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NEWS |
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Dateline
- April 23, 2007
New technology to enhance Gallipoli experience
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A new bilingual audio
tour will enhance the experiences of visitors to Gallipoli this
month, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Billson,
announced today. “The
Visit Gallipoli website
gives visitors to the peninsula and those surfing the internet
at home an opportunity to learn more about the Gallipoli campaign,
visiting Gallipoli today, and the Anzac Commemorative Site,
as well as research and educational resources for individuals,
teachers and students,” Mr Billson said today.
“In particular,
the website now contains three tours, the Anzac Walk, Turkish
Monuments and Memorials and a new Gallipoli Tour. Each tour
offers a printed guide, historical and contemporary images,
and an audio commentary available in both English and Turkish,
able to be downloaded as an MP3 file. “In
the first two weeks of April, more than 20 gigabytes was downloaded
from the site. This is equivalent to around 6900 audio tours
downloaded in just two weeks, indicating that many visitors
to Gallipoli this month will be tuned into their MP3 players.
“To be able
to visit Gallipoli with some sense of what happened there, is
to pay the best tribute possible to the soldiers, sailors and
airmen of all countries who fought and died during the Gallipoli
campaign. This is what we hope we can provide with these unique
audio tours,” Mr Billson said.
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The Anzac Walk tour takes the visitor around 14 locations on the
old Anzac battlefield of 1915 at Gallipoli. Discover the stories
of North Beach, Artillery Road, Lone Pine and the Nek as seen
through the eyes of those who fought and died there. Feel the
truth of the words of Australia’s official historian of the
Gallipoli campaign, Charles Bean:
“The graves of Gallipoli, exquisitely maintained, where Anzac
folk can walk amid thousands of names as familiar as those along
Collins or Pitt Streets, do call for visitors.”
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For the people of Turkey, the ‘Battle of Çanakkale’,
as they call the Turkish struggle to retain control of the Gallipoli
peninsula, is one of the most important events in the founding
of the Republic of Turkey. The Turkish Monuments and Memorials
tour features 10 monuments, memorials and locations on the Gallipoli
peninsula and at Çanakkale which tell the courageous story
of the Turkish struggle in 1915 to defend the peninsular from
seizure by the forces of the British Empire and France.
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The Gallipoli Tour features 22 historical sites on the Gallipoli
area providing an insight into the land and naval battles fought
there between February 1915 and January 1916. The tour encourages
visitors to Gallipoli spend a day at Anzac, a day at Helles and
a day covering the fascinating shore of the Straits from Çanakkale
to Kumkale. Turkish, Australian New Zealand, British and French
sites are all covered in this short, but comprehensive. journey.
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Each
tour also includes images that will allow visitors to imagine
the scene in front of them as it might have been in 1915 at the
height of the campaign. “It is also hoped that these comprehensive
audio tours will encourage visitors to Gallipoli to stay longer
to explore the area in more detail,” Mr Billson said. “It
is only with the generosity of the Turkish people that Australians
are able to gather at Gallipoli each year and if we can encourage
tourists to extend their stay in the area, then we have been able
to give something back in return.” The
Visit Gallipoli website can be found at www.anzacsite.gov.au.
Visitors can also find out more information about Anzac Day commemorations
at Gallipoli at www.dva.gov.au/commem/anzac/gallipoli01.htm
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