Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 7 November at 7 pm and on Tuesday, 10 November at 1.30 pm, two important events will occur at the Ku-ring-gai Town Hall in Pymble. The events will be a performance of a project entitled War Letters, which involves taking letters written by World War I soldiers and putting them to music. The two concerts to be held at Ku-ring-gai Town Hall are designed to share this important element of our history with the residents of Bradfield, with the second concert in particular targeted at schoolchildren. This project is a touching and thoughtful way to convey the memories and experiences of World War I soldiers to a modern audience. I want to congratulate Diana Blom, Elliot Gyger, Nicole Murphy and Larry Sitsky, the composers whose work will be performed, and I also want to acknowledge the work of Western Sydney University for their coordinating role in this project.

The rationale for the project is that letters written by those who were serving in World War I can offer us today a unique and important insight into their personal experiences and in turn into the devastating and transformative impact of World War I. This project has been funded under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program and received $25,000. I want to congratulate the Bradfield Centenary of Anzac committee for their support of this important project and a number of other projects, and I particularly want to mention Major Rod White AM, RFD (Retd), who was chair of the committee, and Lt Col. Ken Broadhead (Retd), who was secretary of the committee.

As we all know, the Centenary of Anzac is an exceptionally important national milestone because it marks the 100th anniversary of an event of enormous significance to Australia's national identity, the battle on the Gallipoli peninsula, where Australian and New Zealand forces came ashore in April 1915. Across Australia, throughout our communities we are in many ways commemorating and marking this important anniversary and reflecting on its significance to contemporary Australia, and the War Letters project and the concerts to be held shortly in my electorate of Bradfield are important parts of that recognition. I encourage residents of Bradfield to attend these important concerts.