Rory Byrne from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and Adelaide Matthews from St Scholastica’s College in Glebe are among 18 students chosen from more than 200 applicants across NSW for the Premier’s Anzac Memorial Scholarship, which will take them to Greece and Crete in September to mark the 85th anniversary of one of Australia’s least-known wartime campaigns.
The two inner-city scholars will travel with 16 students from as far as Wagga Wagga, Port Macquarie and Newcastle, visiting battlefields, war cemeteries and memorials where Australians fought and died in the spring of 1941.
A campaign that deserves to be remembered
Most Australians know Gallipoli. Far fewer know Greece and Crete.
In early 1941, more than 58,000 Allied troops including significant numbers from Australia’s 6th Division were deployed to Greece to support Greek forces against the Axis invasion.
The campaign ended in a difficult withdrawal to Crete, where a further 26,000 Allied troops, thousands of them Australian, fought a desperate defence of the island. The cost in Crete alone was severe: 274 Australians killed, 507 wounded and more than 3,000 taken prisoner.
Accompanying teacher Alexander Collins captured why the tour matters. “Greece and Crete are some of Australia’s most overlooked wartime stories, yet they unfolded just a few hundred kilometres from the shores of Gallipoli,” he said. “There is no better education than standing where history happened.”
Walking through history
Scholars will travel during the Term 3 school holidays from 26 September to 8 October, accompanied by a tour historian and teachers.
Sites on the itinerary include the battlefields at the Gorges of Tempe and Pinios, the Commonwealth War Graves at Suda Bay in Crete and the 6th Australian Division Memorial in Stavromenos.
Commemoration ceremonies, museum visits and encounters with the communities that lived through the Axis occupation are all part of a program designed to connect students with history through direct experience rather than textbooks alone.
Chosen from more than 200 applicants
The Premier’s Anzac Memorial Scholarship has been running since 2007 and each year takes a cohort of NSW secondary students to a significant site in Australia’s wartime history. Past destinations have included Belgium, France and Turkey.
This year’s 18 scholars were chosen for academic strength, a passion for history and demonstrated community engagement, drawn from both government and non-government secondary schools across the state.
The scholars were formally welcomed at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, where they received their research tasks, met their tour historian and attending teachers, and attended a commemorative service in the Hall of Memory.
For more information on the scholarship program, click here.
Published 13-July-2026
