Upcoming Quiet Lion Tour

The Quiet Lion Tour is conducted annually for members of our community who wish to commemorate ANZAC Day with ex-POWs in Thailand. At the same time the tour is to remember the outstanding deeds of Edward “Weary” Dunlop. Each year students from numerous schools attend this ANZAC Day ceremony and share in the memories of an ever dwindling number of POWs able to return to the site of their incarceration. It is a tour filled with memories, few of them pleasant. In 2012 only two ex-POWs are to return – they are the young at heart and sprightly Milton “Snow” Fairclough (a very young 91 years) and Neil MacPhearson (also 90 years young). Andrea and Emma from the year 11 Modern History classes will be joining these two men in their remembrance day.

The girls will learn a huge amount, travel to places that bring a great deal of pain to these men, see the sites of personal devastation, feel the emotion of the dawn service in Hell Fire Pass and experience their first “Gunfire” breakfast in the jungles of Thailand. It will be a richly rewarding experience, one they will never forget. After dawn they will travel to the provincial capital for a very steamy and hot 11.00am service which will be attended by many government officials – from Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the USA, Canada, Singapore among others. ANZAC Day has become an important day in many countries – it is not ‘solely owned’ by Australia and NZ now. The intent of the day is respected by many nations, the emotion of the day is felt by all.