THE Wean amateur picnic races tomorrow are keeping the period costume flavour alive again this year as the 2015 event gears up to celebrate the centenary of a defining moment in our nation’s history – the Anzac landings at Gallipoli.
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Last year, the Wean Amateur Picnic Race Club meeting celebrated 100 years since the start of World War 1 in 1914 – and now it was appropriate to follow this with a celebration of the year 1915 and all the change that came with it, club president Les Alker said.
It was a time of great social change as women filled gaps in the workforce created by men – and, in many instances, boys – who left to fight in Europe and Turkey.
The year 1915 started “the process that created the lifestyle and freedoms of women today”, the glossy Wean brochure states.
“As far as we are concerned, you can’t just remember the war as being about battles and fighting,” Mr Alker said.
“You’ve got to remember the Great War in the effect it had on us and all society.”
This year Mr Alker will be wearing a French military uniform in recognition of not only the huge connection between the brave Australians who fought and died in France, but also because he accompanied the Gunnedah Shire Band, of which daughter Amy is a member, to the country last year for a special tour.
Gates open at 9.30am at the 82nd Wean races (on the Boggabri-Manilla Rd), with the first race at 12.05pm and a ceremony to open the race day at 11.40am.
