2011 Remembrence Day - National Pilgrimage and Wreath Laying
‘Lest We Forget’ RTA Pilgrimage to Ballarat
Sunday, 6 November 2011: Return To Anatolia and the Greek Reservists’ Association of Australia in collaboration with the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Ballarat commemorated Hellenic National Day (28 October) and Remembrance Day (11 November) with a national ‘pilgrimage’ to the centre in rural Victoria.
Following Divine Liturgy at St Nicholas’ Orthodox Church, Ballarat, people from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Ballarat gathered for a wreath-laying ceremony was conducted at the Australian Ex-Prisoners-of-War Memorial in the city’s Botanic Gardens. Rev. Fr. Christos Theodoridis read a requiem prayer over the monument that records the name of every Australian who was captured on the field of battle since 1899, while a representative from the Eureka Military Buglers sounded the Last Post.
The day continued with a function at the Ballarat Hellenic Orthodox Community hall. The Hon. Geoff Howard MP (state Member for Ballarat East) addressed the gathering, speaking eloquently about his own ANZAC pilgrimage earlier this year, when along with other Victorian MPs, he toured battlefields and war cemeteries in Athens and on Krete. Also in attendance were the representative of the Hellenic Consulate-general in Melbourne, Mr Evangelos Gogos, the Hon John Pandazopoulos MP (state Member for Dandenong) and Cr John Phillips (Ballarat City Council).
The keynote speaker was Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, RTA board member and Director of Research for the Australian Hellenic Council (NSW). Dr Diamadis addressed the deep ties of the Ballarat district to Hellenism, dating as far back as the 1854 Eureka Stockade.
Most significant of these links was Colonel George Devine Treloar, the Ballarat-born League of Nations’ Commissioner for Refugees in north-eastern Greece between 1922 and 1926. In this role, Treloar saved about 108,000 destitute survivors of the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides from starvation and disease.
Messages of welcome were also presented by the President of the Reservists’ Association, Mr George Rahovitis, RTA Chairperson, Mrs Sofia Kotanidis and the Presidnet of the Ballarat HOC, Mr Andrew Lytras. The cultural aspect of the programme was provided by performances from the ladies’ folkdance group and the ‘Paroikia’ Choir.
As all the speakers noted, Ballarat and its unique monument hold a special significance for the Australian Hellenic community. Amongst the individual and place names carved into the stones of the Memorial are ‘GREECE’ ‘KRETE’ and the names of almost 6,000 Australian servicemen who were captured and/or held as prisoners-of-war in the Hellenic world (Greece and Anatolia).