By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
IT was the quietness of the confined battlefields that struck Zahn Gane most as he walked slowly across the tiny beach at Gallipoli last year.
“It’s hard to comprehend that thousands died there,” the Belmont High School student reflected on his visit to the Turkish landmark.
Facing his first Anzac Day since returning from a visit to some of Australia’s significant theatres of combat in World War II, Zahn admitted the experience had changed him.
He won a place on a Spirit of Anzac study tour last year, with the journey also taking him to Singapore’s Changi Prison and Malaysia.
Zahn’s growing friendship with World War II veteran Ern Brough played a key part in the presentation he put together to win the prize.
Zahn said Ern had a never-ending supply of stories of his experiences as one of the Rats of Tobruk and was happy to share them with him.
“I used his experiences to highlight mateship as part of the Anzac spirit. It was important to get a firsthand account and experience of what it was like,” Zahn said.
“It was different to what I expected. Being there, it hit home.
“You can read about it but being there is so much more real.”
Zahn’s mother, Helen, said she had seen changes in her son following the trip.
“He has total respect and compassion for the Anzac story and the loss of life,” she said. “I think he really felt the emotion if it while he was there.”
Another Geelong student, Jasmine Davis, of Sacred Heart College, has won a place on the 2013 Spirit of Anzac prize study tour to Gallipoli last month.
Jasmine, of Ocean Grove, described the tour as the “greatest experience of my life”.
She said the tour group stood on the Turkish beach during a sunny day while listening to excerpts of the diaries of soldiers who fought at Gallipoli.
“It was very emotional and I cried thinking about the contrast between us and them and those experiences.”
Jasmine said her great-grandfather’s service on the Western Front in World War I inspired her entry.
