Australian War Memorial

Australian War Memorial - Friday Nov 28^th

We are up early this morning to start packing our bags and check out of our nice golf and country club.  We head to the Yoawani dining room to do a bit of internet work before we leave and this nice Yoawani employee meets us at the door.  He helps us log in and says would we like coffee, to which we reply yes.  He says he will bring us a coffee (very nice of him).  During our internet time, he stops in to see how we are doing and we have a nice chat about our travels here in Australia.  He is thinking of taking his kids on a trip and Canada is high on the list.  We give him a few good ideas and also provide a nice quick slide show on what they will see based on a trip around Alberta.  Before we leave he tells us we must go to the War Memorial Museum.  He also hands me his business card.  We thank him for the coffee and the great accommodation and off we go.  When wecheck the card later, we find he is the club CEO (Adrian Derham).  We take Adrian’s advice and our trusty GPS finds the War Memorial.

After finding the free parking in the basement of the memorial, we park the car and head upstairs.  The building is beautiful stone, with wide open front steps and when you turn around to look back, WOW…you can see clear to Parliament House??  The sight is spectacular.

Inside, the building is also amazing, with wings dedicated for specific time periods of war (First World, Second World, and Korean War) and dedicated to the Australians that fought in the battles.  They include static displays, historic films, and combinations of movie and sound to highlight specific Aussie battles.  They are very moving and we watch all the displays.  We spend hours in the wings and after we tour as much as we can, we move on. 

Upstairs and outside is the most emotional war memorial we have ever seen.  Two long, long walls covered in bronze plaques and highlighted with poppies dedicated to the names of Aussies that served in the Great War, the Second World War, and newer conflicts today.  It is very moving and we read as many of the names as we can.  We find one Cornthwaite that fought in the Great War, 58th Battalion (Cornthwaite, W.M).  At the ends of the walls is a domed room that pays homage to the Unknown Soldier.  The dome is covered in millions of tiles which create images of each of the different forces (Air, Sea, Army and the Woman’s force).  Just an incredibly special place. 

On the way to Ulladulla, we pass a sign that says local police doing random roadside breath tests…..I missed that sign.  Not far down the road, and around a corner, here is a roadside Ride Program.  The officers pull five cars over at a time, they ask for your licence and then asks me to blow into this small handheld device and count to 5.  You don't even touch it! He was more interested in the fact Alan is Canadian and says he would like to go to Canada someday..….the Australians and Canadians are so much alike. 

The ground levels out after the town Bungendore and it is much flatter.  As we get closer to Batemans Bay the country side becomes very mountainous and we are back into twisty, windy, narrow roads. 

Eventually we arrive in Ulladulla and we find a motel. Dinner is at the local RSL. We call Miriam and she is home, so we stop over for a cup of coffee, an oatmeal square for Alan and a great yarn.
We take a few more pictures of rugs and she asks us to meet her the next morning in Milton at Jackies house.  We agree, say our goodbyes and head out.  We leave a nice bag of wool bits with Miriam as we don’t have enough room in our suitcase.  She is very happy to receive them.  She gives Kath a beautiful pair of English hooks.  We will be up early to be in Milton for a visit at 8 pm.