By KATH GANNAWAY
THERE are commemorations, and there are memorials. Then there are connections.
It was connections that Chair of the Victorian Anzac Centenary Committee, former Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, wanted to talk about at Warburton last week.
Mr Baillieu was guest speaker at the annual Warburton RSL President’s Dinner held at the bowls club on Friday night, 13 March.
Stopping for a photo at the impressive ‘Poppy’ memorial that is Warburton’s contribution to the Anzac Centenary commemorations, he congratulated the RSL and the community for their work and the creation of a beautiful memorial in the town.
But lasting impressions, he said later, came from connections made between people, particularly young people, and the young men and women who left Australia’s shores to fight in distant places in World War I.
“Most people cannot remember the other anniversaries,” he said, quizzing the more than 80 people who supported the RSL’s fund-raising dinner.
“We are now into the centenary and one of our missions is to make sure that the next generation, and the generation after that, understand what this is all about,” he said.
“We have an understanding that previous commemorations were actively undertaken, but not remembered, so we need to do this in a way that kids today, in 50 years’ time, will remember.”
A slide show revealed first the history of WWI, then the connections already made.
“This is not about events and memorials, it’s about the power of place,” he said, drawing people in the room into a brave new world of information technology that can facilitate those connections.
“Yes, family connections are legitimate, but they’re so much harder to keep. The power of place is what it’s about,” he said, exciting at least a couple of generations to the possibilities.
Among a raft of websites that can help make those connections is Summary and Fate – The AIF Project where anyone can search by name, regimental unit and streets and suburbs to find, for instance, how many people from a particular town, or street, left Australia to fight for the Mother Country.
Information on the site includes embarkation records with details such as the name, age, marital status, the date, place of and address at enlistment, their trade and next of kin, where they went, what happened to them along the way and more.
“Don’t do this yourself,”Mr Baillieu said to a crowd who were obviously keen to tap into their computers.
“Tell your kids, your grandkids that you don’t understand … can’t do this, and give them the thread,” he said encouraging everyone to delegate to the younger generations of their family or school.
“I know this works,” he said. “Kids come back thrilled; at least six inches taller, when they have something to give you.”
The site is www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search.
