ANZAC 2014 Commemoration

9,000 fallen soldiers etched into the sand on Normandy Beach to commemorate Peace Day on September 25th, 2013

The Middleton Beach Group is keen to participate in Albany’s commemoration, in November 2014, of the departure of troops for Gallipoli.

We were initially inspired by the sand etching “The Fallen 9000” commemorating Allied and German soldiers and sailors who died on Normandy beaches on D-day. We found this temporary installation extremely moving, however our shorter tide intervals and narrower beach probably make a sand etching of any sort extremely difficult, especially such an extensive one depicting 30,000 troops.

We are therefore seeking input from the MBG community about what we might do. Are you interested, and if so, what can we do ? Should it be a local community event, or involve the whole region, schools etc ? Ideas to date include:-

* The placement of 30,000 flags along the beach and possibly some of the grassed areas:
* Instead of flags, artificial poppies. We envisage that most of these would be made beforehand by those participating, with scope for more at the time. We will have a prototype at the meeting on January 6
* If 30,0000 of anything is too daunting, then perhaps a smaller sand etching or other ways of using sand sculpturall7y, e.g., the horses on board ?
* A more art focused installation of some sort. One suggestion to date is to “yarn bomb” the jetty with a knitted and/or crocheted covering.

Please bring your ideas along to our next MBG meeting on January 6th, 5.00 p.m. – 6.30 p.m. at Ellen Cove, where hopefully we will arrive at a decision and form a steering committee to progress it. Anything we plan will of course require approval from the Anzac Albany organisers.

Pat and Ron Kerruish
Barb Madden
Jane Mouritz

for MBG December 2013