Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p304
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
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Character Range: 928320–931164

holding special ceremonies to mark Greek National Day (March 25) and the Battle of Crete (last Sunday in May).

    'The Australian Hellenic Memorial represents the standing, since time immemorial, ideals of the Hellenic civilization.  Freedom, human personality, active involvement in society, democracy.  Hellenes and Australians have always stood unwaveringly together for the same ideals and have shed their blood side by side to defend and promote them.'  (HE Ambassador Alexios Christopoulos, personal communication)

The Ataturk Memorial was funded by the Australian Government as part of state-to-state negotiations about the naming of Anzac Cove.  The Ataturk Memorial is essentially the memorial to the ANZAC forces and Gallipoli, representing both sides.  In the NCA podcast, World War 2 veteran William Higgy OAM comments on its broader significance,

    'There is no actual memorial on Anzac Parade called the Anzac Memorial, and perhaps this is the closest'  (NCA 2009, 'Anzac Parade Walking Tour Podcast', www.nationalcapital.gov.au/, accessed 2011, not accessible 4 August 2022)

The comforting words of Atatürk, reputedly written in 1934 as a tribute to the ANZACs killed at Gallipoli, are a powerful feature of this memorial,

    'Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.  Therefore rest in peace.  There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears;  your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.  After having lost their lives on this land.  They have become our sons as well.'  (Inscription on Kemal Atatürk Memorial at ANZAC Parade, Canberra, Australian War Memorial www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/ataturk.asp, accessed Nov 2011, site inactive 4 August 2022)

It is noted that some research casts doubt on the authorship of these exact words attributed to Ataturk.

What is it about this place?

As a physical place, Anzac Parade is replete with symbols embedded in the design – the colour of the gravel, the use of Australian and New Zealand plants, the niches into which the memorials are set and more.  For those with service connections, what is it about this place that embodies its significant meanings?

Asked about the elements that are important, the first focus group highlighted the trees – the Australianness of the eucalypts as an element that connects all Australians.  This was reiterated in the second focus group, especially the contrast between the openness of the space (which was valued highly) and the enclosing trees,

    'it's the Australian bush what the country is made of... so you have the wide open plains of Australia and the bush... you can't separate