ANZAC day

I love ANZAC day, it is a day that signifies all our nation was founded on. Feverated in 1901, our country was the youngest one to go to war in 1915, a country merely 14 years old yet - this war defined who we are as Australians. It is about mateship, honour, service, laying down ones life for another, it is about giving unselfishly and dying so others might live ... sound familiar, this is also the underlying philosophy of what we do as Christians - honour, service, laying down ones life for others, fighting the good fight of faith, living unselfishly...

This morning we went to church in Melbourne then we thought, well it is Anzac Day why don't we visit the Shrine of Rememberance, it hadn't been high on the list of things to see, but, how wrong we had been. On this significant national day, the visit was even more poignant and it will be a time we remember for a long time.

This Shrine was built between 1928 and 1934, it was designed by two returned veterans and their design chosen from 83 entries. It was built to honour the 114,000 Victorians who served in WWI, but now commemorates all Victorians who have served in war and peacekeeping. The original building has the Sanctuary which is the heart of the Shrine. The Stone of rememberance, in the centre is symbolic of a gravestone, for the many men and women who were buried overseas in unmarked graves. One reads the inscription "Greater love hath no man" and on this inscription, on the 11th of the 11th at 11am, a natural ray of sun light shines in from an opening in the roof and illuminates the word LOVE.

There is also listed the names of all the Victorians who served overseas in WWI, every different part of the Shrine commemorates something - ships, Light Horse, regiments and then a Father and son sculpture represents the two generations who fought in the first and second WW. A gallery of medals displays 4000 service medals each one repsenting 100 Victorians who have served in war and peacekeeping.

Outside is Second World War Forecourt commemorating the service and sacrifice of the victorians in WWII. It was dedicated in 1954 with Her Majesty the Queen lighting the eternal flame, which is always burning, symbolising eternal life for those who have died. Then there is the Gallipoli Memorial and the Remembrance Gardens, there is so much to see and contemplate as we remember those who have gone before us to make our life so free. It is all so well designed and thought provoking and poignant and causes me to consider are we upholding their legacy with the same values as they had, and if not, well we should be.

Honour, faith, service, unselfish living, respect, consideration of others... might our lives be characterised by these as they were in the early days.

Melbourne continued...

What a wonderful time to be in Melbourne at autumn - the colours of the trees range from red, yellow, and orange, the sun is warm and the days are mild. Earlier this week we took a ride up Mt Macedon, on the advice of our wonderful host, Julie, to see the "Cross". Well that was a brilliant excursion, the colours of fall were evident everywhere as we drove up the mountain (969m) and the Cross was this huge majestic Cross!

It was a built as a memorial to those who served in WWI - those who served their God, their King and their country - and it was funded totally by a local man who wanted to give some work to the locals in 1936 during the Depression. It is built on the top/side of the hill and can be seen for miles around. It was rebuilt in 1995 after it had startred to deteriorate, and it did get struck by lightning too! Looking at this masterpiece of human acheivement, I considered the reality that this is the true heritage of our great country, we are a land founded on principles of faith, respect for one another, honour and service. This is the legacy we were given and we can only do everything in our ability to make sure this legacy - faith, respect, honour and service - is passed on to those who come after us.

Thursday was another warm day, it got to 28 and we happened to be at the beach in Williamstown and wondered why we didn't bring our bathers to go for a swim! Actually it was because we were heading to the Point Cook RAAF Museum, which was very interesting as it showcased the beginning of the Flying Corps in Australia, this coincided with WWI to which the Australians went as the AFC the Australian Flying Corps before becoming the RAAF before WWII.

They had a great display of information, memorabilia - including a framed Australian flag which was the first Aussie flag to be talken into Germany, it was signed by the men that were in Germany with it - andthere were planes as well. Then we enjoyed a flying display with the pilot flying loops, doing rolls and figure 8's all in small old style plane.

After this it was family time and over to visit Darren's Uncle Roger and Auntie Sandra. We had afternoon tea with them and their daughter Belinda and her children, Dylan and Callum. We enjoyed seeing them and chatting about our time int he east and also their time in the West - and seeing movie footage of the family back home... yes we were very homesick and realized just how fast little Caleb and Isaac are growing up. It was great to see everyone having such a fun time on the bouncy castle, especially Granny and Uncle Roger!

Jerome greatly enjoyed Uncle Rogers extensive library, especially their books on Australian history which helped him with his writing he is doing at the moment on a boy during the Victorian Goldrush era!

