Pay your respects to these fine young men

Sixty Adelaide school students will represent the 60 South Australian sailors lost in the HMAS Sydney tragedy in 1941 during an ANZAC Eve commemoration on the Port River on April 24.

The focus of ANZAC Light on the Water 2008 will be on the 645 lost crew of the Sydney when up to 3000 cardboard lifeboats bearing lighted candles are launched on the river from the Birkenhead pontoons.

Adelaide and regional schools students and their families and war veterans make all of the lifeboats.

The names of the 60 lost South Australian sailors will be on the sides of the lifeboats to be launched by the sixty school students.

A special March and Salute by the RAN Ceremonial Unit will be a Dedication to the 645 officers and men of Sydney.

And a one-hour Ceilidh Music Concert by the SA Pipes and Drums will include a special Ode to the Finding Sydney Foundation search team.

The SA Pipes and Drums won international acclaim for their Ceilidh Music at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, the Merchant Navy Association SA and the Vindicatrix Association SA staged the first ANZAC Light on the Water on ANZAC Eve 2007 during the first Port Festival.

Work on the 2008 commemoration has been underway since late last year and indications that HMAS Sydney might be found early this year prompted organisers to put plans in place for that.

The overall focus in 2007 was on the merchant seamen who rowed our troops ashore at Gallipoli in 1915.

Event Director John Williams said while the Gallipoli lifeboats had inspired the creation of the event in 2007, each year the commemoration would focus on a significant chapter in the history of Australians at war.

“It is appropriate that this year we should focus on the loss of the Sydney and its 645 crew and in particular the South Australians who were lost in the tragedy.”

“Students related to any of the HMAS Sydney sailors will be the first to be invited to launch the lifeboats.

“All surviving relatives of the 60 sailors and the Finding Sydney Foundation search team leader David Mearns will be invited as guests of honour at this unique Port Adelaide commemoration.

“Relatives, if they wish, will also have the opportunity to float flowers from a vessel on the river during the ANZAC Eve commemoration.

“It is to be hoped that the commemoration will help to bring final closure to the relatives.”

“This year we are breaking with tradition and having a female Minister, Ali Wurm from St Bede's Semaphore who will pay tribute to the HMAS Sydney crew, their relatives and the Finding Sydney Foundation search team.

“This will be the first time a female Minister has officiated at a public ANZAC Eve commemoration.

“The new Federal Labor MP Mark Butler and Port Adelaide Mayor Gary Johanson will be among guest speakers.

“It is planned that the new Port Adelaide Seafarers Memorial will incorporate a Tribute to the HMAS Sydney Crew and the discovery by the Finding Sydney Foundation.”

The sinking of the Sydney on November 19, 1941 with the loss of all 645 crew devastated many Port Adelaide families.

The wreck was found on Sunday March 16 by at a depth of almost 2.5km about 100 nautical miles off the West Australian coast.

Four days earlier, the Finding Sydney Foundation search team Geosounder found Kormoran, the German raider responsible for sinking the Sydney in 1941.

The search area of 1500 square nautical miles was 10 times greater than that for the Titanic.

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Department of Education SA, Port Centre
Co-ordination Group, Naval Association SA, South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Royal Australian Navy, North Haven Surf Lifesaving Club, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, Port Adelaide Caledonian Society, Department of Transport SA, Port Adelaide Historical Society, Port Adelaide National Trust Branch, Maritime Union of Australia and a team of dedicated volunteers from Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, Merchant Navy Association SA, Vindicatrix Association SA and local residents all support ANZAC Light on the Water.

Finding Sydney Foundation:
www.findingsydney.com/

View a video tribute to HMAS Sydney and crew at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtMaZVDcL4

New poster in The Port

Thanks to the Andre Stuyt at Port Centre Co-ordination Group and Sama Reid at City of Port Adelaide Enfield Publications there's a new poster in Black Diamond Square for
ANZAC Light on the Water 2008.

Lifeboat passes Sea Trials test

The prototype of the new Visy Board cardboard lifeboats for ANZAC Light on Water successfully underwent Sea Trials on the Port River on Friday March 14.
Our photo shows the lifeboat near one of the pontoons where up to 3000 will be launched in the commemoration event on April 24.

New templates for Gallipoli lifeboats

Our photos show the prototype cardboard template and the mock-up lifeboat we are working on with Visy Board in Wingfield.

Three thousand lifeboat templates will be delivered to schools in Adelaide and some regional centres in special packs with instructions and information about ANZAC Light on the Water on April 24.

Students will make their own boats for the ANZAC Eve tribute to the merchant seamen who rowed out troops ashore at Gallipoli in 1915.

Thousands of families are expected to pack Queens Wharf in Port Adelaide for the event which will open with a one hour Ceilidh Music Concert by SA Pipes and Drums.


An Indigenous Welcome will then herald the start of ANZAC Light on the Water with a Royal Australian Navy Ceremonial Unit parade and Salute.

A large fleet of the lifeboats containing lighted candles will be launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons in a moving salute to all war veterans.

