Anzac Cove

[Mat McLachlan]

From today's Herald Sun (Melbourne):

Gallipoli road 'falling apart'

From: By Neil Wilson

February 17, 2006

THE controversial road built at Gallipoli last year has sunk in parts and has started to break up as crowds prepare to descend again for Anzac Day.

The Turkish winter and incomplete construction have been blamed for the poor condition of the road, according to the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

DVA secretary Mark Sullivan told a Senate estimates committee the car park at the Ari Burnu site near Anzac Cove had subsided and the road had deteriorated.

A furore erupted last year when it was revealed that the topography of historic Anzac battle sites had been destroyed during excavations.

Human bones were allegedly found in the Anzac Cove area where Turkish contractors widened the road to cope with Anzac Day crowds.

Mr Sullivan told the committee it was not surprising there had been deterioration in a "half-completed" road.

A layer of tarmac for the road was laid on top of soil just days before Anzac crowds arrived last year.

Mr Sullivan said that archeological and historical surveys of the area, which Prime Minister John Howard had said would be done quickly, had not been started.

A sea wall to protect the fragile cliffs from further erosion was still on the drawing board.

An Australian public servant has been stationed in Turkey near the Anzac sites to liaise directly with local authorities.

Opposition veterans affairs spokesman Alan Griffin called on the Government to make sure no more damage was done.

Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson said a team of experts from Australia and New Zealand would visit Turkey next week to ensure the road was fit to safely take traffic for Anzac Day.

He said all work at Gallipoli's National Park had been suspended for many months to ensure no further damage occurred.

What a debacle...

[Papineau]

This is bad news, indeed.

[Auimfo]

Absolutely Mat,

I read the article as well (but you beat me to the post!!). I wonder if Bill (Eceabat) can confirm what's happening. Was it just a rushed half-ar*e job just to make it acceptable before last years commemorations and now they're over it's a case of 'forget about it'.

It really appears as if the Senate Committee Hearing was all bluster and no action. It also seems evident that the PM, for all his patriotic ANZAC speeches, appears not to give a stuff after all.

Tim L.

[Andrew P]

Absolutely Mat,

I read the article as well (but you beat me to the post!!). I wonder if Bill (Eceabat) can confirm what's happening. Was it just a rushed half-ar*e job just to make it acceptable before last years commemorations and now they're over it's a case of 'forget about it'.

It really appears as if the Senate Committee Hearing was all bluster and no action. It also seems evident that the PM, for all his patriotic ANZAC speeches, appears not to give a stuff after all.

Tim L.

Very disappointing but probably not surprising given the attitude of some of the senior public servants involved.

[Auimfo]

There was a positive article in the paper a few months ago regarding the use of an already preconceived idea about how the Gallipoli Peace Park should be created. I can't remember who prepared the idea but from memory it was the winner of a design and concept competition commissioned by the Turkish Gov't - were the winners Danish or something similar??

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to cut out the article, nor can I remember who wrote it.

I'm supposing that idea has fallen by the wayside along with every other promise made to preserve the area.

Tim L.

[Auimfo]

Mr Sullivan said that archeological and historical surveys of the area, which Prime Minister John Howard had said would be done quickly, had not been started.

A sea wall to protect the fragile cliffs from further erosion was still on the drawing board.

The whole peninsula, as a heritage site, will forever be in danger (if not destroyed) if Pollie's continue to drag the chain with half-hearted promises.

It frustrates me beyond belief!! But as Andrew said - it's not suprising.

Tim L.

[Auimfo]

Just emailed the new Minister of Vet Affairs (who happens to be my local member!!) to ask what's going on.

If I get a reply I'll let you know - but don't hold your breath.

Tim L.

[Eceabat]

Hi Pals,

Er, yes, Bill (Eceabat) can confirm what was said in the newspaper articles and can confirm that the situation around the coastal strip at ANZAC is far worse than the picture painted.

As of Wednesday, part of the road leading to ANZAC Cove, near the mouth of Shrapnel Gully, gave way. Access to the Cove is now routed through a recently built car park, itself in danger of subsiding.

The car park at Ariburnu, to the north of the Cove, has subsided badly and is at present sliding towards the sea.

