Report to Government

Recommendations

Overall approach to the commemoration

Recommendation 1

The Board recommends that the Anzac Centenary commemoration be built around two uniting themes:

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  Rabaul to Return, which will recognise Australia’s experience in the First World War, extending from the little-known first military engagement in New Guinea, through Gallipoli and the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, to the under-recognised efforts and challenges involved in the return home of our servicemen and servicewomen and their re-engagement with civilian life.
  
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  Century of Service, which will recognise the more than 100 years of other service since the Boer War to the present day and how this continues the Anzac tradition (paragraphs 1.26–1.42).
  

Recommendation 2

The Board recommends that the commemoration activities should:

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  be grouped into coherent streams of activities that can be understood readily by the Australian public, who are the ultimate ‘owners’ of the commemoration. These should be ‘education and research’, ‘commemoration’, and ‘arts and culture’
  
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  where possible, leave a lasting legacy of benefit to Australia well beyond the commemoration itself
  
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  while focusing principally on activities within Australia, also include appropriate and cooperative international activities with First World War allies, notably New Zealand, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom; and adversaries, notably Turkey (see Appendix 4 for international activities).
  

Recommendation 3

The Board recommends that, rather than only taking a top-down approach, the commemoration should:

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  provide strong encouragement of initiatives generated by communities and organisations throughout Australia, including rural and regional Australia
  
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  provide support for state and territory initiatives,including recognition, use of the Anzac Centenary logo, and funding, where appropriate.
  

Travelling exhibition

Recommendation 4

The Board recommends that a centrepiece for the engagement of communities, particularly in rural and regional Australia, be a national Anzac Centenary travelling exhibition:

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  the type, scope and length of the exhibition may vary depending on funding availability
  
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  the preferred option is development of a high-quality digital travelling exhibition, which could receive funding from the pool of corporate donations collected through the Anzac Centenary Public Fund, together with the possibility of a modest advance of ‘seed funding’ provided by the Government to initiate the project
  
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  the possibility of using the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s local and regional facilities to support the exhibition, including its sites, buildings and communication and transmission equipment, could also be explored
  
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  taking into account the uncertainties of funding, the Board notes that there could be alternatives to a travelling exhibition, in order to maximise the impact and community engagement from scarce resources—for example, an air show around which local community events could be organised. Such an air show could also stand as a worthwhile initiative in its own right (paragraphs 2.5–2.12).
  

Exhibition in a Box

Recommendation 5

The Board recommends that the Exhibition in a Box initiative being developed by the Australian War Memorial in conjunction with the National Archives of Australia be supported to assist communities develop their own Anzac Centenary exhibitions. This initiative allows communities to download a range of materials and provides support for them to produce and customise their own exhibitions relevant to their own histories (paragraph 2.13).

Other support for communities

Recommendation 6

The Board recommends that in addition to the travelling exhibition and Exhibition in a Box initiatives:

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  communities throughout Australia should be fully encompassed in the significant nationwide Centenary activities, such as education, the collection and telling of personal stories, and the use of media, including, importantly, social media
  
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  communities, in putting together their own commemorative programs, should to the extent that it is feasible be able to draw upon a menu of support, including information materials, visits by expert speakers (including historians), and Australian Defence Force involvement (including visits by servicemen and servicewomen, band performances and so on) (paragraph 5.19).
  

Educational scholarships and grants

Recommendation 7

The Board recommends that a scalable Anzac Centenary Educational Scholarships and History Grants Program be established. The program could include:

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  higher degree scholarships to allow students to undertake a higher degree by research on a topic relating to Australian military history and the home front. Recipients should be encouraged to take up teaching duties during their degrees to build their tertiary teaching skills and to prepare them for an academic career, if they wish to pursue one
  
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  Anzac scholarships (New Zealand), along the lines of a Monash or Rhodes scholarship, to allow a small number of Australian postgraduate students to study in New Zealand universities and New Zealand postgraduate students to study in Australian universities
  
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  Anzac scholarships (Turkey) to allow a small number of undergraduate, postgraduate and academic exchanges between Australian and Turkish universities, supporting study by Australian students and academics in Turkish studies and Turkish students and academics in Australian studies. The various scholarship programs that the Board proposes should be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they complement, rather than duplicate, existing scholarships
  
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  history grants to support and encourage academic and non-academic research into the experience and impact of Australian involvement in the First World War
  
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  support for a proposal by the Australian War Memorial and the Australian National University to convene an international history conference focusing on the Gallipoli campaign (paragraphs 2.14–2.17).