Albany Part 3 - Desert Mounted Corps and Albany Museum

We visited the Desert Mounted Corp Memorial, which pays tribute to all mounted servicemen who died in action in Egypt, Pallestine and Syria in WW1. It commemorates the men of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, as well as the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, the Imperial Camel Corps and the Australian Flying Corps. I had never heard of the Imperial Camel Corps before and was interested to know it existed. Greg's grandfather was in the 6^th Lighthorse Brigade so we wanted to visit the Memorial. There were some interesting aspects to the Memorial but it was all about Gallipoli and not the other action that the Desert Mounted Corp saw, so in that regard it was a bit disappointing. One of the interesting parts of it was the statue. It was originally erected by surviving members of the Mounted Corp in Egypt but was destroyed in 1956 during the Suez War. It was salvaged and a replica of the original was made using the salvaged materials.

I think, for me, the most emotional part of the whole memorial was the information about the Anzacs. King George Sound was the final staging port for many of the ships and soldiers that sailed off to Gallipoli, so this was the last part of Australia so many of those men saw. I was quite teary looking out over the Sound and thinking about all of the ships in the convoy as they awaited the command to sail. I think, for me, it was much more real to be in a place that played such an enormous role in the formation and send off of the Anzacs than it was when I was at the War Memorial in Canberra.
We didn't pay for the National Anzac Centre (again it was quite expensive for a family) but we explored the Convoy Walk, a small museum, some of the historic buildings, the armament storage and the guns. We could do all of this for free, which was really good.

The harbour where the convoy awaited sailing orders

Albany Museum

We explored the Albany Museum which was interesting given the long history it has, being the first European settlement in WA. The kids had the most fun at the historic school, where they could write on the blackboard, sit in vintage desks and Tilda learned to stilt walk. I am embarrassed to admit the Rory beat me at outdoor noughts and crosses, as I wasn't paying any attention to what he was doing. It was worth exploring but the kids had had enough in our busy day and so we didn't get to explore too much.