8th May, 2017

NATIONAL ANZAC CENTRE

The National Anzac Centre is located within Albany's Princess Royal Fortress. The Centre overlooks the actual harbour from which over 41,000 men and women departed Australia for the Great War. It was opened on the 1st of November 2014 by the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand,

The dramatic architecture, featuring spectacular vistas of the Sound, purposefully enhances the Centre and creates a contemplative space. The building design lends itself to a telescopic view overlooking the location from where the convoys gathered and then left.

It has a unique interpretation facility. Each person entering the building receives a card with the name of a Soldier who served in the Great War, and you can then follow the journey of "your" soldier, medic or padre by placing your card on the sound poles located around the displays. Memorabilia of each solider is displayed, including letters written home.

There is also a water feature where the names of all the soldiers passes along underneath the glass and appears to be underwater. These names are in alphabetical order and apparently it could take days for all the names to slowly move along this unique feature.

We did a tour of the Princess Royal Fortress and learnt of the earlier history of defending this area, along with interesting stories of the women who were serving at the Fortress at this time.

Overall, a really interesting amazing facility and a really interesting day.

WHALING STATION

We spent quite a lot of time here walking around the Station. We had visited this area about 17 years ago and felt that the newer tourist facilities presented a more sanitised version then previously.

Having said that, the Station has excellent movie theatres which show the complete history of the whaling industry in Albany from start to finish. The grounds are well kept and safe and easy to navigate.

We enjoyed a lunch of fish 'n chips of course and headed home after a very informative day.