MEDIA INFORMATION GUIDE
Battles of Fromelles and Pozières 100th
Anniversary Commemorations – July 2016
Updated 7 July 2016
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July 2016 will mark 100 years since the Battles of Fromelles and Pozières on the Western
Front, and many Australians will attend the services in France to commemorate these
important events as part of the Anzac Centenary.
The Fromelles commemorative service, at the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military
Cemetery at 1.00 pm on 19 July 2016, will be open to members of the public who hold an
Australian Government-issued Attendance Pass, and will incorporate the re-dedication of
the headstones of those soldiers buried in the cemetery who have recently been identified.
The Pheasant Wood site will be open to the public from 10.00 am and a pre-service
program will commence at noon. There is seating for 3,200 members of the public in tiered,
grandstand style seating.
At 5.15 pm another service will be conducted at the memorial wall at the VC Corner
Cemetery. This Cemetery was built after the Armistice. It contains the graves of over 400
Australian soldiers who died in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the
battlefield, but not a single body could be identified.
Due to space restrictions at this site members of the public will not be able to attend this
service, but they will be able to watch it live on video screens from seats at the Pheasant
Wood Cemetery.
At Pozières a commemorative service will be conducted at the site of the 1st Australian
Division Memorial at 4.00 pm on 23 July 2016, open to Australians who hold an Australian
Government-issued Attendance Pass. The commemorative site will be open to the public
from 1.00 pm and a pre-service program will commence at 3.00 pm.
While there is a capacity for 3,500 members of the public to attend this service, the majority
of attendees will need to stand as there will be limited seating available.
Media arrangements
The Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is managing media
registration for Australian and French media organisations proposing to cover the
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Battles of Fromelles and Pozières, to be
held as follows:
Battle of Fromelles 100th Anniversary – Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Event:
Commemorative Service
Venue:
Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery
Time:
9.30 am: site opens
12.00 noon: pre-service program commences
1.00 pm: Service commences
4.50 pm: VC Corner Memorial Service commences
Battle of Pozières 100th Anniversary – Saturday, 23 July 2016
Event:
Commemorative Service
Venue:
1st Australian Division Memorial Pozières
Time:
12.30 pm: site opens
3.00 pm: pre-service program commences
4.00 pm: Commemoration commences
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Media registration will be required to cover these events.
Media briefings
Media briefings for the commemorations will occur onsite at the following times, and
registered media are strongly encouraged to attend:
10.30 am on Monday, 18 July 2016: Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery
10.30 am on Friday, 22 July 2016: 1st Australian Division Memorial Pozières
Media identification passes and very limited parking permits for official media production
vehicles will be distributed at the briefings. Important information will also be provided
including the order of events and onsite arrangements.
Media opportunities
The briefings will be followed by a media opportunity with selected commemoration
participants. Further information on this, and other media opportunities in France in the
lead-up to the commemorations, will be provided to registered media closer to the dates of
the commemorations.
Site access
All sites have restricted onsite parking and will only be available for a limited
number of official media production vehicles. There will be no general media
parking available on each site. Please raise any questions or concerns about
the parking arrangements with one of the media team.
Transport, travel and accommodation
Media representatives are responsible for organising their own travel, transport and
accommodation. Accommodation in the Somme region is limited and bookings should be
made as early as possible.
Special traffic arrangements will be in place at all commemorative venues. More information
on traffic arrangements will be provided on our website www.anzaccentenary.gov.au.
Host broadcast
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) provides a host or international feed of the
commemorations free-of-charge to registered media who request it. Further details about
the feed access for the Fromelles and Pozières commemorations are available on our
website, and are also provided at Attachment A.
Stills imagery
High resolution images from the commemorations will be available for download following
the conclusion of each of the services from www.flickr.com/dvaaus
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Further information
For information on commemorations historical background and other media materials in
France visit www.dva.gov.au.
