Melbourne to Adelaide

Remembrance.

Never letting our ancestors be forgotten.

Honoring those who gave their lives in defense of our cause.

Every country or culture seems to have rituals, traditions and/ or monuments 

To assure that successive generations remember.

Australia is no exception.  

The Shrine of Remembrance was created in 1926 to meet the needs of a grieving community after the extensive loss of lives in the First World War. 114,000 Victorians enlisted in the First World War. Of the 89,000 of them who served abroad 19,000 were killed. They were buried in distant graves far from home at a time when most Australians did not travel abroad. The Shrine provided a place where Australians  could grieve as individuals, as families or as a community and where they could honour and preserve the memories of those they had lost.

The view from the top is amazing.

From inside you can look up to see the light come in and then the friezes along the sides

Rudyard Kipling's sister lived here and he was said to have been moved to write 

The following poem that is inscribed inside:

How once there was a people fenced secure Behind great waters girdling a far home.
Their own and their land’s youth ran side by side Heedless and headlong as their unyoked seas- Lavish o’er all, and set in stubborn pride

Of judgment nurtured by accepted peace.
Thus, suddenly, war took them - seas and skies
Joined with the earth for slaughter. In a breath
They, scoffing at all talk of sacrifice,
Gave themselves without idle words to death.
Thronging as cities throng to watch a game,
Or their own herds move southward with the year, Secretly, swiftly, from their ports they came,
So that before half Earth had heard their name
Half Earth had learned to speak of them with fear. Because of certain men who strove to reach
Through the red surf the crest no man might hold,
And gave their name for ever to a beach
Which shall outlive Troy’s tale when time is old. Because of horsemen, gathered apart and hid- Merciless riders whom Megiddo sent forth
When the outflanking hour struck and bid
Them close and bar the drove-roads to the north.
And those who, when men feared the last March flood Of western war had risen beyond recall,
Stormed through the night from Amiens and made good, At their glad cost, the breach that perilled all.
Then they returned to their desired land-
The kindly cities and plains where they were bred- Having revealed their nation in Earth’s sight
So long as sacrifice and honour stand,
And their own sun at the hushed hour shall light.  The Shrine of these their dead! - Rudyard Kipling

After our visit to the shrine, we returned to our charming hotel and packed up to leave for the airport and on to Adelaide.