Year 9 Anzac Memorial and State Library Excursion

O

n May 1 Year 9 Fortians assembled at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park to tour the memorial’s displays, places of reflection and a play depicting the experiences of nurses during World War One. The students said this of their experience:

The part of the day I found the most interesting was our tour of the ANZAC Memorial. We got to look through exhibits that held artifacts, displays and outfits from the wars, particularly WWI.

The Hall of Silence, the Hall of Memory, Well of Contemplation and the room with the dirt samples of the towns and places soldiers came from and fought on helped to visualise the scale of the war and empathise with the people from that time.

I found the play as the most enjoyable part of the excursion, as it was intriguing how the play was so captivating and dramatic with only one actor.

Students then had lunch in Hyde Park where they got to witness a May Day march by various union groups. Students were intrigued by the parade and happily posed in front of the workers waving their flags. This was not a planned part of the excursion, but tied in really nicely with themes students had explored earlier in the course regarding the Industrial Revolution and the growth of the trade union movement in the 1800s.

In the afternoon, students arrive at the State Library where they got a brief tour of the famous Reading Room in the Mitchell Wing, before engaging with some interesting presentations of original WWI artifacts including soldiers’ diaries and a suitcase full of war memorabilia. This is what students had to say: 

At the State Library, the hands-on experience with artifacts on World War 1 was fun while also being informative. Prior to that experience, I had never known that soldiers would collect items from the war and found that investigating who the person was based on their belongings was extremely interesting.

I also enjoyed the suitcase artifact activity as it put to use my deduction and inference skills through teamwork and investigating WW1 items.

When we went to the library I enjoyed being able to touch and see all the real WW1 artifacts and trying to decode the identity of the person was interesting as well because it’s uncommon to be able to actually handle the real original items.

These experiences are really valuable not just because students get to experience artifacts and stories that are not available to them in the school classroom, but because they get to see the city and its important public institutions. The students should be proud of their respectful and inquisitive approach to the excursion.