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 | Anzac DayPhotos from various Anzac day parades and ceremonies that I have attended. |
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anzac_day_centenary_brisbane_saturday_25th_april_2015
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On the early morning of Sunday the 25th April 1915, soldiers of the Australian New Zealand Army Corps -- ANZACs landed on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula at a location that would become known as Anzac Cove. British troops landed at the peninsula's southern tip along with other troops from within the British Empire/Commonwealth and France with the ultimate objective of securing the Dardanelles Strait, thus leaving the way clear for the British Navy to assault Constantinople or modern day Istanbul, knocking Germany's Turkish ally out of the war. However, due to terrible planning, old inaccurate French maps from the 1860s and gross underestimation of the Turks by the British top brass, the operation was a disaster with its only success being the remarkably concealed and well executed withdrawal of 80,000 Allied troops just under eight months later. From this disaster however was formed the ANZAC legend, with many of the Gallipoli Anzacs covering themselves in glory later on at the Western Front in France such as the critical battle on yes, ANZAC day, 1918 in the French village of Villers Bretonneaux, which played such a pivotal role in breaking the dreaded trench stalemate of the Western Front. Throughout the country there were major ceremonies to commemorate this event, along with dawn ceremonies on Anzac Cove in Gallipoli and Villers Bretonneaux in France. In Brisbane, I attended my first ANZAC Dawn service at 4:28am and stayed on for the street parade which commenced just after 9:30am, lasting almost three hours which I was able to photograph from a street overpass traversing Adelaide Street. However, after the Dawn service, and waiting in line, I climbed the Shrine of Remembrance with its Eternal Flame and references to the battles of WWI that the Aussie Diggers fought in such as the aforementioned Villers Bretonneaux in France and Jerusalem and Damascus in the Middle East and the Hindenburg Line which was Germany's famous last fortress or line of defence which the Diggers participated in breaching in 1918. For me, a monumentally moving day that will forever live on in my consciousness. Their memory liveth for eternity, and thus, the dead diggers of Gallipoli, will never be forgotten.
200 files, last one added on Apr 26, 2015
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| EuropePhotos of my visits to Europe |
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|  |  | Western Europe 2004In August 2004, on my first ever visit to Europe, I arrived in Cologne Germany where I was picked up by my Dad's cousin Edmund for a two week stay in and around Geilenkirchen, about 60Km west as the crow flies from Cologne. Geilenkirchen is less than 10Km east of the Dutch border and less than 30Km north of the Belgian border, so on this two week visit I got to visit three countries, sometimes even on the same day, including the "Dreilandenpunkt" or "Three lands point" of Germany, Holland and Belgium. Then in early September 2004, I arrived in Poland on the Berlin-Warsaw Express Train, for a ten month stint teaching English in the country of my ancestors. A wonderful experience from which I made friends for life. |
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|  |  | Poland 2004-2005This is where I spent the bulk of my stay in Europe in 2004/2005. To live and work in the country of my ancestors was a most wonderful and rewarding experience. I spent time equally with other foreign teachers as well as Polish people which enriched my experience no end, and has left me with wonderful and indelible memories. While my home base of Radom, just 90Km south of Warsaw, seemed at times to have an image problem, I can never really denigrate the town. I had an amazing social life there, and despite the 30% unemployment, the fact that I was a native English speaker, meant that in this town of 300 000, with its 36 language schools, I never had trouble finding work, unlike in Australia. The great irony is that while my grandparents left Poland in September 1924 for Germany, due to lack of work in Poland, almost eighty years to the day, on the Berlin-Warsaw Express I crossed the same border in the opposite direction due to my inability to find MEANINGFUL FULL-TIME PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT in Australia. |
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|  |  | Polish Holiday 2008This is the Polish leg of our Holiday 2008, from mid May to just before mid June 2008. A wonderful re-visit of my Polish roots. Starting with Gdansk, in Poland's north on the Baltic Sea, we gradually covered Poland to its southern extremity at the beautiful mountain town of Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains on the Slovakian border. |
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 | Gold Coast HinterlandAlbums from my bush walking and visits to the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland just inland from the Gold Coast. This region is only a couple of hours drive south of Brisbane, and its southern extremity straddles the New South Wales/Queensland state border where, from the Border Track you are afforded magnificent views looking south atop 600 metre high cliff faces. A world treasure. |
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Fifteen days after my bush walk with Adrian to the beautiful Coomera Falls, which partly involved trekking along the Border Track, this time I did my entire walk, namely a 30Km walk from Binna Burra to Wanungara Lookout and back to Binna Burra along the Border Track. Wanungara Lookout is actually just inside New South Wales (NSW), although the only possible way I see to get to it is from the Queensland side of the state border, as getting to it from within NSW would involve scaling a 500 metre or so high cliff which basically marks the state border. Most of the Border Track follows this huge cliff face, and I stopped several times at various lookouts, including Mount Merino for lunch for spectacular views looking south into NSW, with Mount Warning 15Km away in the distance being most prominent. While having lunch, I was only two metres or so from the cliff face, but this offered me magnificent photo opportunities and time to take in and reflect on the awe inspiring panorama of this World Heritage area, on this beautiful early spring day.
197 files, last one added on Apr 22, 2012
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 | Far North Coast of New South WalesThe beautiful Far North Coast of New South Wales adjoins the Gold Coast and Gold Coast Hinterland to the south. From the Border Track on the southern edge of the Gold Coast Hinterland you have magnificent views to the south over the Queensland/New South Wales border of the beautiful Tweed River Valley, the soil of which has been enriched by the volcanic eruptions of the magnificent Mount Warning, an extinct shield volcano for the past 23 million years. Mount Warning, also known to the Aboriginals as Wollumbin (Cloud Catcher), is the world's largest and oldest extinct volcano, standing at an elevation of about 1200 metres above sea level. At the time of its last eruption 23 million years ago, it was about twice its present height. |
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| TaiwanPhotos of my visits to Taiwan |
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|  |  | Taiwanese Holiday 2008From late April to mid June 2008 Sonia and I embarked on a magnificent seven week holiday to Taiwan and then Poland. These albums cover the Taiwanese leg of our holiday 2008. |
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| Farm and Nambucca ValleyMy Dad's old farm is situated in the beautiful Nambucca Valley, halfway between Sydney and Brisbane on the New South Wales mid North Coast. The Nambucca Valley and its surrounding regions have some of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, none perhaps more so than at Nambucca Heads at the mouth of the Nambucca River. My wife and I were married in 2005 in Macksville in the Nambucca Valley, and we had our reception at the Nambucca River Island Golf Club in Nambucca Heads. Macksville is also where I attended high school from the mid to late 70s. |
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 | BrisbanePhotos of the Brisbane Metropolitan Area. One album is taken from a whole day cruise on the City Cat along the Brisbane River. A wonderful showcase of this beautiful city. |
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| Sunshine Coast and surroundsThe beautiful Sunshine Coast and its surrounds just two hours drive or less north of Brisbane. Places such as Bribie Island, Donnybrook and Redcliffe are included, although not technically part of the Sunshine Coast, are on the fringe between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. In the Sunshine Coast Hinterland are the beautiful and imposing Glass House Mountains. |
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 | Sydney HarbourPhotos of Sydney Harbour, the most beautiful harbour in the world. |
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|  |  | Perth Easter 2013Photos of our trip to Perth and surrounds including Rottnest Island in and around Easter 2013 |
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13440 files in 112 albums and 23 categories with 1749 comments viewed 815763 times |