A FEW months later, the four Macintyre High School students who attended the Gallipoli Anzac Dawn Service want more. They have caught the history bug.
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Jesse Hayden, Emily Cairns, Ashley Johnson and Colette Monaghan were chosen for the Turkey trip with teacher Lee Cutler. The five shared lunch with NSW Minister for Veteran’s Affairs MP David Elliott on Tuesday, and spoke about their experience.
Emily had one lasting thought that lingered three months after the trip.
“Going back. Just to experience more of what we saw, all the battlefields and just experience more, I suppose,” she said.
Emily said some of the students have family members who had seen conflict, so the effects were familiar, but Gallipoli gave it depth.
“The mental problems, what they saw and the nightmares, so there’s always been an appreciation there, but going over and seeing the terrain and everything made you have more of an understanding,” she said.
Jesse said he often thinks about the historian they travelled with at Gallipoli.
“He put us in their shoes and he did a really good job giving us their experiences, what they had to go through, the mindset they had and all the hardships,” he said.
“I don’t study history at school, but I wasn’t too interested before, but I really am now, going over there and learning a bit more.”
Charlotte agreed the historian was memorable, especially considered the ANZAC’S climbing the steep cliffs of Gallipoli.
“He told us, ‘Just imagine, your backpacks you’re wearing now are nowhere near as heavy as what they would have carried up’,” she said.
Ashley had a desire to return to visit the graves and battlegrounds quietly when the peninsula was not so populated by tourists.
“It was lovely to stand over there with so many people, and commemorate it with so many.
“But I think to be over there by yourself, it would be a lot more moving,” he said.