Beginnings of ANZAC Day

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Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

 The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs.

The pride they took in that name endures to this day, and Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand.

When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a Federal Commonwealth for only thirteen years.

In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies.

The plan was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany.

The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders.

 What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months.

At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships.

Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy.

 The creation of what became known as an "Anzac legend" became an important part of the national identity in both countries. This shaped the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

On 30 April 1915, when the first news of the landing reached New Zealand, a half-day holiday was declared and impromptu services were held.

The following year a public holiday was gazetted on 5 April and services to commemorate were organised by the returned servicemen.

The date, 25 April, was officially named Anzac Day in 1916; in that year it was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services in Australia and New Zealand, a march through London, and a sports day for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers in Egypt.

The tiny New Zealand community of Tinui, near Masterton in the Wairarapa was apparently the first place in New Zealand to have an Anzac Day service, when the then vicar led an expedition to place a large wooden cross on the Tinui Taipos (a 1200ft high large hill/mountain, behind the village) in April 1916 to commemorate the dead.

A service was held on the 25th of April of that year.

In 2006 the 90th Anniversary of the event was celebrated with a full twenty-one gun salute fired at the service by soldiers from the Waiouru Army Camp.

 In London, over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched through the streets of the city.

A London newspaper headline dubbed them "The Knights of Gallipoli".

Marches were held all over Australia in 1916; wounded soldiers from Gallipoli attended the Sydney march in convoys of cars, accompanied by nurses.

Over 2,000 people attended the service in Rotorua.

 For the remaining years of the war, Anzac Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns, and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in most cities.

 From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and New Zealand, Anzac services were held on or about 25 April, mainly organised by returned servicemen and school children in cooperation with local authorities.

Anzac Day was gazetted as a public holiday in New Zealand in 1920, through the Anzac Day Act, after lobbying by the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association, the RSA.

 In Australia at the 1921 State Premiers' Conference, it was decided that Anzac Day would be observed on 25 April each year.

However, it was not observed uniformly in all the States.

One of the traditions of Anzac Day is the 'gunfire breakfast' (coffee with rum added), which occurs shortly after many dawn ceremonies.

During the 1920s, Anzac Day became established as a National Day of Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders who died during the war.

The first year in which all the States observed some form of public holiday together on Anzac Day was 1927.

By the mid-1930s, all the rituals now associated with the day — dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly two-up games — became part of Australian Anzac Day culture.

New Zealand commemorations also adopted many of these rituals, with the dawn service being introduced from Australia in 1939.

With the coming of the Second World War, Anzac Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives of Australians and New Zealanders lost in that war as well and in subsequent years, the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include those killed in all the military operations in which the countries have been involved.

Anzac Day was first commemorated at the Australian War Memorial in 1942, but due to government orders preventing large public gatherings in case of Japanese air attack; it was a small affair and was neither a march nor a memorial service.

Anzac Day has been annually commemorated at the Australian War Memorial ever since.

Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as a ceremonial occasion. Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing, across both nations.

Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centers.

 Commemorative ceremonies are held at war memorials around both countries.

 It is a day when Australians and New Zealanders reflect on war.

After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn.

With symbolic links to the dawn landing at Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a common form of Anzac Day remembrance during the 1920s.

The first official dawn service was held at the Sydney Cenotaph in 1927.

Dawn services were originally very simple and followed the operational ritual; in many cases they were restricted to veterans only.

The daytime ceremony was for families and other well-wishers and the dawn service was for returned soldiers to remember and reflect among the comrades with whom they shared a special bond.

Before dawn the gathered veterans would be ordered to "stand-to" and two minutes of silence would follow.

At the start of this time a lone bugler would play "The Last Post" and then concluded the service with "Reveille".

In more recent times the families and young people have been encouraged to take part in dawn services, and services in Australian capital cities have seen some of the largest turnouts ever.

Reflecting this change, the ceremonies have become more elaborate, incorporating hymns, readings, pipers and rifle volleys.

Others, though, have retained the simple format of the dawn stand-to, familiar to so many soldiers.

Each year the commemorations follow a pattern that is familiar to generations of Australians.

A typical Anzac Day service contains the following features: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, the playing of "The Last Post", a minute of silence, "Reveille", and the playing of both New Zealand and Australian national anthems.

At the Australian War Memorial, following events such as the Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services, families often place red poppies beside the names of relatives on the Memorial's Roll of Honour.

