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G'dayAll

Today April 25th is Anzac Day in Australia

ANZAC Day - 25 April

- is probably Australia's most important national occasion.

It marks the anniversary of the first major

military action fought by Australian and New Zealand

forces during the First World War.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The soldiers in those forces quickly

became known as ANZACs,

and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

As your reading this, take a quiet moment,

60 seconds of silence is all

just a short time to remember

A MINUTE

to remember the

1. 500,000 Australians who've served in 13 wars

The 225,000 who were wounded

And the 100,000 who never made it back

Consider the sacrifice they made

for all of us

So we the lucky ones

can be sitting here reading this

A scence played out in dawn rememberance
dawn sevices across the country today




the Diggers famous slouch hat

The Unknown Soldier
The original unknown soldier was entombed in

Westminster Abbey in London on 11 November 1920.

His body was selected by a blindfolded brigadier

from six that had been recovered from

all the major Western Front battlefields.

He was assumed to have been British

but could have been a Canadian, a New Zealander, or even an Australian,

and was intended to represent all the young men

of the British Empire killed during the Great War.

An unknown French soldier was buried under

the Arc de Triomphe on the same day

and several other allied nations

soon entombed unknown soldiers of their own.
Plans for an Australian unknown soldier

were first put forward in the 1920s

but it was not until 1993 that an unknown Australian

was at last brought home.

To mark the 75th anniversary

of the end of the First World War,

the body of an unknown Australian soldier

was recovered from Adelaide Cemetery

near Villers-Bretonneaux in France

and transported to Australia .

After lying in state in King's Hall in Parliament House,

he was interred in the Hall of Memory

at the Australian War Memorial on 11 November 1993.

The unknown Australian soldier was buried

in a Tasmanian blackwood coffin

with a slouch hat and a sprig of wattle,

and soil from the Pozieres battlefield was scattered in his tomb.
The unknown soldier represents

all Australians who have been killed in war.

Thousands at PNG Anzac service
From correspondents in Port Moresby
April 25, 2007
THOUSANDS of people, including hundreds

of Kokoda Track walkers,

attended a dawn Anzac Day service

at the Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby today.
Candles, a school choir and a PNG Defence Force

honour guard featured in the service

held on a slope above rows of white tombstones

marking the graves of Australians

and other Allied troops who died in PNG during WWII.
The service was attended by

PNG Governor-General Paulias Matane,

Australian High Commissioner Chris Moraitis,

other diplomats, Australian and PNG war veterans

and a good portion of Port Moresby's

Australian and New Zealand expatriate population.
Meanwhile, more than 200 Australian trekkers

attended a dawn service on the Kokoda Track,

at the Isurava Memorial,

after they timed their walk to be there for Anzac Day.
The track was the scene of bloody fighting

between Australian and Japanese soldiers in 1942

and is becoming increasingly popular with Australian trekkers.




Beaconsfield miners mark Anzac Day

April 25, 2007
THE two survivors of the Beaconsfield mine disaster

were at an Anzac Day dawn service in the

small Tasmanian town today,

a year after the mine collapse that killed their mate.
Miner Larry Knight, 44, died and Todd Russell and Brant Webb

became trapped when a seismic incident

caused a rock fall at the gold mine about 9.30pm (AEST),

on Anzac Day last year.
Mr Russell and Mr Webb were trapped underground for two weeks.
The people of Beaconsfield will commemorate

the disaster on May 9,

the anniversary of the day the pair was rescued.
West Tamar mayor Barry Easther

said the date was chosen in consultation with the RSL,

the local council and the Anzac Day committee.
He said May 9 was a poignant choice.
"That was the day Larry Knight was laid to rest

and the day that Brant Webb and

Todd Russell were rescued," he said.
"We didn't want to complicate Anzac Day

with thoughts about the rock fall that happened

in the evening (of April 25) last year."
Mr Easther said the May 9 commemoration

would include a service to remember Mr Knight.
Mr Webb and Mr Russell still live in Beaconsfield

and both have no plans to move away.
Mr Easther said the mine was still

on the minds of everyone in the town.
"Anzac Day brings back unforgettable memories

of what happened at 9.23pm on April 25 last year," he said.
He said the town was coping well a year on.
"We are a vibrant community

and we have been blessed with large numbers

of visitors coming here because

of the mine and what happened.
"People from all over the world have been touched

by the story that came out of Beaconsfield

and they feel a real need to visit

the place where it all happened."
About 100 people gathered at the Beaconsfield Cenotaph

this morning to mark Anzac Day.