The Hon. Ted Baillieu, Professor Robin Gerster, Professor Rae Francis and Professor Bruce Scates - Thursday 26 September 2013 Australians have been making pilgrimages to the battlefields and cemeteries of the Second World War since the 1940s. From the jungles of New Guinea and South-East Asia to the mountains of Greece and the deserts of North Africa, they travel in search of the stories of lost loved ones, to mourn the dead and to come to grips with the past. A team of researchers from Monash U...
Oct 11, 2013•58 min
Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence, Air Vice-Marshal Kym Osley, Wing Command Peter Isaacson - 4 October 2013 Air Force Bomber Command implemented Britain’s strategic bombing campaign against Germany and German allies during the Second World War (1939 - 45). Over 10,000 Australians served, flying raid after raid over Europe alongside servicemen across the Commonwealth. Bomber Command aircrews suffered extraordinarily high casualties; German air defences were strong and Luftwaffe pilots and aircraft pr...
Oct 10, 2013•38 min
Australian Nurses of 1915 - 12 September 2013, Katrina Hedditch The history of Australian nurses during 1915 in Egypt, on hospital ships at Gallipoli and under canvas on Lemnos Island, was forgotten for two generations despite being one of the dramatic epics of the First World War. A handful of brave women sailed to Anzac Cove for the Landing on April 25, and following the August Offensive another 130 nurses, a quarter of them from Victoria, arrived on Lemnos where they found hundreds of wounded...
Oct 09, 2013•1 hr 8 min
Wednesday 21 August 2013 - Aaron Pegram 3,848 Australians were captured by the Germans during the First World War. Instead of dwelling on the personal, subjective nature of captivity, this talk looks at the value of Australian prisoners as intelligence sources for the German Army. Hear about German interrogation methods, AIF counter-intelligence training and the experiences of Australian prisoners, including the stories of two Australian soldiers who willingly disclosed information about the AIF...
Aug 26, 2013•54 min
Wednesday 14 August 2013 - Gary Barker Join the Chief Executive of the National Vietnam Veterans Museum to hear about how, over a 20 year period, a Land Rover and trailer evolved to become a National Museum and the spiritual home of Vietnam veterans. The National Vietnam Veterans Museum tells a story about the people involved throughout a divisive era of Australian society.
Aug 22, 2013•1 hr 2 min
Wednesday 7 August- Dr Rosalie Triolo The School Paper was compulsory reading for decades of Victorian state school children. During the First World War, almost all articles either told teachers and children exactly what was expected of them to help win the war, or subtly conveyed the same messages through stories, poems, songs and pictures. This presentation will discuss the power and enduring consequences of such wartime readings.
Aug 22, 2013•59 min
Tuesday 23 July 2013- Dr David Holloway Dr David Holloway, author of Endure and Fight: A History of the 4th Light Horse Regiment , will follow the regiment across all three major fronts involving Australian troops in the First World War: from Melbourne to Gallipoli, to the Western Front and Palestine. This story is replete with tales of individual soldiers, many from Mildura and surrounding district.
Aug 21, 2013•1 hr 18 min
Helen Stitt - Wednesday 10 July 2013 This illustrated talk will reveal some moving tales of the active involvement of the RACV in supporting the Australian military. Beginning in 1908 with the initiative of Automobile Club of Victoria Foundation Member, Colonel Harley Tarrant, the RACV’s involvement has included novel fundraising motor gymkhanas, the promotion of alternative fuels during petrol rationing and since the 1920s, valued contributions to ANZAC Day
Jul 17, 2013•44 min
Dr Janet Butler 3 July 2013 In July 1915, newly enrolled army nurse Sister Kit McNaughton stepped onto a troopship and embarked on the first stage of her journey to war. In doing so she was stepping out of place, away from the woman’s role of quiet waiting on the home front. That day she would begin a diary that she would continue throughout the First World War. Kit’s diary allows us to see the new experiences of the voyage through her eyes, and reveals how those experiences began to change the ...
Jul 13, 2013•1 hr 6 min
Thursday 20 July 2013. Shepparton Regional Lecture. Tim Whitford and John Gribben Tim Whitford and John Gribben take their presentation on the road to visit the community of Shepparton. During the Second World War thousands of Prisoners of War, ‘enemy aliens’ and Australians of German, Japanese and Italian descent found themselves imprisoned inside a huge POW/Internment Camp complex in farmland in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. In the years that followed there were murders, escapes, riots and intri...
