Hello GPCC community and welcome back to Term 2, it has been great to see the students back on campus and learning getting back underway after the break.

I want to thank everyone for the way the community has been responding to some of the traffic changes related to the ongoing construction. It is great to see drivers flowing instructions and following the carpark rules.

This week we have held our Anzac remembrance services. What follows is the text of the speech from the secondary service.

2024 Anzac Day Address

"At 0500hrs, three platoons of the leading company of the 7th Battalion set off in four of the ship’s boats.

As they moved away from the dim light, the Company Commander, Major Jackson could see the flashes of shells and rifles to their front. Approaching the shore, the men caught the sound of firing, to their right they could see shells bursting over other boats of the Battalion.

Ahead they saw rifle and machine gun fire cutting up the water. As the lead boat, under the command of Captain Layh, entered the field of fire, five out of the six rowers were shot, but others took the oars, and they pushed on.

The boat was scraping the shingle when, as Captain Layh threw himself into the water beside it, he was shot through the hip.

As he turned to call the men forward, he was again shot in the leg. With the survivors, he scrambled toward the little grass-tufted sand hummocks fringing the beach, and they lay low behind them.

Of the 140 men in the four boats, only 3 officers and 36 men, many wounded, made the safety of the hummocks, the rest lay dead or dying behind them." C.E.W. Bean, ‘The Story of ANZAC’

These events depicted here by the war correspondent and historian Captain Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean marked the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign. The Gallipoli campaign lasted 10 months and it did not meet its objectives. It was in many ways considered a failure.

However, it did mark the beginning of what we now call the ANZAC spirit. In the horrible crucible of war that was Gallipoli, Australian soldiers demonstrated a commitment to each other, a fortitude in battle, and ingenuity of thought and spirit that came to shape the way Australians were seen on the battlefield. This spirit came to shape the way our then young nation saw itself.

Sacrifice, mateship and commitment to something greater, continue to be values that shape how we see ourselves as a nation and on ANZAC day and at events like this we meet to remember the commitment, service, and sacrifice of our defence personnel. From those that served in the early battles of World War 1 to those men and women that continue to serve and defend our country in theatres of war and on peace keeping missions today.

We do not meet to glorify the horrors of war, rather we meet to remember the sacrifice of all those that served our country. We meet to honour their memories and we honour their memories best in seeking to learn the lessons of the past so we may not contribute to repeating them.

On ANZAC day we remember our service men and women and the sacrifices that they have made. The many that made the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives, did so in the service of something greater than themselves, for King and country, for democracy, for freedom. However, they would also say that they were fighting for their mates, for their family, or for their friends. They gave up their lives for the tangible hope that the lives of those they loved would be better.

In John 15 we read;

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends

At Easter, Jesus, laid down His life for all of humanity, that all who believe in Him might be saved.

The men and women that died in war in the hope that they might contribute to a world that had peace and freedom.

Jesus died on the cross so that all of us might be free from sin and that ultimate peace will envelope the earth when He comes again.

We pause today to remember the sacrifice and service of our defence personnel and we continue to pray for and end to all war. We also remember that the way to that peace is through Jesus’ own sacrifice.

Lest we forget.

Joel van Bentum
Principal