Trench life a sure-fire hit
No photographs or movies about Gallipoli can prepare you for this.
Soldiers run through drifting smoke with ammunition, others fire Lee-Enfield rifles, stretcher-bearers carry a “wounded digger”, and the general noise is the chatter of a Vickers machine-gun.
Those rifles are shooting blanks and the machine-gun is actually firing squirts of LP gas.
As news of war spread in 1914, Australians hurried to enlist.
Formed in WA, the 11th Battalion was in the first Australian Imperial Force sent to Gallipoli, and on April 25, 1915, the charge ashore was led by WA’s 11th Battalion.
Reflecting on this, Tim Rust and Stu Adamson had the idea of a replica trench, on Stu and Di Adamson’s property at Northern Gully, which hosts the annual Valley View Fly In. It had to be Leane’s Trench.
On July 31, 1915, the 11th took a Turkish trench and named it after the commander of the successful attack, Captain Raymond Leon Leane.
It was held to the final withdrawal five months later.
An aerial photograph of Leane’s Trench was found, but volunteers soon cursed the rocky plateau at Northern Gully.
Weekends of labour yielded only blisters, until blasting specialist Stone Echo Pty Ltd became the first corporate sponsor.
More sponsors are needed to have this not-for-profit project ready for Anzac Day, so invited guests last Saturday had a VIP view of trench life.
To be a part of this unique educational experience, contact Natalie Rust on 0437 019 665.