Jul 12, 2013•1 hr 16 min
Denis Baguley and Ian McDougall- Wednesday 5 June 2013 As Australia approaches the Centenary of Anzac, the Shrine of Remembrance will continue to grow as a place of commemoration and pilgrimage. Underpinned by a history that has shaped the nation, the Shrine and what it stands for in the local and wider community continues to grow. Join the Shrine’s Chief Executive Denis Baguley and architect Ian McDougall from Ashton Raggatt McDougall, for a detailed presentation of how the Galleries of Remembr...
Jun 11, 2013•38 min
Susan Gordon-Brown Almost four decades after the Vietnam War, many former service men finally feel comfortable enough about their service in this controversial war to share their stories through the medium of photography and conversation. For many of the veterans, the process of being photographed and of telling their story was an act of catharsis. Join professional photographer Susan Gordon-Brown to hear about the journey made by these remarkable Australians and some of the scars, both physical...
Jun 04, 2013•52 min
Wednesday 15 May 2013 - Catherine McCullagh On 14 May 1943, a brightly lit vessel cruised north, a floating beacon against the blackened sea. Heading for New Guinea to take on casualties at Port Moresby, the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship Centaur carried a total of 332 passengers: 76 crew and 256 medical staff, including 12 nurses. There was no doubt as to the nature of the target when, at 4.10 am on the morning of 14 May, a torpedo hit the Centaur . Catherine discusses the horrifying attack and...
May 20, 2013•58 min
Tuesday 23 April- Birger Stichelbaut and Jean Bourgeois The Western Flanders region of the Western Front is indelibly linked with Australians at war and Anzac. Ghent based Belgian researchers, Birger Stichelbaut and Jean Bourgeois will talk about the application of large numbers of historical aerial photographs in Great War conflict archaeology. Their research is based on the interpretation and mapping of more than 20,000 unique aerial photographs originating from collections all over the world ...
May 07, 2013•1 hr 19 min
Thursday 18 April 2013- Dr David Holloway Dr David Holloway, author of Endure and Fight, an History of the 4th Light Horse Regiment, will speak about the regiment, unique in the AIF as the only unit to fight on each of the three major fronts involving Australian troops. In describing how this came about, Dr Holloway follows the regiment from Melbourne to Gallipoli, it being divided thereafter so that two squadrons went to the Western Front whilst the reinforced remainder served through much of t...
May 06, 2013•1 hr 6 min
Recorded at the Friends of the Shrine Luncheon 2013
Mar 08, 2013•19 min
Pattie Wright- Ray Parkin was a sailor first and foremost. He then found himself a POW on the Thai Burma railway and in Japan. From those harrowing experiences came the highly regarded wartime trilogy Out of the Smoke , Into the Smother and The Sword and the Blossom . Pattie Wright, interviewed Ray and accessed his diaries and extensive archive to write his recently published biography, Ray Parkin’s Odyss ey. In this lecture Pattie speaks on this chronicler of HMAS Perth , his beloved ship and t...
Mar 07, 2013•1 hr 14 min
Tim Whitford and John Gribben- During the Second World War, thousands of Prisoners of War, ‘enemy aliens’ and Australians of German, Japanese and Italian descent found themselves imprisoned inside a huge POW/Internment Camp complex in farmland in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. In the years that followed there were murders, escapes, riots and intrigue. There was also much humour, compassion and demonstrations of the better parts of human nature. John and Tim talk about this little-known aspect of Au...
Feb 28, 2013•1 hr 17 min
Learn about the experiences of prisoners of war and civilian internees in Victoria during the Second World War (1939-45) and discover a little known aspect of Australia’s history. This exhibition explores the impacts on prisoners of war and internees who lived and worked in camps. Between 1939 and 1947 rural Victoria hosted eight internment and prisoner of war camps from the network that was scattered across Australia. The camps operated as communities and incorporated canteens, hospitals, denta...
