughter Penny Ferguson, it includes Champion's diary entries, letters and photographs documenting his time in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) 7th Reinforcements of the 1st Battalion.
"We are honoured to launch this book at Newcastle Library to add to the local history of World One," City Manager of Libraries and Learning Suzie Gately said.
"It's difficult today to even imagine the carnage that Dr Champion witnessed in Gallipoli and the Western Front, so it's edifying to be able to reflect on it all through the eyes of someone who was there in Egypt, in Gallipoli, at Pozieres and the Somme."
When he returned from the war, the Sydney-born Champion studied dentistry at Sydney University, despite having his leg amputated following a severe shrapnel injury on the Western front (read below extract), before moving to Newcastle in 1924 to set up practice in the AMP Building on Hunter Street.
He's still remembered today by patients he helped over 50 years and is also well known as an avid historian who recorded Newcastle's early history.
Still referenced today, Champion's collections are held at the Newcastle Library and the University of Newcastle. Ferguson's book contains invaluable social commentary of the war and subsequent years as veterans returned home and assimilated back into society.
She hopes it will help preserve Australia's wartime heritage, as readers experience the enormity and insanity of World War One through the voice of an 18-year-old soldier.
"The book is different to many books written on WW1," Ferguson said. "The story is written in the first person by a young, middle-class boy brought up in a close-knit family.
"It references life and attitudes of the time, his relationships with his peers, his experiences as he embarks to Egypt, life in the trenches and then life back home, learning to assimilate back into society. Ben also wrote about the seasons, the songs they were singing and the books he was reading in the trenches."
- Diary extract from the day Champion's leg was amputated:
At 4pm on this day I finished my Cooks tour of the war. Stobo and I were looking around seeing out platoons were comfortable. We had been resting around the hedges of Pradelles all the morning which were occasionally being shelled when I was hit on the left leg at the shin and knocked over and turned me the other way... Four stretcher bearers took me at once to Borre dressing station and an ambulance from there took me immediately to Ebbingham, the orderly watching the tourniquet on my thigh all the time. The only thing I remember is an argument between chaps as to which station owned the tourniquet on my leg and I ventured to hope they would not take it away while I was needing it. I was operated on and in bed at 6pm. My next waking thoughts were in the clearing station ward, where I found out that my leg had been amputated.
The book will be launched at Newcastle Library on Tuesday 30 April at 10.30am.