Day 4: Australian War Memorial
Hejhej!
A couple of days ago Julia and I decided to check out the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra. And no, I'm not speaking of myself in third person - Julia is a wonderful friend that I was lucky enough to meet in Jönköping last year! I'm happy that we ended up in Canberra at the same time so we could spend time together again.
Oh and by the way, the time and date on these Australia posts might be a bit confusing, sorrt about that! I usually write up several of them at once, and adjust the dates afterwards. That way I will have a nice and tidy timeline to look back at. Now, let's talk about the War Memorial!
View from the memorial. It lines up perfectly with Parliament House and Old Parliament House that you can see in this photo. If you were to turn around and face the opposite direction you would see that the War Memorial also lines up with Mount Ainslie. Just knowing this is so satisfying!
I guess the Australian War Memorial is quite self-explanatory. The place serves as a shrine, museum and archive and it's purpose is to commemorate Australians that have died in war. I honestly never knew just how badly Australia was affected by the world wars, so it was an eye-opening experience really. I can't recall Australia ever being mentioned in my history classes, and Julia said that even the Australian education focuses a lot on what was going on in Europe. To me, that makes it pretty obvious why a place like this is needed.
We got there just in time for the guided World War I tour, which was really interesting! A lovely lady named Claudia brought the exhibition to life with her storytelling, and she appeared to know so much! There were some really impressive dioramas of trenches and battles, and they had a huge and well-kept collection of uniforms, posters, news papers, weapons, medals... anything you could think of!
Before closing, we got to experience the Last Post Ceremony. Every day, it honours one of the 102 000 Australians that gave their lives in war. I found it very touching and I think all the effort that goes into it admirable. There are historians that do thorough research in order to tell these people's stories.