Feb 27, 2013•32 min
Dr Richard Reid- Dr Richard Reid from the Department of Veterans Affairs discusses the work currently being done on the Australian Remembrance Trail on the Western Front. The Remembrance Trail has seen the Office of Australian War Graves begin working with local communities and regional authorities to establish improved visitor facilities at former Australian First World War battlefields in Belgium and France. Dr Reid discusses the Trail and what it hopes to achieve for the thousands of Australi...
Feb 14, 2013•1 hr 2 min
Professor Paul James Evidence of our commitment to peace is frequently overshadowed by the emphasis given by the media to reports of conflict. What is peace? This talk examines international, national and local efforts that seek to ensure stability and opportunities for creative collaboration in our world. Australia’s role in peacekeeping in recent decades and in international initiatives for peace, contribute to the narrative. Peace cannot be taken for granted, and it seems, demands our eternal...
Jan 31, 2013•1 hr 9 min
Pattie Wright Many would call these two men heroes and they would be right. Sadly, only one returned. Hec Waller was an RAN Captain and Weary Dunlop, a lieutenant Colonel, a doctor and POW. What are the odds that two of Australia's greatest came from what was then a small town by a river in northwest Victoria? Pattie Wright, author of The Men of the Line and the just published, Ray Parkin's Odyssey, will speak on the history of these two Benalla heroes.
Jan 12, 2013•1 hr 49 min
Consul General to Malta, Charles Mifsud During the two world conflicts, Malta gave its valued part in defeating the enemy. In this context, the connection with ANZACs is hardly ever observed. The connection started in World War I, whereby Malta served as the nurse of the Mediterranean, seeing to injuries of ANZACs and allied soldiers during the Gallipoli Campaign and then continued on until the 1950s.
Jan 08, 2013•1 hr 4 min
Mr Tim Whitford and Mr Lambis Engelzos AM Join Lambis and Tim from the Shrine of Remembrance as they discuss the search for the missing men of the Battle of Fromelles. Lambis and Tim's tireless search and advocacy over many years led to the discovery of a mass burial site for 250 soldiers lost since World War I. This search has led to the creation of the first new Commonwealth War Cemetary since World War II and has connected hundreds of families with their military hertiage.
Oct 27, 2012•2 hr 1 min
Major General John Cantwell Exit Wounds is the compassionate and deeply human account of one man’s tour of the War on Terror, the moving story of life on a modern battlefield: from the nightmare of cheating death in a minefield, to the poignancy of calling home while under rocket fire in Baghdad, to the utter despair of looking into the face of a dead soldier before sending him home to his mother. He has hidden his post-traumatic stress disorder for decades, fearing it will affect his career....
Oct 21, 2012•1 hr 6 min
Colonel Marcus Fielding Colonel Marcus Fielding will provide a unique and fascinating insight into the significant contribution by the Australian soldiers embeded in various Coalition headquarters. In telling his own story, Fielding provides interesting and fresh perspectives on Australia's involvement.
Oct 19, 2012•1 hr 1 min
There have been many books written on Kokoda in the last twenty years and most mention Bert Kienzle in passing. To quote Alan Poweel, author of The Third Force- "No man on the track did more to ensure the Australian victory than Lt. Bert Kienzle." But Bert's story is more than just about wartime Kokoda. From birth to death, his was an extraordinary life.
Oct 10, 2012•44 min
Mr Leslie Bunn Glover- Leslie Bunn Glover, one of the last men standing of the POWs who survived the atrocities of the Death Camps of Sandakan and Kuching under their japanese Captives, will be sharing his life story. In his recently published memoirs, Leslie aged 92, recalls the horros he faced as a POW slave labourer for the Japanese.
Sep 12, 2012•1 hr 13 min
Professor Joy Damousi- A group who are often forgotten in our commemoration of war, mothers gave their sons in large numbers during the Great War. The ways in which mothers mourned, the sacrifices they made and the ways in which the government authorities attempted to publicly recognise their grief will be the subject of this lecture.
Sep 11, 2012•58 min
David Smith. Documentary film maker Dr David Smith and his father, searchlight operator Gordon Smith of the 67th AASL, visit RAAF Landing Ground Truscott for the 50th Anniversary of the completion of Australia's secret World War II airbase. Truscott was a crucial departure point for heavy bombers making sorties over South East Asia and critical in the defence of Australia following the bombing of Darwin in 1942.
Sep 08, 2012•1 hr 17 min