In Australia sprigs of rosemary are often worn on lapels and in New Zealand poppies have taken on this role.

 

Climate change science isn't settled

Jan Veizer | April 24, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

MANY people think the science of climate change is settled. It isn't. And the issue is not whether there has been an overall warming during the past century. There has, although it was not uniform and none was observed during the past decade. The geologic record provides us with abundant evidence for such perpetual natural climate variability, from icecaps reaching almost to the equator to none at all, even at the poles.

The climate debate is, in reality, about a 1.6 watts per square metre or 0.5 per cent discrepancy in the poorly known planetary energy balance.

Let me explain.

Without our atmosphere, the Earth would be a frozen ice ball. Natural greenhouse warming, due to atmospheric blanket, raises the temperature by about 33C. At least two-thirds of this warming is attributed to the greenhouse effect of water vapour.

Water vapour, not carbon dioxide, is by far the most important greenhouse gas. Yet the models treat the global water cycle as just being there, relegating it to a passive agent in the climate system. Energy that is required to drive the water cycle and generate more water vapour must therefore come from somewhere else: the sun, man-made greenhouse gases, other factors or any combination of the above.

Note, however, that because of the overwhelming importance of water vapour for the greenhouse effect, existing climate models are unlikely to yield a definitive answer about the role of carbon dioxide v the sun, for example, and the answer must be sought in past records.

The past climate record does indeed resemble the trend in solar output. However, because three decades of satellite data show only limited variability, the solar output would have to be somehow amplified to explain the entire magnitude of the centennial warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change argues that because no amplifier is known, and because the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide did increase from 280 parts per million to 370ppm, man-made greenhouse gases must be responsible for most of the energy imbalance.

But this is an assumption, an attribution by default, not an actual empirical or experimental proof that carbon dioxide is the driver. Yet such attribution is then taken as a fact in the subsequent complex model calibrations of climate sensitivity to CO2.

If, however, an amplifier to solar output does exist, and empirical observations detailed below argue for its existence, the need to attribute the energy input to man-made greenhouse gases would diminish accordingly. So how realistic is the basic model assumption that the tiny - biologically controlled - carbon cycle drives the climate via the passively responding huge water cycle?

Nature tells us that it is the other way around. Surely, the blossoming of plants in the spring is the outcome, not the cause, of the warming sun and abundant rain.

Our atmosphere contains 730 billion tons of carbon as CO2. Each year about 120billion tonnes of carbon are cycled via plants on land and 90billion tonnes via oceans. Human emissions account for about seven billion to 10billion tonnes, or less than 5 per cent, of the annual CO2 flux.

From the point of view of interaction of the water and carbon cycles it is important to realise that for every unit of CO2 sequestered by a plant from the atmosphere almost 1000 units of water must be lifted from the roots to the leaf canopy and eventually evaporated back into the air.

The required huge energy source is the sun. Solar energy drives the water cycle, generating a warmer and wetter climate while invigorating the biological carbon cycle. The sun also warms the oceans that emit their CO2.

Atmospheric CO2 is thus the product and not the cause of the climate, as demonstrated by past records where temperature changes precede changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and fluxes: ice cores, the 1991 Mt Pinatubo volcanic eruption in the Philippines or seasonal oscillations are instructive examples.

But what might be the complementary source of energy that could account for the disputed 1.6W/m2?

Clouds are a mirror that reflects solar radiation back into space. The amount of solar energy reflected by the Earth is about 77W/m2 and the difference between cloudless and cloudy skies is about 28W/m2. Therefore a change of just a few per cent in cloudiness easily can account for the disputed energy discrepancy.

Clouds are an integral part of the sun-driven water cycle; however, formation of water droplets requires seeding and this is where solar amplification likely comes into play. Empirical and experimental results suggest that cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere may generate such initial seeds, particularly over the oceans. While the actual mechanisms are still debated, the correlations between cloudiness and cosmic ray flux already have been published.

The amplifying connection to the sun comes via its electromagnetic envelope, called the heliosphere, and a similar envelope around the Earth, the magnetosphere. These act as shields that screen the lethal cosmic rays from reaching our planet. A less active sun is not only colder but its heliospheric envelope shrinks, allowing more cosmic rays to reach our atmosphere and seed more clouds, and vice versa. Indeed, satellite data for the past decade shows a 25per cent shrinking of the heliosphere that is coincident with the halt, or even decline, in planetary temperature since 1998: a trend at odds with the ever rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

We also have direct evidence for the above scenario. Cosmic rays, when hitting the atmosphere, generate a cascade of cosmogenic nuclides that then rain down to the Earth's surface and can be measured in ice, trees, rocks and minerals. Such records over the past 10,000 years correlate well with the highly variable climate, while the contemporary concentrations of CO2, measured in ice cores, are flat around the low pre-industrial levels of 280ppm with no resemblance to climate trends.