At least six of the drainage culverts built under the new road have subsided and erosion in the area, one of the reasons given by both Turkish and Australian authorities for the road work, has increased. At one spot at the centre of the Cove, the soil has eroded to the point where it has reached the newly laid road bed. Spoil washed both in the Cove and elsewhere along the coastal strip is covering vital undersea relics.

Despite what Mark Sullivan, the Departmental Secretary for Veterans Affairs said in his evidence to the Senate Estimates Committee, the deterioration of the road was not caused by the onset of the Turkish winter.

The newly laid roadbed started breaking up two weeks after ANZAC Day 2005, having been completed on 23 April. Winter rains have only increased the problem. It has to be said that a number of Australian official delegations have visited the area in the past nine months and could not have avoided seeing the growing deterioration of the road. It should be said that Mr Sullivan visited the area in the second half of last year himself.

A while ago I attempted to post some recent photos of some of the damage on the forum site but had trouble doing so. I will resize them and have another go. I am planning to go out to the region on the weekend and shoot a few more and will post them too.

On a personal note, it seems that despite so much lobbying by members of this forum, and concerned people in Turkey, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, a lot of officials don’t seem to give a toss. It can get very depressing living on the Peninsula and seeing history slowly being washed away.

Bill

[Eceabat]

Tim,

the article you referred to appeared in the Australian paper The Age on December 23, and was written by Ross McMullin. It was entitled "The retreat goes on at Anzac, 90 years on"

Bill

[Auimfo]

Thanks Bill,

That's the one I was thinking of. Seems a shame that no one took any notice of what was written or at least the ideas it suggested.

The picture you paint is not positive nor one of hope. It seems that all our efforts seem to fall on deaf ears and eyes blinded by political burocracy.

The ineptitude of the supposedly bright minded is staggering in it's immensity.

I'm keen to see the photos you've taken although I would prefer there be no need. Unfortunately this is not the case and we need all the evidence we can if we're ever going to make a difference before it's too late (if it's not already)

Keep us up to date Bill.

Tim L.

[Auimfo]

I found the article - here it is in it's entirety...

The retreat goes on at Anzac, 90 years on

December 24, 2005

It is simply not in Australia's national interest for the Government to be exacerbating the damage. It is simply not in Australia's national interest for the Government to be exacerbating the damage, writes Ross McMullin.

NINETY years ago this week, the Anzacs made their astonishing evacuation from Gallipoli. Casualties were miraculously minimal, despite predictions by senior commanders. Brudenell White, Australia's senior staff officer, orchestrated the withdrawal brilliantly, assisted by innovations such as the "drip-rifle" created by two of Pompey Elliott's Essendon boys that enabled rifles to keep firing after their owners' departure.

From the Anzacs' perspective, it was a shame that planning and organisation on the British side during the campaign were inadequate until the decision to leave.

Planning and organisation at Gallipoli have also been contentious in this 90th anniversary year. The fiasco of the Anzac Cove roadworks was acutely embarrassing for John Howard and his ministers, who resorted to blaming the Turks while scrambling to evacuate themselves from the controversy.

Howard aimed to nullify the kerfuffle by initiating discussions about Gallipoli heritage management with his Turkish counterpart after Anzac Day. The leaders agreed to conduct engineering and archaeological surveys.

Since April, developments at Gallipoli have received little attention. A Senate report in October did confirm the Howard Government's culpable negligence concerning the roadworks debacle, but the inquiry was mainly concerned with the lead-up to Anzac Day 2005 rather than what has been happening since. There were also assurances from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his recent visit to Australia that Turkey was "very respectful of history" and would achieve "a good result" at Anzac. Such pronouncements were welcome, but he was short on detail.

During Senate estimates hearings on November 2, Veterans Affairs Department secretary Mark Sullivan confirmed that the Turks had halted all construction in the Anzac area and would not be resuming it without consulting Australia and New Zealand. He also acknowledged the quality and importance of the design by Norwegian architects Lasse Broegger and Anne-Stine Reine that won the 1997-98 international Gallipoli Peace Park competition.

