'Spirit of Anzac' Tour 2006

Remembrance 2008 Tour (planned)

The Mackay North State High School Lest We Forget History Project is an Australian wartime commemorative project that began in October 1998. It has developed into a nationally recognised project in which students undertake overseas pilgrimages to past Australian battlefields and the resting places of Australians killed in war.

The overall aim of the project is to commemorate and further publicise the sacrifices made by Australians in war and to make practical and respectful tributes to those Australians who died during the two world wars.To date, the project has involved the organisation and conducting of 4 overseas commemorative tours:

The 'Lest We Forget' History Tour 1999

The Anzac 2002 Commemorative Tour

The 'Debt of Honour" Anzac Tour 2004

The Spirit of Anzac Tour 2006

The Remembrance 2008 Commemorative Tour - planned

The central activity of the project is to research those ancestors of local Mackay residents who were killed during World Wars 1 & 2. This involves undertaking research into each man through using personal service records and speaking with families. Burial details are found and each student becomes responisble for "their" man.

The overseas component of the project revolves around the search for the graves and memorial names of these men. Each group has travelled to all the respective cemeteries and memorials, located the graves/names and commemorate each soldier (by laying a wreath, reciting the ode and observing a minute silence). A photograph of the grave/name is taken and these photographs are presented to the families at a special presentation evening post tour.

In the four tours so far, the group has commemorated 364 men & 33 nurses buried in Thailand, Turkey, France, Belgium and Singapore. This also included the students’ own ancestors and numerous ancestors of people from around Australia (and, in some cases, the world!).The other important component of the project is the sharing of information and experiences with other school students around Australia. This is done through the production of resources and through the students and teachers providing information and guidance to other schools.

The three major resources developed so far are:

These resources are aimed at the younger generation and are designed to share the students’ experiences and to ensure that the ideals of commemoration are passed on and not forgotten.

The most notable highlight of the project is that it has been the subject of a number of programs in the ABC’s "Australian Story" series. The original program, entitled "Carve Their Names With Pride", was aired on November 4, 1999 and proved to be very popular.  A follow up "best of" Australian Story program featured the project again in November, 2001 and a full follow up program, "It Was At Gallipoli", aired in April, 2006.