WITHIN DAYS I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF LAYING A WREATH AT GALLIPOLI AND PLANTING A SAPLING FROM THE SEED OF ITS POIGNANT LONE PINE AT THE MEADOWS PRIMARY SCHOOL IN BROADMEADOWS.

The juxtaposition is testimony to Faulkner’s insight that the past is never dead and buried – it is not even the past.

Australia and Turkey forged new identities at Gallipoli. Diggers and Turks fought in trenches sometimes only metres apart, shooting to kill then exchanging water and chocolate amid the heat, snow and carnage.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard summed up Gallipoli’s impact as representing to all Australians the deepest values of mateship, endurance and bravery. This theme resonates in Broadmeadows, home of the army barracks where the diggers were trained, which decades later accommodated Turkish migrants calling Australia home.

A study tour to Gallipoli allowed me to discuss the unique place Broadmeadows holds in Anzac history with the man in charge of the centenary commemorations and former head of Australia’s defence forces, Angus Houston.

Dressed in the costumes of their country of origin, students from the Meadows, located in the street where I grew up and St Dominic’s, the primary school I attended, honoured the Anzac spirit by singing ‘I am, you are, we are Australian’.

In Broadmeadows we are marking the countdown to the centenary of Gallipoli in 2015 as an opportunity to commemorate the values that unite us as Australians. AFL clubs Collingwood and Essendon play-off on Anzac Day each year and their presidents, Eddie McGuire and David Evans helped celebrate the planting of our local lone pine with star Essendon forward, Michael Hurley and excited students.

As a community we are determined to demonstrate that, like the lone pine planted in the playground at Meadows Primary School, Australians will grow and thrive beyond the burden of history, side by side.

BroadmeadowsIn ParliamentIn the CommunityIssues & OpinionsSpeeches