Australian Embassy
France
Embassy address: 4, rue Jean Rey 75724 Paris Cedex 15 - Telephone : 01 40 59 33 00 - Fax : 01 40 59 33 10

News and Events

News

The French Minister for Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand, has announced the appointment of the Australian choreographer Joanne Leighton as the new directress of the National Choreographic Centre of Franche-Comté in Belfort. The choreographic Center will become home for Leighton’s work as a choreographer and pedagogue.

She succeeds Odile Duboc, who was the director of the institution since its foundation in 1992. The CCN (Centre Chorégraphique Nationale) in Belfort is one of the 19 CCN's which have been established in France since the 1980's as a state initiative to promote contemporary dance.

Born in Adelaide and trained in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts, Joanne Leighton joined the Australian Dance Theatre in 1987. After being awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Trust Grant she moved to London in 1991. She subsequently moved to Brussels in 1993 where her dance company, Velvet, was founded. Velvet has been programmed and coproduced by festivals and theatres across Europe, including France, Spain, Germany, Holland, UK & Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia and Italy, and is funded by the Belgian Ministry for the Arts.

Her latest work, « The End », is a piece for 6 performers to the text « Lecture on Nothing » by John Cage. It was premiered at the Biennale for Charleroi/Danse in November 2009.

In 2008 Joanne initiated « Mobile », a vast project that brings together all of her pedagogical activities for professional dancers, amateurs and students in Belgium and internationally. She is also choreographer associated to the Dance in Schools program CDWEJ in the french community of Belgium. Throughout 2010, she is in residence with her company Velvet at the theater Pôle Sud in Strasbourg and the Théâtre Scène Nationale in Orléans France. She was awarded the Belgian Choreography Prize in 1994, and more recently the SACD’s prestigious Performance Arts Award. Her work "Made In Taiwan" was recently included in the book: Revelations.

 

The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament has launched a new report which sets out a plan for world leaders to reduce nuclear weapons and stop their spread to rogue states or terrorists.

Released jointly on 15 December by the Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, the report was prepared over 18 months by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), co-chaired by former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans, and former Japanese Foreign Minister, (Mme) Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Upon release of the report, Mr Rudd said: "Speaking for Australia, we welcome that a report of such substance has been produced to provide an important framework for practical discussions on how to advance this great cause of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament."

Mr Evans said: '"The key recommendation is to get serious about a world without nuclear weapons because there are far more risks associated with the continuation of nuclear weapons these days than there are with any benefits.

"We’re setting a target date, 2025, to achieve a dramatic 90 per cent reduction in the world’s nuclear weapons.

"We think that’s realistic, achievable and we’re also of course identifying a whole string of things that need to be done to ensure there won’t be proliferation to new players or new risks associated with the anticipated explosion of civil nuclear energy."


Copies of the 230-page report and a short synopsis are available from the Commission's website.

 

Events

The annual Anzac Day ceremonies will take place in Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt on Sunday 25 April 2010:

Anzac Day Dawn Service:
5.30 am Sunday 25 April 2010 (please arrive by 5:15 am at the latest)
Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux

Anzac Day Ceremony:
9.00 am Sunday 25 April 2010
French Monument, Town Centre, Villers-Bretonneux

Anzac Day Ceremonies:
2.00 pm Sunday 25 April 2010
Commonwealth and French Monuments in Bullecourt
3.00 pm Sunday 25 April 2010
Australian ‘Digger’ Memorial on the outskirts of Bullecourt

The Sydney Boys High School orchestra and band will provide the music accompaniment at the Anzac Day ceremonies and will be touring in France and Belgium during April and May. Click here for their program.

After the ceremonies in Villers-Bretonneux, the ANZAC day program will continue with ceremonies in Bullecourt starting at 2 pm. Bullecourt is approximately 45-60 minutes by car from Villers-Bretonneux, and 15 minutes from Bullecourt. En route you might like to join some of the participants at an informal lunch in the nearby village of Marquion.

A series of Australian related events and commemorations will take place in Villers-Bretonneux and Arras around Anzac Day.

For more detailed information about Anzac Day 2010, please consult the Department of Veterans’ Affairs' website.

For information about accommodation and transport consult the Somme Tourism website.

Maps of the region:

- Amiens and Villers-Bretonneux (Somme region)
- Bapaume and Bullecourt (Nord-Pas de Calais region)

Several information stands will be available a few days prior to 25 April 2010:

- Amiens (outside railway station and Tourism information, 40 place Notre Dame) - Villers-Bretonneux (opposite the Town Hall, rue de Melbourne)
- Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux

The Battle of Fromelles was the first battle fought by the Australians on the Western Front and the first battle of the Fifth Division.

The combination of heavy casualties, poor communications, poor understanding of the situation by distant headquarters and some local misunderstandings, the collection and evacuation of the casualties of the battle was poorly handled. Wounded were left lying on the battlefield all through the next few days while attempts to arrange a truce to enable their collection were made. The high death rate among the Australians can be attributed in part to this failure to arrange a truce to collect the wounded.

The Battle of Fromelles cost the following allied casualties:

5th Australian Division 5,533, including 1917 killed
61st British Division 1,547, including 519 killed 

The Joint Australian and United Kingdom project to recover, re-inter and identify 250 Australian and British First World War soldiers from Pheasant Wood in Fromelles, France is progressing well. The project was established in late 2008 and all 250 soldiers have been recovered from their initial burial place in Pheasant Wood awaiting their full military burial in 2010.

The Commemoration of the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery will occur on 19 July 2010.

Following the commemoration, there will be a more private ceremony for families of identified soldiers to dedicate the named headstones within the cemetery. Information on this event will be provided directly to family members that have registered with Army once soldiers are identified in March 2010.

For more information, please consult:

The Australian Army website dedicated to Fromelles

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website

 

 
Etudes en Australie Tour 2010


Le 1er bus de l'orientation des études en Australie débarque dans votre région en mars! 15/03 Lille - 16/03 Caen - 17/03 Rennes - 18/03 La Rochelle - 19/03 Bordeaux - 22/03 Toulouse - 23/03 Montpellier - 24/03 Aix en Provence - 25/03 Lyon - 26/03 Paris

Further information 

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