Hi Genevieve Jacobs from Region Media and I'm at the Australian
War Memorial where it is a buzz obviously Anzac Day on on
Monday Matt Anderson who's the director of the Australian War
Memorial is with me. Matt things look a little bit
different. Uh everyone who's driven up Anzac Parade down
Limestone Avenue knows that there's an enormous hoarding
around the front and that must affect plans for what happens
on Monday morning. Take us through the changes. So it's
affected it only slightly. What we've done is we moved the
stone of remembrance that everyone would remember was a
fixture on the parade ground before the steps. We brought
that over into the western gardens and the courtyards. So
that will still be the focal point for our commemorative
activities on Anzac Day and it just means that the dawn
service will be out here in this rural setting. It means
that the March past will be out here and then later on in the
day we'll conduct a very very dedicated last post ceremony
inside where the traditional wreath-laying will take place.
So what about people's participation during the day?
How do they get involved? The dawn service will be the same
so format will happen here at 5:30 in the morning. Then at
eight o'clock in the morning we're having the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islanders. The veterans are actually going to
conduct their own ceremony or a special ceremony over at the
For Country for our country statue here at the memorial.
Then we're going to have a Digger's March Past. The
Veteran's March at 9:30 where people are welcome to come
along and and participate and watch and applaud and encourage
and then let's say later on in the day we'll have the last
post ceremony. But throughout the day we would just encourage
people to come along to lay a wreath at the Stone of
remembrance to visit the War Memorial book online because of
the construction. We are physically limited with the
number of people we can have in the building. So we just
encourage people to book online. It it's often very much
a matter of remembering grandparents, great
grandparents, siblings lost at war. It's a personal story. It
is very much a personal story and it's not for us to to do
anything other than provide the space and the opportunity for
people to commemorate in a way that's meaningful to them
because for me the most powerful commemorations are
those that are heartfelt are those that are almost organic.
You know when you walk through the Australian War Memorial and
you see all those wonderful poppies on the roll of honour
you think that just happened. That just happened with people
lining up and they found a name that resonated and they placed
a poppy against the bronze plaque on the Roll of Honour
and that now is you know almost a Canberra signature image but
it is organic. It was unscripted but it was heartfelt
and I just want people on Anzac Day to do something that's
meaningful. An enormous great hole out the back. Let's get
down to tin tacks. Great big hole at the back. Plenty of
hoardings up the front. When are things going to get back to
normal if we can put it that way? Well we will have Anzac
Day back out the front. The parade ground will be finished.
The terrace seating will be in place and the front entrance
will be open on Anzac Day twenty twenty-four. Look also
making news on the site this week. We've had the story of
APS the public service being asked to take their holidays on
public holidays rather than taking the public holidays
working on them and taking another day off. That has
prompted frenzied debate across the site. There is an enormous
amount of discussion on that so you can hop in and join in on
that one. We've had the reporting of the the tragedy
down at Surf Beach over the Easter weekend which took the
life of a 41-year-old Canberra woman. 10 people in total were
rescued from the surf and plenty of commentary around
that too on the importance of people both learning to swim
and having their CPR their first aid qualifications. Uh
we've been talking about Canberrans and casual speeding.
The police are having a look at why it is that Canberrans feel
it's quite okay to just trick over the speed limit. 5Ks or
so. Not sure where you all stand on that one and we did a
very thorough interrogation last week of the nation's
capital's best hot cross buns we're there again with the
Anzac biscuits okay and all the rest well well it is it is my
firm opinion Matt that the best Anzac biscuit is a homemade
Anzac biscuits and that that is what is currently at the Region
Media Office in my cake tin can I just say but look The Riotact
really encourages a big community conversation we've
got a newsletter that drops into your or inbox every
Thursday so sign up and be part of that. Be on the site every
day. There's a Daily Digest and hop in and have your say on the
issues that are galvanising Canberrans and Matt we hope for
glorious sunshine all the honour, all the ceremony, all
the dignity and all the very personal memories that so
characterise Anzac Day. Thank you for your time. Thank you
Genevieve and thank you for your interest and and you know
Canberra's interest in both Anzac Day and the Australian War
Memorial. It it is a feature of of Canberra this this
institution and I look forward to welcoming as many people
back as possible on Anzac Day. I'm Genevieve Jacobs. This is
Region Media.