Students and staff returned from the Easter break today – just in time for a public holiday on Wednesday when Australia remembers all of our Armed Forces but in particular the ANZACs

ANZAC is the acronym formed from the initial letters of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the formation into which Australian and New Zealand soldiers were grouped in Egypt prior to the landing at Gallipoli in April 1915.

The word was initially used to refer to the cove where the Australians and New Zealanders landed and soon after, to the men themselves. An ANZAC was a man who was at the Landing and who fought at Gallipoli, but later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealand soldier of the First World War. An ANZAC who served at Gallipoli was given an A badge which was attached to his colour patch.   (http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/anzac/acronym/)

The IRC has a display of just a few of the books from our collection on Gallipoli and the ANZACs for students to browse. (Note the recipe for Anzac Biscuits – these were sent to the troops from the home front and were notorious for “keeping well” for so long!)

The website advertised in the display www.anzacsite.gov.au links to many other online resources from a number of collections. It is the official Australian Government site for ANZAC information.