Victor Dominello med rel: Gallipoli 2015 School Tour: 100 NSW Students Earn Trip of a Lifetime

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Victor Dominello today named the 100 high school students, aged 15 to 18, who have been selected to represent NSW at Centenary of Anzac commemorations at Gallipoli in April 2015.

Mr Dominello was joined by Member for Parramatta Geoff Lee at Cumberland High School in Carlingford, which was one of 25 schools drawn in a ballot in September and invited to conduct a local selection process to choose four students and one teacher for the trip.

“The NSW Government is investing $1 million to enable 100 students to participate in a nine-day tour during which they will visit historical sites and First World War battlefields in Turkey and attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli,” Mr Dominello said.

“What I am most proud of is the calibre of students who have been chosen to represent our State next year.

“We’ve seen a very high standard in the works submitted by the 377 applicants, including websites, artworks, poems and research papers focused on the experiences of our nation’s servicemen and servicewomen during the First World War.

“Among the 100 students and 28 supervising teachers travelling to Gallipoli there are some amazing family connections to the Anzac story.

“The students and teachers come from all across the State, from Albury to Ballina and from Griffith to Western Sydney. Some students come from Aboriginal heritage, some are recent migrants to NSW and some have family currently serving in the Australia Defence Force.”

Students and teachers chosen for the Gallipoli 2015 School Tour include:

Sydney Secondary College student Renee Langenheim who is the great granddaughter of Alec Campbell, Australia’s last ANZAC;
Swansea High School teacher Bruce Eyre whose grandfather served as a light horseman at Gallipoli;
Saint Mary Mackillop College student Therese Horsfall whose father served in Afghanistan; and
Pittwater High School student Hamish Wickman whose great Uncle was Lt. Col. George Braund, one of two Members of NSW Parliament who died at Gallipoli.

Mr Dominello said the students and teachers would join more than 10,000 Australian and New Zealanders at the Dawn Service commemorating the Gallipoli landings in 1915 and will also attend the Australian Service at Lone Pine later on the morning of 25 April.

Over 220 students were selected for interview by local selection panels which included local RSL NSW Sub-Branch representatives, the local state MP as well as school and community members chosen by the principal.