Media contacts:
Mr Dale Starr
Media Director – Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Tel: +61 (0)2 6289 4719 (in Australia until 10 July)
Mobile: +61 (0) 428 805 578 (from 11 July)
France mobile: +33 (0) 7 8592 8912 (from 15 July)
Email: [email protected]
For France:
Mr Romain Parlier
Media Officer
Australian Embassy Paris
Tel: 33 1 40 59 34 00
Mobile: 33 6 15 17 29 95
Email: [email protected]
While in the area you may also like to visit other Australian Remembrance Trail sites. More
information on these sites can be found at www.ww1westernfront.gov.au.
For media enquiries and interview requests please contact Dale Starr, DVA Media Director,
on +61 (0) 428 805 578 or [email protected].
All activities with Australia’s Federation Guard should be prearranged with:
Ms Claudia Harrison
Assistant Director Plans & Programs, Military Information Effects Branch,
Department of Defence
Telephone: tba
[email protected]
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Media Shuttle Bus
Battle of Fromelles commemorative service, 19 July 2016
Battle of Pozières commemorative service, 23 July 2016
A shuttle bus service will provide transport for the media to and from the College
Albert Schweitzer, Rue de College, La Basee on Tuesday, 19 July 2016 to the
Fromelles services. Please park your car by 9.00 am and meet the shuttle bus for
departure at 9.30 am. This location is identified on the map below.
Please ensure you arrive early as the shuttle bus must depart at 9.30 am. You will
be required to show your media identification pass to board the bus.
The shuttle will return to the College after the ceremony. Please meet our media
team member onsite at 6.15 pm, to board the shuttle at 6.30 pm.
For Pozières, a media shuttle will leave from the Albert airport at 12.30 pm, arriving onsite
around 1.00 pm. Again, you will need your media identification pass to board the bus. The
media shuttle will board at 5.45 pm for a 6.00 pm departure back to the Albert airport.
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Onsite Production Vehicle Parking
Battle of Fromelles commemorative service, 19 July 2016
Battle of Pozières commemorative service, 23 July 2016
Management of traffic around the Fromelles and Pozières sites is the responsibility of
the French Police.
The road leading up to the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery will be closed to all
public vehicles from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm on 19 July, however registered media with
official production vehicle parking permits will be able to access the road and park
onsite during this time. These parking permits will only be issued to production
vehicles, not cars used as transport.
The area allocated for production vehicles is shown on the map on the following
page. You will be required to show your media identification pass to access this area
once onsite. All production vehicles must be in place onsite by 8.30 am on 19 July.
Please follow the instructions from the authorities onsite and park your production
vehicle as directed. Please ensure care is taken as you will be parking at a memorial
site. Following the services at Fromelles, you will be able to exit from the parking
area from around 3.00 pm, following confirmation by a member of the DVA media
team.
At Pozières, public roads will be closed from 11.00 am to 8.00 pm. All media
production vehicles will need to be in place onsite no later than 9.00 am. The parking
spaces available for production vehicles at Pozières are very limited.
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Fromelles and Pozières media sites
The Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery is shown below. There are two media areas
shown with red circles. The top circle is the media platform being constructed for use by the
broadcast media and the second circled area below is for photographers and journalists.
Working to ensure minimal disruption to attendees to the service, and with limited space available on
the site, these media areas have been designed to allow the media to effectively cover this story and
event.
A small number of official production vehicles can be parked adjacent to the choir tent on the
diagram below, and must be in position by 8.30 am. This position is circled in white.
Access to the site on 19 July will require you to present your media pass issued at the media briefing
the previous day. These passes must be worn at all times.
Media representatives, along with the public, will be subject to security searches and screening to
access the site. Please allow time for those processes when planning your arrival time.
The broadcast media position will be on a two-tiered platform on the left hand side of this picture,
next to the gatehouse.
An indication of the view from this media platform is shown below:
The second media position at the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery (below), largely for
photographers and journalists, will be behind the wall to the right of this photo, but closer to the front
of the Memorial.
The picture below shows the 1st Australian Division Memorial site at Pozières:
The media position at Pozières will be on a platform on the dirt verge on this side of the hedge
shown below:
Other media opportunities
In addition to the important commemorative services at Fromelles and Pozières, there will be other
media opportunities, including:
Date:
Time:
Event:
Location:
21 July
9.00 am*
Sir John Monash Centre construction
inspection – including viewing an
extraordinary range of Australian artefacts
found during pre-construction.
