Anna Bay Public School War MemorialPrint Page

The War Memorial commemorates the Centenary of ANZAC and those who served in World War One. The memorial is located on a site where soil was extracted to be placed in commemorative artwork at the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney. 

Additional funding of $3000 was received in 2018 through the Armistice Centenary Grants Program for the creation of a garden around the stone memorial.

On Friday 24 November at 2 pm our school hosted an ANZAC Remembrance Ceremony. As part of the Centenary of ANZAC the NSW Government is expanding the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney to include a new ‘Hall of Service' which will feature an art installation containing soil from significant sites around the world and across NSW. The soil will be preserved and displayed next to the names of each town it was collected from, symbolising the ground where men and women enlisted from the Great War of 1914-1918. Our school, Anna Bay Public School, was identified as a significant site from which to collect the soil to be displayed in the art work at the Memorial.

To help our students and staff to collect the soil and commemorate the event we were honoured to have as our guests some of the members of families who have lived in the Anna Bay area for several generations and who had served and had lost family members in World War 1 at Gallipoli and at the Western Front at Fromelles.

Some of these guests are families of current school students. Harry P in Kindergarten has a Great Great Grandfather (Jo Robinson) who attended ABPS and was an ANZAC. He received the British War Medal and Victory medal for bravery. Henry "Harry" George Blanch, Harry Peter's Great Great Great Uncle was in the Australian Light Horse Regiment. Harry's Great Great Grandfather, a fisherman, also received medals for bravery. Harry's Great Great Uncle George Rush, was killed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 on ANZAC beach, aged 25. His sister Edith was a nurse in the army. Mark Blanch was a trooper, recruited from Anna Bay to one of the remount units, trained and managed thousands of horses for the infantry of the 'Light Horse' in Gallipoli. He too, was awarded British War medal and Victory medal.

Some of these people were the original pupils of Anna Bay Public school in late 1870s.

The Mayor of Port Stephens, Ryan Palmer, Kate Washington(MP), Air Vice Marshal Treloar (Retired), Russell Durant and Tom Lupton from the Nelson Bay RSL Sub Branch, Renee Thompson from the School's P&C, school staff and a number of our students of all age groups participated in the soil collection.  Their names will be included with photographs in the digital folder attached to the preserved soil in the ANZAC Memorial. Digital information for each plaque will include the names and details of every enlistee who gave Anna Bay as their home address as well as information on who collected the soil and where the soil was collected from.

A plaque commemorating this event has been placed on the soil extraction site at the school and is a symbolic reflection of the value and importance of Anzac.
Anna Bay Public School, 13 December 2017.

Location

Address:	191 Gan Gan Road, Anna Bay Public School, Anna Bay, 2316
State:	NSW
Area:	AUS
GPS Coordinates:	Lat: -32.776369 Long: 152.089704 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

View Google Map

Details

Monument Type:	Monument
Monument Theme:	Conflict
Sub-Theme:	WW1

Source: DVA, MA