The Turks set up this design competition as a mechanism to inform and update what Sullivan referred to as their overarching "master plan" for Gallipoli heritage management. The Norwegian design, awarded first prize by the competition jury chaired by world-renowned Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, advocated a minimalist approach: carefully sited pathways would be created, and access to the Anzac sector would be limited to pedestrians, cyclists and - for those unable to walk or cycle - small shuttle buses.

Regrettably, the Norwegian design, for a variety of reasons, has not been properly implemented. Its visionary proposals are a world away from routine practice at Anzac, where ever-longer streams of ever-bigger buses damage ever-weaker roads as they meander through fragile heritage areas. Significantly, Sullivan affirmed during the Senate hearings that current visitor arrangements in the Anzac sector are environmentally unsustainable.

What should Australia be doing? The Howard Government should be using its considerable influence with the Turks to advocate at every available opportunity that the principles of the Norwegian design should be implemented at Anzac.

Some influential insiders agree this is what Australia should be advocating. But instead of publicly endorsing the minimalist principles of the Norwegian design, the Government has pursued a policy of monumentalism, encouraging Australians to visit Gallipoli on Anzac Day in record-breaking numbers, and then citing these attendances as justification for the creation of bigger ceremonial spaces.

It is simply not in Australia's national interest for the Government to be exacerbating the damage that excessive vehicle and people traffic is doing to fragile areas of great heritage value.

Some progress is being made. The Turks have agreed to postpone proposed roadworks on the second ridge, thus averting a potential catastrophe even more devastating than the coastal roadworks shambles. Furthermore, early planning for the 2006 Anzac Day commemoration apparently envisages the introduction of mini-bus shuttles.

Progress is complicated by the perception that not all elements of Turkish officialdom have Australian heritage preferences as a priority.

Still, what happened at Anzac 90 years ago and its importance to the national story of the main combatants, ensures that high-placed Turks do listen to us. There is no doubt what we should be saying to them.

[Jonathan Saunders]

Very disappointing news but hardly surprising given what we knew a few months back.

Bill - look forward to your up to date photos if thats the right term to use. Do you think there is any sensible conclusion which the Turkish and Australian Gvmts will agree on to stop the situation getting worse and actually improving it in the future?

[Eceabat]

Pals,

I'll do this one by one. This attached image is of the car park built just to the north of ANZAC Cove, just past Ariburnu point. The subsidence in the past few weeks has got worse and the car park cannot be entered safely at one end.

Jonathan, as to your question "Do you think there is any sensible conclusion which the Turkish and Australian Gvmts will agree on to stop the situation getting worse and actually improving it in the future?", if I answered this in full I would rightly be chided by the mods for essaying into political comment and also for using language that would offend more delicate pals.

Short answer from me is that massive damage has already been done, and remedial work has to be undertaken to shore up the road or else what is a calamity will become an even greater disaster. Unfortunately, even this work will cause more damage to the site. With what has been done, nothing can improve the situation, there can only be damage limitation. Given that this issue was raised a year ago, and so far, as has been acknowledged by the Australian Veteran's Affairs Department, the promised survey of the region has not happened, all that has occurred so far is that work has been halted. However, even this is a problem as everything was left half finished, the work was rushed ahead of last year's 90th commemoration and was poorly carried out, with the end results we see now.

Bill

[Eceabat]

Photo 2 is of the centre of the road above ANZAC Cove, taken about four days after heavy rains. Note the muddy water, that is the joint history of nations washing away.

[Eceabat]

This shot shows concrete around one of the drainage culverts at the very centre of ANZAC Cove breaking up.

[Eceabat]

Though not strictly in keeping with the ANZAC Cove theme, the attached photo is also relevant. It shows one of the latest monstrosities inflicted on the battlefields. The photo is of a new café and souvenir outlet built right on the beach at the eastern end of Morto Bay, just below the Turkish monument.

Apart from breaking Turkey’s own regulations on constructions on beaches there is the little matter of it being on something of a historical site as it is on the end of what was S Beach, where British troops came ashore on 25 April. As I understand it from my sources, the tender to operate this nice little earner have already been let.

By the way, did I mention that they had to dig up the base of an old French monument so they could put in a septic tank to contain the end product from the café?

However the café (and the septic tank for that matter) have a wonderful view so no worries eh?

Bill

[Papineau]

Thanks for posting the photos - it is depressing to see this happening. Do please keep us informed.

