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Inside the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux

VISITORS to Australia’s new $100 million Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux will walk in the footsteps of WWI soldiers in an immersive exhibition. SEE THE PHOTOS

The Sir John Monash Centre

VISITORS to Australia’s stunning new war museum in France will walk in the footsteps of World War I soldiers in an immersive exhibition which uses sound, light and confronting film to bring the soldiers’ sacrifice to a new generation of visitors.

The $100 million new Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux on the Western Front will be formally opened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tomorrow (April 24), on the eve of Anzac Day and the centenary of the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux which claimed 1200 young Australian lives.

News Corp can now reveal details of the exhibitions inside the museum, a small, intimate building dug into the hillside beside the Australian National Memorial, a Commonwealth war gravesite with 2100 graves and the names of 10,000 soldiers whose remains were never found etched on a memorial wall.

Emus made out of barbed wire on sand from the Australian desert inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Emus made out of barbed wire on sand from the Australian desert inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

Visitors will go on a journey through the museum, starting with an interactive touch-table which highlight aspects of Australian life before the war. This part of the display aims to give some answers on why so many young Australians went so enthusiastically to fight a war on the other side of the world.

The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Interactive screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Interactive screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

In a population of fewer than five million people, 416,000 soldiers signed up to fight between 1914 and 1918, and an appalling 60,000 died.

The museum has displays of weapons, uniforms and items of everyday life, with notes explaining their context.

At its centre is a full-immersive gallery, where visitors step inside and view a confronting eight-minute film which relives some of the battles in 1918, particularly at Villers-Bretonneux, just a short distance away.

Mannequins wearing original costumes inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Mannequins wearing original costumes inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

The film is shown in 360 degrees and visitors are hit with intensive sound and light as bullets fly, and the actors are shown being maimed and killed. The experience is so intense, it might not be suitable for younger children.

Elsewhere around the galleries, the words of soldiers’ journals and letters home are read aloud, and large images of them are beamed onto the walls.

Aerial vision is beamed onto a floor where visitors can get a birds-eye look of the surrounding

landscape and more accurately picture how the battles played out.

Room surrounded by screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Room surrounded by screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Australian badge inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Australian badge inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

Australian timbers and artwork have also been used extensively throughout the gallery.

Those who visit the neighbouring cemetery and climb the memorial tower, built in 1936 and its walls still marked with bullet-holes from where it was strafed in World War II, can look down on the grassed roof of the museum and see the Rising Sun, the official insignia of the Australian Army, marked into the ground.

The centre is named for the legendary Victorian-born war commander, Sir John Monash, and visitors will learn more about the man and his wartime tactics as they travel through the exhibitions.

Mannequins wearing original costumes inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Mannequins wearing original costumes inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
War documents inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
War documents inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

The centre’s director Caroline Bartlett said conservative estimates put the likely numbers of visitors touring the centre at 110,000 a year.

This includes school-groups from France and Australia, as Australia works to educate a new

generation about the incredible Australian participation in World War 1.

“We do have education packages here, we have a set-up to welcome and facilitate school-group visits,’’ Mrs Bartlett said.

The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
The galleries at Sir John Monash Centre on the site of the Australian Memorial outside Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

“We have a lot of French school groups that … have already booked.

All exhibitions and multimedia displays in the centre are available in French, in English, and in German, with German visitors also expected to tour the museum.

The director’s position that Mrs Bartlett currently holds is a diplomatic position, and the staff at the centre are locals from around the Villers-Bretonneux region.

Battle of Villers-Bretonneux
Interactive screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Interactive screens inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

There is no entry fee to the museum or cemetery, and visitors will be encouraged to use the free Wi-Fi to download an app which can then be used to guide visitors around the site.

“You arrive at the orientation building and you’re invited to download it there through the Wi-Fi set up on the site,’’ Mrs Bartlett said.

“The app becomes your virtual tour guide.

“Through a set of speakers it will take you to the headstones of three or four soldiers with their personal stories.

“That’s randomly selected.

Objects coming from Australian from around the time when war started inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Objects coming from Australian from around the time when war started inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

“It will also help you find the name of a soldier on the Australian National Memorial wall, because some people struggle with that.’’

The app will also guide people through the exhibitions inside the museum, and will react to people’s location in the museum, launching the interactive exhibitions, and giving as much or as little detail as each visitor wants.

Recreation of a trench inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
Recreation of a trench inside the galleries at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
War relicts found on the site of the museum inside the main gallery at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia
War relicts found on the site of the museum inside the main gallery at Sir John Monash Centre. Picture: Ella Pellegrini/ News Corp Australia

“Once the film is launched you go through about a minute and a half of that particular story and you can have some sub stories added to that, so it really up to you to decide how short or long you want your visit to be,’’ Mrs Bartlett said.

“It depends on your interest. If you’re particularly interested in one aspect of the war you can delve into that a bit deeper.’’

While people could spend up to a day exploring the entire site, it’s expected most people will spend about 2.5 hours.

For more details, go to www.sjmc.gov.au

Originally published as Inside the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/inside-the-sir-john-monash-centre-at-villersbretonneux/news-story/e1e54864b385018dff6eed55922e6ece