These centennial to millennial correlations, coupled with direct observations of coincidence of cloudiness with cosmic rays and temperature in central Europe since 1978, argue that the sun and its amplifying mechanism must play a leading role in climate control even if the cosmic ray signal proves no more than an indirect measure of solar variability.

The science of climate change continues to evolve and regardless of the outcome of the climate debate, observational data suggests that we may be served well by basing our climate agenda, scientifically and economically, on a broader perspective than that in the IPCC outlined scenarios. Our pollution abatement and energy diversification goals could then be formulated, and likely implemented, with less pain.

Jan Veizer is a distinguished university professor of geology (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa and has researched the use of chemical and isotopic techniques in determining Earth's climatic history.

 

 

We are free because of their sacrifice

The National Editorial

 

THE Anzac tradition will again be in the spotlight tomorrow as Papua New Guineans join Australians and New Zealanders in remembering the sacrifices of the first Anzacs as well as those who laid down their lives in the service of their country in more recent conflicts around the globe.

Tomorrow, it will be 94 years since Australian and New Zealand troops waded ashore on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It was for many the final journey of their short lives.

Although it is nearly a century since the terrible events of Gallipoli, it is important for all of us to pause to reflect on the tragedy of war and conflict, which continue even in this seemingly peaceful time.

In the year since last Anzac Day, six Australian soldiers have died in action in Afghanistan, bringing the total to 10 since the start of that conflict in 2002, in the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.

That is the greatest loss of lives of Australian soldiers in war since the Vietnam War which ended more than three decades ago.

Australian defence personnel will gather at the Bomana war cemetery in Port Moresby at dawn tomorrow, joining their comrades at bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste for the traditional Anzac dawn services.

On the Gallipoli peninsula, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders will attend the traditional dawn service. Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith will represent his government. And in France, hundreds, many travelling across the English Channel from the UK, will gather for the service at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

Across Australia and New Zealand, tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out for the dawn services and Anzac Day services.

Australia’s biggest march occurs in Sydney with more than 20,000 veterans and their descendants expected to turn out.

Thousands of war veterans will re-live battles fought long ago in faraway lands – stories of courage, sacrifice and, ultimately, triumph against impossible odds.

They will also be remembering mates who never made it back, forever to lie in graves far from home. They will remember the misery, fear and suffering that war always inflicts.

Brisbane man George Palmer will remember the night he survived the nightmare on PNG’s Kokoda Track, thanks to what he says was a botched bombing.

The World War II veteran recalled the horrifying events yesterday. Japanese soldiers outnumbered the Aussie diggers of the 39th Battalion 10 to one at Kokoda, so artillery and US low-level bombers were called in to carpet-bomb their location, he says. Instead of the bombers targeting the enemy, they were mistakenly given the Australians’ location and Mr Palmer says they all thought they were about to die – from friendly fire.

“We could hear them, but we couldn’t see the planes,” he said.

“But the bombers ended up dropping the bombs five

miles out to sea.”

The off-target bombing and a hard-fought battle against the Japanese, with some timely help from the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, is how Mr Palmer lived to tell the tale, and to march in Brisbane tomorrow.

Here in PNG, those who fought and those who lived through World War II will have their own memories of the fateful events of that era. Soldiers from distant lands criss-crossing their homeland, causing massive devastation for reasons most of them could not fathom.

From the jungles and beaches of Rabaul and Wewak, from the mountains of Morobe to Kokoda, Guna, Bona and Sanananda, Papua New Guineans joined hands with the Australians to fight off the rampaging Japanese.

Few of the Fuzzy Wuzzies are left today, but those who are still with us and their descendants can take comfort in the knowledge that their sacrifice all those years ago allows us to live in freedom today.

The generous response from Papua New Guineans to the Victorian bushfire disaster earlier this year shows that an abundance of goodwill towards Australia continues to this day.

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare’s State visit to Australia next week will no doubt reinforce the already strong ties between our two nations, which had become strained during the previous Howard regime.

