History in Albany

Today was time to introduce Dad to some of Albany's History. Becki drove Dad up Apex drive to the parking area. Then there was a steep walk to 'The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial' (which can be seen from our deck) The memorial is a 9-metre bronze statue of an Australian mounted soldier assisting a New Zealand soldier whose horse has been wounded. The memorial was originally erected at Port Said, Egypt. memorial be erected at Port Said in honour of Australian and New Zealand mounted soldiers killed in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The memorial was funded by the Australian Government, the New Zealand Government and surviving mounted soldiers. It was erected in Port Said in 1932 and was inscribed to the memory of members of the Australian Light Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and Imperial Camel Corps (all part of the Desert Mounted Corps) who died in Egypt, Palestine and Syria between 1916 and 1918. The memorial was damaged in anti-British riots during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1959, the United Arab Republic agreed to send the memorial back to Australia and it arrived in Albany in 1960. A copy of the statue was made and this was erected on Mount Clarence in 1964.

Albany is associated with the Desert Mounted Corps in that the mounted troops and the rest of the first detachment of the Australian Imperial Force and theNew Zealand Expeditionary Force (later know collectively as ANZACs) left Albany in a convoy of ships in November 1914 to join World War I. (From Wikepedia)

This is also the site of Albany's Anzac Dawn Service on April 25 every year. A series of stairs...need to take a break once in a while...takes you to the top of Mount Clarence where the views of Albany are just spectacular.