SPEECH: Australian Consul-General Gareth Williams, Anzac Day Address at the Australian International School Hong Kong, 25 April 2024
Good morning everyone.
Today, along with Australians and New Zealanders everywhere around the world, we gather to remember those who have served to defend our countries.
It’s a day of reflection.
Whether it be attending dawn service, wearing a sprig of rosemary, or taking your own personal time to reflect, we make an effort because Anzac Day is the most significant national day of commemoration for Australians and New Zealanders.
It is the anniversary of the day when Australian and New Zealand soldiers – known as the Anzacs - landed on the beach at Gallipoli in Türkiye, during the First World War, on 25 April 1915.
This was the first major military campaign for soldiers from Australia and New Zealand.
It was a day of terrible loss. At least 130,000 soldiers on both sides lost their lives at Gallipoli.
The Australians who served in the First World War came from all sorts of backgrounds, including Indigenous Australians, Europeans, and Chinese Australians; some soldiers whose families came from Southern China, including here in Hong Kong.
They may have come from different backgrounds, but they were committed to defending the values that are important to us: freedom and equality.
At Sai Wan Cemetery here in Hong Kong, 34 Australian and New Zealand service personnel lay at rest.
Anzac Day has become an occasion to honour all who have worn our countries’ uniforms in service since, whether it has been in other wars, in peacekeeping, or in times of national or international disasters.
We honour the values that have been invested in the original Anzacs – loyalty, selflessness, courage – and consider the ways in which we, the generations who have followed, measure our own values against those who served.
The spirit of the Anzacs is special.
It is sometimes regarded as a quality that defines what it means to be an Australian or a New Zealander; qualities like duty, determination, teamwork, respect, humour, and mateship.
These are the values that also shine through in the students, teachers and families that form Australian International School community, as well as the broader Australian and New Zealand communities here in Hong Kong.
Thank you.