We had a bit of rain on Saturday, but typical Melbourne style, it had cleared up by lunch time and was rather hot when the sun came out then! The kids enjoyed gluing the lastest photos in their diaries and having a leisurely play with Angus and Liam around the place here.

A day in the city

We woke on Monday at six o'clock, ready to face the BIG day today. At seven o'clock, after a hurried breakfast, we battled the peak hour traffic on the freeway (it actually wasn't too bad!) to Thomastown, which was where the car was getting a service. Then, we walked about 2km to the local train station and caught the train to the famous Flinders Street station. We took a tram to the Melbourne aquarium, down the street. We watched the penguins being fed, then it was off to the sharks and stingray feed show with the divers. Some of the stingrays were huge! and they seemed to crowd all around the divers in the tank. We sat in a round room called the fishbowl and it was awesome with fish swimming all around. After, we browsed around a little more, then caught a tram to Federation Square, were we had lunch on the grass.

With our bellies full, we walked over the Yarra river to the Eureka Skydeck. A wopping 88 storys high, the highest platform in the southern hemisphere. The lift to the top takes just 4o seconds and the view from the top was breath-taking. You could see out to Port Philip bay, over to the hills of the dandenong ranges, and over the city itself. I spent my time watching all the trains pulling in and out of Flinders Street station! When our feet reached solid ground again, we went for a ride on the city circle tram to Myer. When we'd finished there, we took the train from Melbourne Central underground station back to Keon Park, were we caught a bus back to the car service centre. We we finally got home, it was seven o'clock and it was dark.

The best part of the day was:
riding the trams and the Skydeck. (Jerome)
seeing the stingrays and the sharks - Molly
Finding all the clues at the aquarium - Josie
going up the tower and seeing the view - Grace
seeing the saw fish, Daddy could use it as a saw - Sophia
hearing everyone call, "come and look at this" over and over - Kathryn
Skydeck outside deck - Darren

Welcome to Melbourne

Well, time has gotten by slipping away faster than sand through a sieve! But, here's the lastest updates over the past week. On Tuesday 13, all of us (excluding Dad) flew to Melbourne from Launceston. The flight was only an hour, so it didn't take long to get to Melbourne. We caught the Skybus from the airport to Southern Cross railway station, where I thought it was great seeing all the trams and trains go by! Julia, Dad's cousin, kindly met us at the station, before we caught the train to Auburn station. Upon arriving at Juila's house, we met Mr Matt, Callum and Dylan, Juila's nephews. It was Dylan's thrid to birthday, so we celebrated with a cake for dessert.

A surprise awaited us the next morning, when Dad arrived, earlier than we expected from the ferry. It had been terrific sailing weather, said Dad. We had breakfast with Julia and then we drove to the Crystal Brook caravan park in Doncaster and had a pretty quiet day. We did go for a drive to a park at Eltham. It had a good playground and a train line just near by, much to my approval! The following day, we went to lunch with Dad's Uncle Alistair and Auntie Michelle. They kindly prepared a wounderful lunch of soup, lasagne and cake to follow. After that, we went to the ground for modern art in Hiedelburg. The art was interesting, says Mum, but I didn't find extremely benificial!!

We packed up the caravan the next day, and, leaving the caravan back at the caravan park, went to Healsville wildlife sancuary. We saw a reptile show, birds of prey show, and even though we didn't get to see them in Tassie, we saw the platypus and Tassie Devils, all of which were interesting. We came back to caravan park, picked up the van, and crawled through traffic, as thick as custard, on the freeway to Mr and Mrs McSwiggins in Gisborne. Their boys, Angus and Liam, were great fun.

On Saturday we went to see Angus and Liam play Aus Kick at the local oval. Daddy kicked the football for us too and we had fun. After that we took a walk around Gisborne and went to a great playground, it had three flying foxes, one small, one medium and one high one, it was great so we could all have a go at once!

This evening Daddy and Josie and I went to the football, it was Collingwood and Hawthorn and it was good to be at the MCG to feel what it was like to be in a big crowd, 67,000, but the game was a bit of a fizzer as Collingwood won by 50 points. We got home late 11pm

Jerome has gone to bed, so Kathryn writes;
Today (Sunday) was a warm day in Melbourne, 27, but we are enjoying the sunshine while we can. It is lovely up here in Gisborne and the sunrise this morning was a spectacular aray of pink, orange and yellow spread across the expansive sky - awesome!

