On April the 25th Julie Bishop, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, attended the memorial of Anzac Day in Zonnebeke. On this day Australians and New Zealanders commemorate their first military action during the First World War.
Together with Minister-president Geert Bourgeois, Minister Bishop collected soil from the Tyne Cot Cemetery. This ‘sacred soil’ is going to Australia and will be processed in the Flanders Fields Memorial Garden in Canberra. The first Flanders Fields Memorial Garden opened last year in London. The memorial gardens honour the victims of World War I and send out a message of hope and peace. The Memorial Garden in Canberra opens in 2017, 100 years after the Battle of Passchendaele.