Anzac ballot the key to a dream
When Francis Golden Gordon Brown landed on the beach at Gallipoli in 1915, he would have had no idea about how he would be remembered 100 years later.
But if the cards fall the right way, his deeds on that Turkish shore during World War I will be remembered with pride at the site itself on Anzac Day next year.
A number of Brown's descendants have put their names into the ballot for the limited places at the dawn service at Gallipoli commemorating the centenary of the landings. There will be 8000 places for Australians and 2000 for New Zealanders.
Those hoping to secure a place will need a big slice of luck.
By the time the ballot closed last night it was likely that more than 30,000 applications had been received by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
Among the applicants is Brown's grandson Justin Capp, of Bayswater.
He had been to war memorials on the Western Front but not to Gallipoli, so it would be a thrill to secure a place at the 2015 dawn service in Turkey. "Hopefully, one of us will get a place," he said.
"It would be great."
Australian War Memorial records show Brown joined the 19th Infantry Battalion on April 26, 1915. He left Sydney on the transport ship Hobart on July 6, 1915.
The 19th trained in Egypt from late July until mid-August and on August 21 landed at Anzac Cove.
The AWM says the battalion was withdrawn from the peninsula on December 19. It went to the Western Front in 1916 and took part in numerous key battles until it helped push back the German army in late 1918, just before Germany surrendered.
The family's research shows that after Gallipoli, Brown fought in France and Belgium and was wounded three times.
His only brother Huxley was killed in action in June 1917.
Francis Brown returned to Australia in July 1919 and died in 1977.
The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Michael Ronaldson, said that as of Wednesday there had been 29,307 applications lodged in the ballot.
Outside the ballot, 160 widows of World War I veterans had been offered a place.
Senator Ronaldson said those who had been successful in the ballot would know before Anzac Day this year and they would then have six months to confirm their travel arrangements.
He told ABC TV that he realised there would be "a lot of disappointed people" but there were other overseas options outside Turkey. These included services at Villers-Bretonneux in France and in Britain.