Australian National Memorial,
Villers-Bretonneux
24 July
4.00 pm
Launch of the Dernancourt Trail, an
important addition to the Australian
Remembrance Trail
Dernancourt village
* Time to be confirmed
Background on the Dernancourt campaign in 1918 is available on the Australian War Memorial’s
website at https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/1918/battles/dernancourt/.
Attachment A
5 July 2016
FROMELLES & POZIERES CENTENARY SERVICES – JULY 2016
ACCESSING HOST BROADCASTS & STILLS IMAGERY
HOST BROADCAST
On Tuesday, July 19 and Saturday, July 23 2016 (France local time), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
in association with the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is providing a host broadcast
feed of:
Service 1:
Tuesday, July 19 – 1.00pm France local time
Commemorative Service & Headstone Dedication
Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery
FROMELLES, FRANCE
Service 2:
Tuesday, July 19 – 4.50pm France local time
National Commemorative Service
VC Corner Cemetery & Memorial
FROMELLES, FRANCE
Service 3:
Saturday, July 23 – 4.00pm France local time
National Commemorative Service
1st Australian Division Memorial
POZIERES, FRANCE
Tue 19/7 21:00-22:15 AEST*
Wed 20/7 00:50-01:50 AEST*
Sun 24/7 00:00-01:15 AEST*
*Note – As live events, finish times are approximate
DETAILS:
The ABC will provide television feeds available in either HD or SD
The television feeds will be complete Programs including a hosted introduction and opening titles that establish
the locations but are ‘brand free’. The programs will also include name supers and a closing copyright. A clean
feed (with no introduction, titles or supers), of the Services will be available (in SD or HD), from the back of the OB
van at each location.
There is no radio feed available for any of the Services but an audio split for Radio use can be made available by
ABC Radio Master Control in Sydney.
The host broadcasts will be provided free of charge to accredited media, where it is requested.
All broadcasts are available in HD or SD and will have a TV stereo audio mix on tracks 1 & 2 and listen only Director
talk-back on track 4.
ACCESSING THE FEEDS:
The Services go by satellite to BT Tower in London and then on pass to Sydney via fibre.
The Services will be available on at PacTV in London, or from Telstra Master Control in Sydney.
A pre-booking with can be made by contacting Telstra Bookings on:
+61 2 8258 7979
Or by email at: [email protected]
Master Control Contact Numbers on the day
PacTV MCR London
Telstra MCR Sydney
+44 207 702 1427
+61 2 8258 7966
The Line bookings for these Program feeds are as follows:
Service 1 - Pheasant Wood
Test:
Prog:
Sby:
1650-1750 France time - 19/7
Wed 20/7 00:50-01:50 AEST*
14:15 – 14:50 GMT 19/7/16
14:50 – 15:50
15:50 – 16:30
Service 3 – Pozieres
Test:
Prog:
Sby:
Tue 19/7 21:00-22:15 AEST*
10:30 – 11:00 GMT 19/7/16
11:00 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:45
Service 2 – VC Corner
Test:
Prog:
Sby:
1300-1415 France time - 19/7
1600-1700 France time - 23/7
Sun 24/7 00:00-01:15 AEST*
13:30 – 14:15 GMT 23/7/16
14:00 – 15:15
15:15 – 15:45
The audio for Radio broadcasts is available by contacting ABC Radio Bookings on +61 2 8333 1066 or at
[email protected]
Radio MCR contact on the day [email protected] and +61 2 8333 2300
*As with all live broadcasts this is the plan but it is subject to unforeseen events. Broadcasters need to be
flexible enough in their coverage to allow for unforeseen and last minute changes.
STILLS IMAGERY
High resolution images from the Services, will be available for download from www.flickr.com/photos/dvaaus
KEY CONTACTS
France:
 ABC Executive Producer: David Spencer +61 (0) 418 861 233
Email: [email protected]
 ABC Technical Producer: Darryl Brook +61 (0) 418 568 615
Email: [email protected]
DVA Media Liaison Officer: Dale Starr +61 (0) 428 805 578
Email: [email protected]