New Zealand also continues to play an active role in the development of PNG, particularly on troubled Bougainville.

So on the eve of this Anzac Day, we salute those who fought and died in battle, and acknowledge that we are forever indebted to them.

Another Australian dies on Kokoda Trail

Another Australian has died while walking the Kokoda Trrail in Papua New Guinea, ABC reports.

It is the second death in less than a week.

The Department of Foreign Affairs says a 26-year-old man from New South Wales died on the trail Wednesday.

No other details have been released.

Last Friday, 36-year-old Samantha Killen from Hamilton in Victoria's south-west collapsed and died, a day after setting off from Ower's Corner near Port Moresby.

Around 1,000 people, mostly Australians, are expected to tackle the 96-kilometre mountain trek in the lead up to Anzac Day.

The deaths are sure to cast a shadow over commemorations along the track.

 

Are we blind to the genocide of West Papuans?

Above are pictures of the treatment indigenous West Papuan people are receiving at the hands of Indonesian soldiers.
These inhumane acts are totally against fundamental human rights and against Christian principles.
It's so sad to see our brothers and sisters being brutalised in such inhuman actions.

And yet the silence of the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments to the genocide at their doorsteps is deafening!

 

Art exhibition

 

Nadzab Airport

Black dust, caused by burnt kunai grass, billows as a C-47 takes off

Bush materials lent themselves to a precarious but practical control tower

Douglas C-47 lands at Nadzab on September 11, 1943, while men sort out supplies dropped earlier

Within days of the September 5, 1943, landing, a major new airstrip had been laid

Nadzab, just before it was opened in late 1977

Continuing our series of articles on WW11 icons of Papua New Guinea in the lead-up to ANZAC Day, this time we fly to Nadzab Airport outside Lae...

Longtime Lae resident, the late Horace Niall, once predicted that Nadazab would one day become the main international airport for Papua New Guinea.
It hasn’t, as yet, however, is capable of receiving international flights and remains one of the busiest airports in the country.
Niall was one of those who helped to build Nadzab back in 1943 into one of the busiest airstrips of World War 11.
And he fondly recalls that Nadzab was almost in every respect an “international airport” in those days, with loudspeakers calling for passengers to Honolulu, Los Angeles, Australia and many other faraway places.
Nadzab fell into disuse after WW11, however, rose from the ashes of the war to be reopened in 1977 and eventually took over from Lae as the main airport.
“Having had so much to do with Nadzab, I was happy to hear in 1973 that it was to be made operational again,” Niall wrote in 1978.
“I doubt that it will ever be as busy as it was from late 1943 to 1945, but I have a feeling in my bones that one day it will become the main international airport for Papua New Guinea.”
The first airfield in the Nadzab area of the Morobe Province’s Markham Valley was established by the Lutheran Mission for use by small planes serving the mission station at Gabmatzung.
It was not used very often and, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, it soon became overgrown with dense kunai grass.
It was with the capture of Japanese-occupied Lae in mind that the Allied forces decided to use the Nadzab area as a landing craft for Dakota and other aircraft.
On September 5, 1943, about 1600 men of the 503rd American Parachute Infantry Regiment, with an Australian battery of 25-pounders, were dropped at Nadzab.
The Americans were in 82 Dakota transports, the Australian gunners in five.
Before the attack, part of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, with a Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) company and an Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) detachment with almost 1000 Papua New Guineans as carriers and labourers, had been assembled at Tsili Tsili airstrip in the Lower Watut area, to the southwest of Nadzab.
“The ANGAU detachment was under my command,” Niall takes up the story.
“All of us made a three-day march from Tsili Tsili to a point overlooking the Markham River and almost opposite the area where the paratroopers were to land.
“Before the drop, the site was heavily strafed by Mitchell bombers and fighter planes.
“At the same time the Lae airstrip was also coming under heavy bombardment.
“During the strafing, large areas of kunai grass were set alight.
“The paratroopers landed with no opposition.
“The overland troops and carriers crossed the Markham River just west of the junction with the Erap River but their progress to the drop area was held up because a track had to be cut through the tall pitpit (a wild sugarcane)

