Turkish tears: Moving scenes at Maryborough as memorial unveiled

The famous words speak of the Anzac relationship with Turkey like no other. Now, Ataturk has a permanent place in the heart of the most unique war memorial outside Canberra.

Watching quietly from the back, tears welling, proud Turkish Australian Doctor Tugrul Durali was glad he’d made the trip from Brisbane with his young son to witness history being made in Maryborough’s Queen’s Park.

There, a memorial to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which includes the famously attributed words about the sons of Australia now lying in the soil of a friendly country, along with a QR link that outlines his achievements in modernising Turkey, was unveiled on Friday.

The installation marks Stage 3 of the Gallipoli to Armistice War Memorial and complements the statue of Duncan Chapman, the Maryborough soldier who was first ashore at Gallipoli and the memorial walk which features story boards, vision, audio and statues and is widely recognised as the most unique of its kind outside Canberra.

Taking a closer look at the brass profile sculpture, Dr Durali told the Chronicle how at night, along with teaching Turkish words, he often read to five-year-old son Derin about the truth of what happened at Gallipoli, determined to ensure he grew up with a healthy respect for both the legend of Anzac and his heritage.

Brisbane-based Turkish father Dr Tugrul Durali travelled with his five-year-old son Derin for the event. They are pictured speaking with Nancy Bates.

He’d been invited to the ceremony by the event’s special guest, Turkey’s Honorary Queensland Consul Turgut Manli who had donated the sculpture to the committee.

Mr Manli had been an enthusiastic supporter since he attended the opening of the Queen’s Park trail in July 2018 and it was he who secured sands from the Gallipoli Peninsula to feature at the Maryborough site.

Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour was to unveil the memorial but he and his colleagues were awaiting the result of COVID-19 tests which had since come back negative.

Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders, whose government along with the Federal Government, had been big supporters of the project over the years, stepped in.

Nancy Bates, chair of the Gallipoli to Armistice Committee, spoke on Mr Seymour’s behalf, cheekily jumping the gun on some announcements she hopes will come from the mayor’s mouth in the near future, including the potential of a sister city in Turkey, while also thanking the councillors past and present who had contributed to the memorial’s success and the parks and garden staff who maintained it.

She also thanked the memorial committee and the team from Old’s Engineering who had lovingly restored the Duncan Chapman statue after it, along with multimedia boxes, were damaged by vandals in January.

Robert Olds with the restored Duncan Chapman statue in Maryborough.

The Gallipoli to Armistice trail drew a steady stream of visitors to Queen’s Park after it opened and quickly become a favourite strolling place for residents and created a new entrance to the heritage-listed park.

Visitor numbers have surged since the Covid-19 pandemic struck and tourism numbers increased in regional Queensland.

Ms Bates said word of the Queen’s Park memorial experience had spread rapidly in the school communities and through the Grey Nomad world.

“When it was opened, it was acclaimed as being of international standard and it is recognised as Australia’s best World War I experience outside of Canberra. It has the added attraction of being linked to Maryborough’s military museum, also ranked the best in Australia outside of Canberra.”

Turkish women pay tribute to Ataturk

By Nancy Bates

Two Turkish engineers had tears in their eyes when the profile sculpture of Kemal Mustafa Ataturk was unveiled in the Gallipoli to Armistice memorial trail in Maryborough’s Queen’s Park.

Both women believed they owed their educational qualifications to Ataturk, hailed by the United Nations as one of the great political leaders of the 20th Century.

Dr Lutfiye Manli and Mrs Halide Aydogan.

Dr Lütfiye Manli of Brisbane, who earned her doctorate in industrial engineering and worked in Moscow before immigrating to Australia, said she was keenly aware her vocation had been made possible by the policies of Ataturk, who died in 1938.

Turkish women rank highly in the world in the fields of science, engineering, technology and mathematics.

“Without him (Ataturk), it would not have happened,” Dr Manli, who works with Powerlink and is founder of the Brisbane Turkish Women’s Association, said

Her husband, Turkish Consul General in Queensland Mr Turgut Manli, gifted the brass profile sculpture to the Gallipoli to Armistice memorial trail committee.

Mrs Halide Aydogan, a Turkish mechanical engineer who now lives in Hervey Bay, said she was deeply moved by the unveiling of the sculpture.

“He did so much for Turkish women and children.”

As Mustafa Kemal, military commander, the brilliant tactician forestalled the Anzac advance across the Gallipoli peninsula after the 1915 landing. After the war he took an impoverished nation, 90% illiterate amid the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire, and transformed it into modern Turkey.

Women were given the vote and encouraged to take leading roles in politics and higher education. A coherent system of surnames gave people identities and literacy was tackled with a simplified alphabet, the building of thousands of schools and compulsory primary education for all children.

Ataturk also built on the respect that developed between the Anzacs and the Turks at Gallipoli as part of his motto of ‘Peace at Home; Peace in the World’.