WE WILL REMEMBER: Julia Gillard hails Diggers' sacrifice

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[img]http://resources2.news.com.au/cs/newscomau/v2/_shared/base/css/images/icons/homepage-title.png[/img] Source: [url]http://www.news.com.au/features/anzac-day/we-will-remember-gillard-to-hail-diggers-sacrifice-for-nation/story-e6frfldi-1226337515161[/url]
[img]http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/04/25/1226336/547375-gallipoli.jpg[/img]
Australian soldiers pictured during a bayonet charge at Gallipoli, arranged by an army photographer. Picture: National War Memorial.

[quote] • 1915 Gallipoli campaign "first act of nationhood"
• Gillard joins thousands of Aussies at site in Turkey
• [url=http://www.news.com.au/features/anzac-day/australias-family-wartime-history-an-anzac-day-special-interactive/story-e6frfldi-1226337278473]Our war history - Anzac Day special interactive[/url]
• [url=http://www.news.com.au/features/anzac-day]Anzac Day 2012 - Full coverage, galleries[/url]

[B]PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has paid tribute to "the men who came from the ends of the earth to fight a far off war" in her address at the Anzac Cove dawn service at Gallipoli.[/B]
In a speech just before dawn at Gallipoli, Ms Gillard also praised the people of Turkey for protecting the hallowed land.
The PM told several thousand people crowded into the narrow peninsula for the dawn service they were standing on the site where our national identity was forged in 1915.
"We remember what the Anzacs did in war and for what they did to shape our nation in peace," Ms Gillard said.
"In this place, they taught us to regard Australia and nowhere else as home."

[img]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2012/04/25/1226338/055628-julia-gillard.jpg[/img]
[I]Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses the crowd during the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli this morning. Picture: Sam Mooy[/I]

The 8700 Australian men who died on these shores may have being fighting for our British allies, but they "longed for the shape and scent of the gum leaf and the wattle, not the rose or the elm, Ms Gillard said.
In her short speech before the sun rose over the cliffs surrounding the site, Ms Gillard said the Anzac legend and the freedom it represents "belongs to every Australian".
"Not just those who trace their origins to the early settlers but those like me who are migrants and who freely embrace the whole of the Australian story as their own," she said.
"For indigenous Australians, whose own wartime valour was a profound expression of the love they felt for the ancient land."
"And for Turkish-Australians who have not one but two heroic stories to tell their children."
Ms Gillard said Australians owed Turkey a debt of gratitude for honouring our wartime sacrifice and caring for the site.
And she urged the crowd to also remember the large loss of Turkish lives among the 130,000 killed in the battle.
"No nation could have better guarded our shrines or more generously welcomed our pilgrims," she said.
"A worthy foe has proved to be an even greater friend.
"Through Turkey’s hospitality, we do today what those who left these shores most dearly hoped: We come back.
"As we will always come back."

[img]http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2012/04/25/1226337/685722-n.jpg[/img]
[I]Thousands braved the cool conditions in the nation's capital as they gathered to pay their respects at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage[/I]

[B]Australia remembers[/B]
The service followed several dawn commemorations across Australia to commemorate those who served in the First World War.
There are no surviving WWI diggers. However about 20,000 ex-servicemen took part in the Anzac Day march in their honour.
Ten-year-old Hayley Pitt did not have to question why she was woken up at 2am to travel into the middle of the Brisbane CBD with her family.
"Because they died for our free country," she said as she stood in Brisbane's Anzac Square waiting for the sun to rise and the bugles to start.
The schoolgirl was one of thousands who crammed the small grass square nestled in between high rise office building this morning to pay her respects to the fallen diggers during Brisbane's dawn service this morning.
Her great-grandfather served in Papua New Guinea in World War II and it was for him that her entire family made the sojourn from Redlands Bay for the ceremony, Hayley's grandfather Harry Jarman said.
"I think it's important to remember what soldiers went through during the war," Mr Jarman said.

[img]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2012/04/25/1226337/683276-n.jpg[/img]
[I]The dawn service held at Martin Place, Sydney. Dry weather brought the crowds out to remember Anzac Day 2012. Pics Bill Hearne Picture: Bill Hearne[/I]

"It only takes a couple of hours on Anzac Day to come in and appreciate what they did."
Across the Tasman a bomb threat failed to disrupt the dawn service in Auckland. After a search of the area by police the event proceeded without incident reported the New Zealand Herald.
In Melbourne Hundreds of people are huddling together in the dark and cold at the city's Shrine of Remembrance ahead of the dawn Anzac service.
Organisers expected over 45,000 will gather for the traditional 6am service, which marks the 97th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
Both serving and ex-servicemen and women are among the crowd.
Overnight showers have cleared in the Tasmanian capital Hobart and a crowd of around 5000 was expected for the service.
Meanwhile, cadets from South Australia's emergency services and other volunteer groups have ended their overnight vigil as a big crowd gathers around Adelaide's war memorial for the Anzac Day dawn service.
The cadets have kept watch over the memorial for 12 hours in what has become annual event in Adelaide for the past 13 years.
They will stand down just before South Australian Governor Kevin Scarce arrives to mark the official start of the ceremony.
Australian War Memorial senior curator Nick Fletcher said the service appeared to be a very good turnout, although it was hard to tell in the dark.
"But you would think we could push the 20,000 figure," he said.
"But as we get closer to the 100th (anniversary) we are going to get more.
"You can be sure that there will be plenty of discussion between now and then about the appropriate way to commemorate the centenary."

[I]- with AAP[/I][/quote]