A group of 20 parents, teachers, students and community members from Inverell High School begun their 16-day study tour of Europe, by visiting France and Belgium where the group saw many significant sites of Australians at war.

History teacher Anthony Dale, who is travelling with the students, shed some light on some of the historic locations.

The group visited the graves of more than a dozen of the Inverell Kurrajongs, who rest in the Bethlehem Farm West cemetery at Messines in Belgium.

These members of the Kurrajong contingent were killed in action at the battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

Bob Jamieson placed a poppy at the grave of Pte B. H. McCosker – one of more than a dozen Kurrajongs from Inverell, members of the 33rd battalion buried in the Bethlehem Farm West cemetery at Messines in Belgium.

Three former Holy Trinity students - Nathan Jamieson (Inverell High), Jake Kellow (Inverell High) and Katie Hindley (Macintyre High) from the Inverell High School Western Front Germany Modern History study tour were honoured to present a wreath at last Wednesday’s sunset commemorative ceremony at the Menin Gate World War 1 memorial at Ypres in Belgium in the lead-up to Anzac Day services in Europe.

Over the previous few days, the students, their parents and teachers had visited the Villers-Bretonneux school and memorial as well as World War 1 battle sites and cemeteries from the 1916-1917 Somme and Flanders campaigns. The group is currently in Poland and have visited the Auschwitz concentration camp and other sites this week.

After leaving France the group have headed to Poland and will then visit Germany to see a range of Nazi Germany and Cold War sites, like the Berlin Wall and Nuremberg.