Commemoration of the only WW1 event that took place on Australian soil

On New Year’s Day Simon Molesworth, INTO President addressed the commemoration of the centenary of the only act of war on Australian soil in the 1st World War. The 1915 act of war by two Turks and the civic response was generally considered to be a nation building event in Australia’s history.

More than 300 people commemorated the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Broken Hill at the Sulphide Street Railway Museum.

Fran McKinnon, OAM, National Trust, Broken Hill Chairman was the MC for the commemoration event.

Simon Molesworth AO QC, the executive chair of the International National Trusts Organisation, … told the crowd that people around the world shared a common vision for respecting the past. “When you build a nation there are milestone events that occur and some of them are sad and you wish they didn’t happen” he said. “But when they do happen, we learn from them and that’s the essence of heritage”. He said the Picnic Train attack “established Broken Hill as being part of the Australian community that stood up for the values that we all shared in those days, and that we all hopefully still share today”.