[Jonathan Saunders]

Bill,

Apologies if you thought I gave you a loaded question but I know you try to keep close to what is happening. The mudslide on the road around the ANZAC Cove area was so predictable - I take they did not secure the side of the mud banks they had created.

Altogther a really depressing state of affairs.

[Eceabat]

Jonathan,

by no means did I want to imply you fed me a loaded question. Instead, my attempt at a reasoned reply was an effort not to froth at the mouth as I sometimes do when the officialdom of Turkey and Australia are mentioned in the same breath as the battlefields.

And no, there were no steps to replant the banks above the road when excavations were completed. Mind you, given the rocky cliffs that have been created, they are going to have to train mountain goats to do any replanting (hmm, is that a speck of froth that just flew onto my computer screen?)

Bill

[MartinWills]

I think it should be borne in mind that some of the roads put in place in the nineties at (say) Helles lacked proper foundations and fairly quickly deteriorated to the point where some stretches resembled rutted tracks cast in tarmac, so poor standards are nothing new to the area. None the less the scale of poor construction really excels here and deterioration seems to have been much faster. All I can say is that seeing some of the work in hand last year I did wonder about it's stability.......

I often think that the bottom line is whether visitors can gain reasonable access and imagine the battlefield as it was through the war. Inevitably this is a compromise and roads and parking are a modern day necessity. They do, however, need to be sensitively addressed and this is clearly not the case. There will not be many more chances to put it right.

The ANZAC area also saw many British and other Nations serving so perhaps now is the time to lobby beyond the Antipodes ..........

[Ozzie]

Martin, Quote

The ANZAC area also saw many British and other Nations serving so perhaps now is the time to lobby beyond the Antipodes ..........

Exactly Martin.

If all nations that fought at Gallipoli expressed their concern at the destruction then maybe something may happen.

Who knows, it might even goad Aus. pollies into doing something.

Thanks Bill for the photos. It is depressing but please keep us informed, as you have done so well in the past.

Regards

Kim

[Andrew P]

Fully agree Martin. I was a bit disheartened last year over this with the perceived lack of support from Britain over this debacle, particularly when a forum member labelled the concerned Australians as 'being precious and lacking humility'. I thought it was a case of out of France out of mind for some forum members.

We need more people than just from Australia, New Zealand & Turkey being concerned with what's happening there right now.

Thanks for taking those photos Bill.

Regards

Andrew

[Eceabat]

Pals,

not sure if this link will work but it gives the transcript of the discussions by the Australian Senate Estimates Committee on February 15 in which the ANZAC Cove road was raised. A few points make for interesting reading.

I like the comment by Dept. of Veterans Affairs secretary Mark Sullivan that the extremes of the excavation have been softened over the past year. Some among us might say that is erosion and land slippage rather than softening. Nice to seeSullivan acknowledged that there had been damage to historical sites, this was not the position of Australian officials and government politicians last year.

The site is:

http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/view_d...&TABLE=ESTIMATE

Martin, I agree that it would be good to hear more from representatives from other countries whose troops participated in the campaign. However, the British House of Lords All-Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group, headed by Lord Faulkner has been in touch with the Australian Senate committee that investigated the goings on on the Peninsula and I know they have also raised concerns with Turkish authorities. The British group gets a mention in the Australian Senate transcript.

Cheers

Bill

[Ozzie]

Thanks for the link to the discussion, Bill.

Regards

Kim

[Guest Bill Woerlee]

Bill

G'day mate

Thanks for the link.

I was quite disturbed when I read this exchange:

Senator HURLEY—You were saying that the Turkish government is aware of the recommendation. Was there a formal approach by the Australian government?

Mr Sullivan—No, the Australian government is yet to respond to that Senate committee report. There is not an Australian government position in respect of the report until a formal response to both reports comes from the government.

Just to help folks out, there is a half year rule where a report's recommendations must be formalised with a government response within six months of the release of that report.

The enquiry is long gone and still no response. It seems to me on reading the exchange that the governments of both Australia and Turkey see no sense of urgency in this matter. Actions seem rather desultory.

Oh well, I guess we will soon see a Club Med built on the site.

Cheers

Bill