We took a drive to Bulla Hill Miniture railway and we took up all seven seats on the little steam train that was going around! It was a nice afternoon outing to see some of the countryside too. On our way back we visited Joe and Jill Westlake in Sunbury and caught up with them and Ben and Lisa and little Milly (Geoff's family) as well. It was great to see them and be welcomed so warmly and its a blessing to know we have family all around the place - even extended family!

Travelling along the Tamar

Pictures:
Scottsdale tree sculpture honouring those involved in wars.
Our camp spot in Lilydale.
Lilydale falls -no leeches thank goodness!
Beaconsfield hat dress up and scarf display.



Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed being around the Launceston area. We spent time over Easter based in a van park in the city and enjoyed - visiting Legana Christian Fellowship for the Easter convention, they are a great church and have excellent teaching, probably the church we would feel most at home in since we have been here in Tasmania! We took a tram ride in the city, (recommended by a man at the church who Jerome greatly enjoying talking to!) We also visited the central Baptist church who stage a large drama performance over Easter to celebrate the awesome and wonderful Resurrection of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That was great!

we were blessed to spend some time with Martin and Louise Filluel, who are the state directors of GFA, they have a lovely spot overlooking the Tamar river and we enjoyed our time with them and their family of four young children. We headed north to Beaconsfield and visited the Heritage and Mining museum there which has alot of historical equipment and also a tribute to the miners of the 2006 mining rock fall. They had a glass case there that contained 956m of knitted scarves that people had made to represent the depth that the miners were trapped at. People all around Australia and the world knitted these as a community identification and support at the time of the disaster. There was also a small telephone section that had dial phones, you know, the ones we had when we were kids, and didn't we feel old when our kids said, "How do you work these!" But they did have fun calling each other!

We left Launceston and travelled up to Low Head, on the east side of the Tamar River and to the north. We visited the Bass and Flinders museum up here and they had a replica of the Norfolk, they boat that the men used to travel around Tasmania and also do some other trips. The boat was sailed in 1998 as a commemorative trip to celebrate the 200 year anniversary, it was sailed by the man who built it - all wood, without any nails or screws by the way!! - and it cerainly showed the endurance and persistance of those early settlers. We went over the boat - down stairs into the three cramped compartments that the 8 men lived in - and we were showed around by a very enthusiastic guide who really loved the boats, the men and this small slice of history and its importance in our nation. He was brilliant and made our time there very informed.

Jerome writes:
From Low Head, we travelled up to Lilydale, which was about 50km. It was a fairly hilly drive, but the farmland was very spectacular and green. The free campsite was at Lilydale Falls reserve, set on the edge of forrest. After we set up the caravan, we went for a walk to the waterfalls, being careful of the leeches, which we'd been warned about! The falls were, well, pretty, but not as pretty as some of the other waterfalls we've been to. Still, its God's creation and it was nice and it made a terrific noise as all waterfalls do!

The following day, we woke to find it drizzling. We went for a drive out to Scottsdale, which was about 40km from the campsite. The drive was very pretty, through the rich farmland and forest. When we got to Scottsdale we went to the info centre, then to a park for some morning tea. The park a wooden tree sculpture, like that of the ones in Campell Town. This one was to play tribute to the many wars Australia's been involved in. We drove home at lunch time and most of our afternoon was spent doing nothing much, until another family with five children pulled in oppisite us. The were from NSW, but originally from South Africa. They were very nice to talk to and their children were great to play with.

We had plans to push on back to Longford on Sunday, but Lilydale was so nice that we decided to stay an extra night, we went for a walk along the railway line that ran by the camp (it isn't used anymore) and we collected wood, chopped it and then we lit a fire in the evening and sat around it with the other family we had met.

On Monday, we left Lilydale and travelled back to Launceston, intending to find a service station with cheap fuel that had been recommended to us. But, finding the service station turned into a wild goose chase across the city. Our silly GPS dosen't know we have a caravan on, so we ended up on a steep back street that we had to back out. We did enventualy found a some cheap fuel. We filled up, then drove down to Longford and set up at the caravan park. We're all (execpt Dad) are looking forward to our plane ride to Melbourne today. Poor Dad has to battle to Bass Strait on his ferry ride back to Melbourne, but he has a cabin so hopefully will get a good nights sleep.

Thanks Jerome. We hope all is well with everyone back home, we miss you all and trust your holidays have been great. Enjoy the months ahead. It is 5 degrees here this morning so we figure we are leaving Tasmania at the right time!!