“By dark, Lieutenant Colonel J.T. Lang, CO of the Pioneers, and myself had reached the site of the proposed new airstrip.
“Word was sent back along the track for all to sleep where they could and to be at the old airstrip site by first light.
“This happened and by 7.30am I was able to report that, by a superhuman effort on the part of the Papua New Guinea labourers, the old strip was cleared and ready for planes to land on it.
“On hearing this, the 5th Air Force headquarters began moving troops of the Australian 7th Division, the first arrivals landing about 11.30am.
“Cover for the incoming aircraft was provided by the US paratroopers.
“The next day I was told to report to Colonel Price of the US Army engineers, who instructed me to accompany him to a site, marked on aerial photograph of the area, which appeared suitable for a large airstrip.
“We travelled at breakneck speed across country to the site of the present Nadzab airstrip.
“After driving up and down the proposed site a few times the colonel said he was satisfied it would be suitable.
“We then arranged for 50 labourers to be put to work clearing the kunai and other rubbish.
“A camp site, which is still recognisable, was selected for ANGAU personnel near the present turn-off from the Highlands Highway to the airport.”
Grass knives and machetes were dropped and some large tractor drawn mowers were sent from Port Moresby.
However, they could not be used until large stones and bush covering the area had been cleared.
Then six bulldozers were flown in.
They cleared a track as they drove to the site of the planned strip.
That track was almost in the same position as the track which today leads from the airport to the racecourse.
“The ‘dozers quickly leveled the area but in doing so they raised a pall of black dust, caused by the kunai being set alight, which made working conditions unpleasant, especially since drinking water had to be carried several miles,” Niall recalls.
“Another danger was the death adders which turned up by the score.
“Most were large and angry at being disturbed and each had to be caught and killed before work could proceed.
“Luckily no one was bitten and I think the adders helped augment the meat rations of some workers!”
Next came the Marsden steel matting which was laid on the new strip by the US engineers.
Two days after work had begun, the first flight of Mitchell bombers landed. The strip had already been tested by a few Dakota landings and a makeshift control tower, made from poles cut from the nearby bushes and tied with wire and kunai vines, had been erected.
In the days that followed Lae was recaptured and the US 5th Air Force headquarters was moved from Port Moresby to Nadzab.
Two more strips were prepared plus an emergency landing ground.

Dispersal bays were made and connecting roads, most of which were sealed with bitumen flown from Port Moresby, were laid.
An Australian Construction Squadron also built two strips near the entrance to the present-day Nadzab airport for use by RAAF aircraft.
The main airstrip was, at first, used mostly by medium and heavy bombers such as Liberators and Flying Fortresses which were attacking Madang, Wewak, Rabaul and Hollandia (now Jayapura in West Irian).
They came and went from dawn till dark.
This went on until Hollandia was captured by US troops.
The heavy aircraft were then moved to Hollandia, and to Morotai in the northern Moluccas.
Nadazab then became home to the Combat Replacement Training Centre (CRTC).
Planes were flown in from Australia and the United States and the crews were given their final training before combat.
“Nadzab was almost in every respect an international airport,” Niall remembers.
“All day long, one could hear loudspeakers calling for passengers to Honolulu, Los Angeles, Australia and many other faraway places.
“Most air operations for the transport aircraft were controlled by civilians in uniform.
“One told me they were getting ready for the period after the war when they would be traffic controllers for US civil airlines.
“It must have been excellent training for them!
“We were hoping to have the use of a lot of the army-built huts at Nadzab after the 5th Air Force moved on but to our disappointment nearly all were dismantled and flown to Hollandia.
“Only the concrete floors were left, many of which can be seen at Nadzab today.”
The war over, Nadzab fell into disuse, nearly all air movements being made from Lae.
“Two years later, the only sign of activity was the ‘graveyard’ of dozens of wrecked Liberators and Fortress bombers plus a few Dakotas and fighter planes,” Niall continues.
“These were bought by an enterprising group who set up a furnace, smelted down the pieces into ingots and shipped them from Lae at what was said to have been a very handsome profit.
“It was sad to see the old bombers being chopped up.
“On their sides were a great selection of humourous paintwork – fancy names, markings signifying the number of missions, numbers of ships hit or sunk and other aircraft shot down in combat.
“Practically nothing is left today of the ‘graveyard’ which was at the western end of the present airstrip.”
In 1962, the main strip at Nadzab was resealed by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Works and lengthened to make it suitable for Mirage fighters, even though they never materialised.
However, it was always maintained by the Australian Department of Civil Aviation as an alternative to Lae in poor weather conditions.
Likes its predecessor in Lae, Nadzab has made an indelible impact on the history of Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea and the world.