Those who wish to design their own lifeboats are encouraged to do so as long as basic principles are followed.

The boats must be watertight and have a small wooden strip on the bottom so that they cannot sink.

Anyone wanting to use the cardboard template when they are available should email John Williams.

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield is funding and supporting the event which involves many organisations including the Merchant Navy Association SA, Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, Vindicatrix Association, Department of Education, Naval Association SA, Port Adelaide Sailing Club and Port Centre Co-ordination Group.

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A woman's touch for ANZAC event

The Reverend Ali Wurm who will officiate at the 2008 ANZAC Light on the Water commemoration on the Port River is the Parish Priest of a Semaphore church that was built 35 years before the Gallipoli campaign.

There is an unusual link to the Gallipoli lifeboats landing because many parishioners say the wooden ceiling of St Bede’s reminds them of being in a boat.

School students and families will launch several hundred candle-lit cardboard lifeboats from the Queens Wharf pontoons in a moving tribute to the merchant seamen who rowed our troops ashore in ship’s lifeboats on April 25 in 1915.

St Bede’s is active and engaged in the local area and strives to make a difference.

“We relate as a lively, nurturing and supportive community of faith, Rev Wurm says.

ANZAC Light on the Water information kits and cardboard templates will be distributed to schools in March so students can make their own lifeboats for the commemoration on the evening of Thursday April 24.

Some students at Our Lady of Visitation are already looking at some of their own designs for replica lifeboats and we encourage such individual efforts.

Our photo shows Semaphore and Port Adelaide families along with others from as far away as Leigh Creek at the inaugural ANZAC Light on the Water last April 24.


WE ASK YOU JUST TO REMEMBER US


No cross marks the place where now we lie
What happened is known but to us
You asked, and we gave our lives to protect
Our land from the enemy curse
No Flanders Field where poppies blow;
No Gleaming Crosses, row on row;
No Unnamed Tomb for all to see
And pause—and wonder who we might be
The Sailors’ Valhalla is where we lie
On the ocean bed, watching ships pass by
Sailing in safety now through the waves
Often right over our sea-locked graves
We ask you just to remember us.

Pipes and drums for ANZAC Eve

To mark the start of ANZAC Light on the Water 2008 the South Australian Pipes and Drums band will present a one-hour concert in Lighthouse Square Port Adelaide at 6 pm on April 24.

Without a doubt they are South Australia’s most versatile and sought after pipe band.

The South Australian Pipes and Drums came into being in April 2003 in response to an invitation from the Director of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to perform at the Tattoo in August of that year.

The band was formed from very experienced pipers and drummers who accepted the invitation and embarked on the rather daunting challenge of training and equipping for the task ahead.

As a brand new band with no uniforms, the opportunity was taken to design a new tartan that incorporated the colours of the State of South Australia.

This has been registered as The South Australian Pipes and Drums Tartan and the band’s kilts and plaids are made of this distinctive design.

After a hectic period of fund raising, the South Australian Pipes and Drums, with some borrowed equipment, appeared at the 2003 Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The band recently made a successful visit to Moscow for public performances.

The band has been in constant demand to perform at concerts and street parades with their distinctive style of ceilidh music that they performed in November at the Semaphore Street Fair.

ANZAC Light on the Water 2008

More schools and families from across Adelaide and as far away as Leigh Creek are expected to participate in a poignant and moving event on the Port River on ANZAC Eve.

Thanks to a $3000 grant from Port Adelaide Enfield Council to the Merchant Navy Association South Australia, the Gallipoli tribute ANZAC Light on the Water will be staged at the Queens Wharf pontoons on the night of April 24.

The success of ANZAC Light on the Water last year has led to it becoming an annual ANZAC event.

Additional funding is being sought from the State Government to enable more South Australian schools to take part.

With special emphasis on the merchant seamen who rowed the troops ashore for the 1915 Gallipoli landing, the event involves school students and families in making paper and cardboard lifeboats.

The paper and cardboard lifeboats containing lit candles are launched on the Port River as a symbolic tribute to all who have served in wars down the ages.

More than 500 paper and cardboard lifeboats were launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons by Surf Lifesavers, who manned the pontoons in the inaugural event, and many of them had the names of those who had served at Gallipoli on the sides of them.

Most of the lifeboats were made by students at Peninsular schools, but one of the main contributions was from Pinnaroo Primary School students.

The Port River was one of the main departure ports for merchant navy troopships during World Wars I and II.

Families whose loved ones were lost at Gallipoli brought family albums and other mementos to the first ANZAC Light on the Water to share with other families.

Information kits will shortly be provided for distribution to South Australian schools and they will contain instructions, templates for making cardboard lifeboats and supplies of tea light candles.

Also involved in promoting the ANZAC Eve event are The Merchant Navy Association, Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, the Vindicatrix Association, Port Adelaide Enfield Council, Education Department, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Maritime Museum, Port Centre Co-ordination Group, Land Management Council and Navy South Australia.