| Description: |
Guest speaker Mike O'Brien was a Major General in the Australian infantry who left full-time service in 2001 and has written a history of his battalion in Vietnam. He was in-charge of the reburial of five Australian WWI soldiers found in Westhoek, Belgium in 2007 and, more recently, of the trial excavation, exhumation, identification and re-burial of the remains of several hundred Australian soldiers at Fromelles, France. Major General O'Brien will outline the origins, process and outcomes of the Fromelles’ exhumation, and will consider developments leading to the opening of the new cemetery in July 2010.
The other speaker Bruce Scates, Professor of History and Australian Studies and Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, served on the national committee which confirmed the existence of mass graves at Fromelles. Professor Scates will reflect on the significance of these events for Australian history and memory. |
