Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to speak about the activities planned in Bradfield to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac, which is a very important occasion for our nation as we work to perpetuate the memory of so many Australians who served our nation a century ago.

More than $120,000 has been awarded by the federal government to support 11 local projects commemorating the Centenary of Anzac in my electorate of Bradfield. I am very pleased by the range, diversity and quality of the projects that have been chosen, which in turn reflects the range, diversity and quality of the projects which were proposed by many community organisations.

The projects that will be funded include a series of publications from the Ku-ring-gai Historical Society called Ku-ring-gai soldiers of the great war, volumes1 to 3;an annual memories and mementos event, as part of Seniors Week, coordinated by the Ku-ring-gai Historical Society; the installation of a commemorative sandstone plinth and plaque at Loreto Normanhurst; the installation of a Lone Pine memorial plaque at Masada College in St Ives; the construction of an old girls' memorial at Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon; the erection of a stone memorial dedicated to local Volunteer Defence Corps members from the Roseville area by the Roseville RSL sub branch; the Lights of our Lives community event to be organised by Ku-ring-gai Council; an exhibition at Abbotsleigh in Wahroonga, which will allow local families to share First World War memorabilia in the gallery at that school; a commemorative project at Killara High School; participation, along with a number of other electorates, in the funding of the commemorative service and photographic exhibition at the Sydney Jewish Museum, recognising the contribution of Jews to the war effort in World War I; and War Letters, which is a musical project coordinated by the University of Western Sydney, in which letters from World War I are set to music, with that performance to occur in the electorate. These projects will complement a wider series of commemorative activities that have been developed throughout our electorate.

I want to thank the members of the working party that I established to help develop our approach for commemorating the Centenary of Anzac in Bradfield, particularly Chairman Major Rod White (Ret'd), and Mr Ken Broadhead, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) who was our deputy chair and secretary. Their hard work, and the work of all on the working group, has been critical in reaching this point. I am confident that the range of activities which is planned will be an appropriate commemoration of this very important Centenary of Anzac, so that our local activities complement the national effort in this regard.

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