Anzac's Blackboy Hill march recreated

While most Anzac centenary commemorations are being held in Albany on WA's southern coast, the role of Blackboy Hill in Perth will also be remembered.

They were one of the strongest, toughest and most respected of all the Australian Imperial Force battalions that fought in World War I.

The 11th Battalion, comprising all West Australians, were trained at the Blackboy Hill camp in Perth's Hills region and were the first of the more than 32,000 men trained at the camp to ship out from Fremantle.

They were to land at Gallipoli at dawn on April 25, 1915.

RSL WA president Graham Edwards said many West Australians were killed at the Nek, cut down by machine-gun fire as they charged over the top of trenches.

Those who survived went on to fight on the Western Front.

Mr Edwards said at the time WA seemed to be the frontier of the country and those who enlisted came from tough areas like the Goldfields and the Wheatbelt.

"They must have been tough men to survive the conditions here," he said.

"I reckon they would have been a rough, tough, rowdy lot and I wouldn't have wanted to face them on the other side of the trenches."

On Friday morning, a group of defence force cadets undertook a commemorative march from the Blackboy Hill camp site to the Bellevue RSL, the site of a station where the troops boarded the train to Fremantle Port.

Mr Edwards said he hoped such events would educate young people about Anzac history and values - love of country, selflessness, courage, compassion, endurance, having a go, pride in yourself and a belief in the future.

"I guess there's a lot of young men and women who serve who haven't been to Albany but they probably know about it," he said.

"And come the end of this week, a lot more people will know about Blackboy Hill as well."


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