Voices from the Front: The Battle of Cocos

“It was now our turn to make good, which we did with a vengeance.”

-Stoker Stan Newton on the Battle of Cocos.

In Voices from the Front, diaries, letters, and war poems are brought to life in a truly unique evening of storytelling. The Anzac Memorial is home to an extraordinary collection of personal accounts written by New South Wales service personnel who have served throughout our history. As treasures from the Memorial’s collection are read aloud by an actor and layered with an immersive soundscape, you will be swept up in these gripping stories, as told by those who experienced them first-hand.

This November's Voices from the Front marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Cocos. Hear an actor’s rendition of Stoker Stan Newton’s personal account of the Royal Australian Navy’s first victory, as he experienced it from the engine room of HMAS Sydney, followed by Captain John Glossop’s version of events from the bridge, as told in an extraordinarily candid interview just days later with then war correspondent Banjo Paterson.

Join us from 5:30pm for light refreshments, followed by this dramatic reading at 6pm. A private evening tour of the Memorial will follow, giving you a rare opportunity to explore the Memorial at night. During the tour, a curated selection of relevant war poetry will be read in the parts of the Memorial where these poems resonate best.