Year 11 and 12 Modern History Excursion

Year 11 and 12 Modern History students travelled to the Australian capital, Canberra, to visit various historical sites around the city. In the HSC, these students will discuss 50% of their course with just two conflicts, the First and Second World Wars. In order to gain a more ‘hands-on’ knowledge of these two events, it was decided by teachers of Year 11 and 12 Modern History to take their classes to visit the Australian War Memorial.

Having not been to the War Memorial for a period of 15 years, I found that so much within the Memorial had changed but the remembrance and commemorative aspect was just as strong. The War Memorial was founded by Charles Bean, a man who had reported from the trenches of both Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War. It was his vision to have a sacred place that the Australian public could visit to remember the sacrifices their loved ones had made for their country. His vision had nothing to do with glorifying war and so the Memorial stands as a place to remember, not to celebrate. The 60,000 or so men that fell on the battlefields of Turkey, Belgium and France did not have their bodies returned to Australia and so places of remembrance became even more important at the end of this conflict. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents all the men who fought and died overseas in this first major conflict of the 20th century and it stands at the end of the Roll of Honour, where the names of the men and women who have died in all Australia’s conflicts from the Boer War until the present conflict in Iraq are listed. I found the names of the men from Belar Creek who joined and never returned from the First World War on the Roll of Honour and, on a more personal note, the name of my grandmother’s uncle, Robert Henry Weir, who had been killed by shell-fire in May 1917. All these men received red poppies next to their name as a symbol of remembrance for their sacrifice so that we might live the life we do today.

Both the Year 11 and 12 students received hour-long professional tours through the Memorial on both Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th April. The Thursday session took the students through the First World War section of the Memorial and introduced the students to the dioramas which are representative of the various battles fought by Australian soldiers. These tours took in and explained details that the students would have otherwise have missed, such as the complete kit from a soldier of the First World War and the story behind its appropriation. Charles Bean experienced the same deprivations as the frontline soldiers, even if he did none of the actual fighting. His role was to speak to the soldiers, document the battles and send reports back to Australia as Australia’s official war correspondent. Before the war ended, he already had the idea of a memorial in his head and he knew he would need something physical to show people in this memorial, with so many thousands of graves not accessible for the majority of Australians. He asked an Australian frontline soldier for his complete kit, something that he had worn for the good part of three years of fighting. The deal was only secured when a completely new kit, including new underwear (his first in some years) was offered in return. This man’s kit now stands as a display, complete with the mud from the battlefield and serves as a poignant reminder of the hardships these men had to endure.

Friday’s session at the War Memorial centred on Australia’s conflict in the Pacific with the Japanese during the Second World War. Students were directed through the galleries and investigated the much more technological war that occurred between 1939 and 1945. One of the historical debates that students may be asked about in the HSC focuses on the use of the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan, and the fact that this technology was used not once but twice in order to do so. Students spent some time looking at film archives, documents and artefacts surrounding this debate. Students experienced the sound and light show ‘G for George’ which takes viewers through a RAF bombing raid on Berlin in the final years of the war. The Australian War Memorial also offers a more physical experience of warfare through their ‘Discovery Zone’ where our students were able to get dressed in replicas of uniforms and walk through true-to-size submarines and First World War trenches.

Although it was a long way to travel, all students and teachers on the excursion agreed that the experience gained was most valuable and most definitely memorable. Both myself and Narelle Pfeiffer, our School Chaplain who accompanied us on the excursion, would like to commend all the Year 11 and 12 students for their behaviour. At all times, they carried themselves with good manners and grace, proving yet again that Coonabarabran and Coonabarabran High instil in their young people the value of these virtues.

N.Bell