On Anzac Day, the most feel-good Australian and New Zealand stories of the year
Anzac Day is annual celebration to remember and mark the achievements of Australia's armed services
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Your support makes all the difference.Anzac Day is the day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that commemorates all the soldiers who have served and died in their conflicts and peace-keeping operations.
It was established in in 1915 to honour Anzac troop’s input to the Gallipoli campaign and moved to its current date, 25th April, and given its current name in 1916.
To mark the celebration, we’ve collated the five of the best feel-good stories from 2015 that have come out of Australia and New Zealand, and there are some absolute beauts:
1. Tommy Connolly: When the 23-year-old student moved to the Gold Coast, he got in contact with a cousin he hadn’t seen in more than ten years. He was shocked to find out that she was homeless and 32 weeks pregnant. With the father in jail, Mr Connolly took his cousin in and worked selling fruit and vegetables to cover the cost of the arrival of the baby. Full story here.
2. Grant Elliott and Dale Steyn: It was the moment of ultimate drama at this year’s cricket world cup. New Zealand needed five runs from the last two balls, all looked lost. But Eliot thwacked Steyn for a huge six on the penultimate ball to take NZ through to final. Elliott's first concern wasn’t to celebrate the greatest moment of his career so far, but to go over and console Steyn, who lay on the ground disconsolate. Sportsmanship at its absolute finest.
3. Black Anzac street art: Street artist Hego has created a striking mural series in Sydney of images of indigenous Australian soldiers of World War I. He said that their contribution was often overlooked and that they had often been treated without the respect due to former soldiers following the war. The murals, he hoped, would help start changing that.
4. The three-year-old from Auckland who taught us how to do the Haka: The Haka might be associated with the burly giants of the All Blacks rugby team but it was an infant who gave the most ferocious (and cutest) performance of the traditional Maori dance this year. Warning: this video may scenes that some may find distressing.
5. The man in New South Wales who swum out to rescue his horse: Houses are still without power after heavy flooding struck the state of New South Wales a few days ago. However one man was determined to make sure that his horses escaped totally unscathed. Steve Spowart, whose horses were trapped behind barbed wire as the water rose, paddled out and led each of his horses to safety.
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