ANZAC Day

25 April (ANZAC Day)
Sydney
Sunny and Breezy

Today we saw a portion of the ANZAC Day March in Sydney, and then spent the reminder of the day at the Taronga Zoo. It was also a day to acquaint the students with Sydney's subway system and the ferries. And what a fun day it was, too!

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and constituted the main contribution of the Australians to the British efforts in WWI. "Diggers" (the nickname the ANZACs earned) fought in the major campaigns throughout Europe, but it is their service in the battle of Gallipoli that the people of Australia remember the most.

The Gallipoli Peninsula lies between the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles, the straits that lead to Constantinople (as it was named then). Whoever controlled Gallipoli controlled the strait, so if the British could take the peninsula, they could then send ships in to assault the stronghold of the Turks. The role of the ANZACs was to attempt to take the bluffs held by the Turks. Of course, the enemy was dug into the hilltops, and could spray the slopes with machine gun fire and shell many of the positions on the beaches. It would be a tough fight.

On April 25, 1915, the ANZAC troops landed at what would come to be called ANZAC Cove. They dug trenches into the hillside, slowly making their way up the hill. Several of the skirmishes of the battle have become legendary themselves; in particular, the high-water mark of the battle occurred at Lone Pine and the Nek, two attempts at assaulting the Turkish trenches that proved to be especially bloody -- and unnecessary, since they were intended as diversions to permit a British landing that actually went unchallenged before the assaults began. In all, about 8000 ANZAC troops were killed in the battle.

The objective of taking the Turkish trenches was impossible, and though they never achieved it, the heroic character of the ANZACs, and by extension all the Australian military, became evident to soldiers everywhere. ANZAC Day began as a day of remembrance for these particular soldiers. Over the years, it has evolved into a day of remembrance for all Australian veterans; it thus plays a role similar to the one played by our own Memorial Day. Because it occurs in late autumn here, ANZAC Day will often turn into a long weekend for families during which they might plan their last getaway before winter; it thus bears some resemblance as well to our Labor Day.

We arrived at the parade shortly before it began at 9 am and stayed about an hour. The march was a lot more festive than the rainy one I saw last year, and the students were very happy to cheer right along with the Australians. Many marching bands throughout, along with just about every military unit imaginable. Not only were combats units represented, but all the support units: intelligence, hospital, communications, and many others.

But this march in Sydney lasts over four hours, and we had other things to do. We left a little after 10 am for our visit to Taronga Zoo.

The Zoo has changed a bit since last year's visit, with a remodeled entrance and a new venue for the seal show, but many of the familiar things were still in place. In particular, we all attended the free flight bird show. Most of the birds in the show were predators, but there were a few galahs, cockatoos, and other parrots in minor roles. The star of the show is an Andean condor; with a wingspan of about 10 feet, it is quite an impressive sight -- especially when it flies just a few inches over your head!

The Zoo has many other pleasant features: walk-through enclosures for encounters with kangaroos, wallabies, emus, and tropical birds; darkened halls for the night animals; a play area for families with children; and many others.

Including a seal show! In past years, we would leave the Zoo at 1:30 and head over to the Sydney Aquarium, but I found it to be too crowded and hectic last year, and so decided to drop it from this year's course, and simply letting the students spend more time at the Zoo to compensate. So, I got a chance to see the seal show, at which they introduce the audience to several seal, some from Australian water and some from elsewhere. The seals are very smart, capable of many complicated behaviors. One jumped from the later and did an aerial summersault; another balanced a ball on its nose, yet another waved to the crowd with its flippers.

We broke up for the day at the zoo; some students staying to visit the other animals, others going off on new adventures. I came back to the hotel to write this journal and to plan tomorrow's Blue Mountain Adventure.