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 read the review |
VOICES
FROM A WAR Winner
Australian Graphic Design Association 1998 Contents These
stories of Australians at war are told using
historic footage, interviews, photographs,
paintings, objects, letters, diaries and original
archival
material. The
Siege of Tobruk The
Kokoda Track Bomber
Command and the Battle of Berlin You can
see where the crew sat in the Lancaster Bomber, fly
with them on a typical operation, experience the
loss of mates who failed to return and visit their
graves at the Berlin War
Cemetery. The
Sandakan-Ranau Death Marches Voices
from a War is the third title from the
Commonwealth Government's Australia
on CD
program. System
Requirements FAX
your order to +61 2 6254 3883
REVIEW Voices
from a War will be a very personal experience
for many people. For participants in the war
particularly it puts on public record their
courage, endurance and sacrifice - without them
having to say a word.
Winner Australian International Multimedia Industry
Award 1998
This
interactive CD ROM enables users, especially young
people with no direct exposure to war, to discover
and investigate four major experiences of
Australians at war during World War Two:
Scrapbook
The
Scrapbook belongs to Mrs Edmondson, the mother of
Jack Edmondson, the first Australian to win a
Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Through
the Scrapbook you can find out what it was like to
be a 'Rat of Tobruk': you can climb into a digger's
rathole, unpack his kit, read his letters, sample
bully beef stew, hear the BBC news and read the
Tobruk Truth. Or you can find out why the
Siege of Tobruck was important , and what Jack's
last words were to his mother before he sailed off
to war.
Reporter's notebook
Travel
with a wartime reporter to the war zones of Papua
New Guinea to witness an extraordinary military
campaign. Listen to Nurse Hilda Lumsden's
experiences with the injured and dying, go on
patrol with diggers, attack enemy bunkers at Buna,
Gona and Sanananda, listen to stories of burying
hundreds of young men along the
Track.
Photo album
John
Worley's story was typical of thousands of young
Australians who flew with Bomber Command on
operations over Europe. You have to place five
photographs in sequence to explore each of the five
themes: Don't Clip His Wings, London Leave, Ops
Berlin, Failed to Return, and John and
Joan.
Clipboard
Click
the clipboard to retrace the steps of the prisoners
of war who were forced to go on the Sandakan Death
Marches. Search for evidence of what happened and
discover paybooks, dixies, false teeth,
identification disks and other scant remnants of
lost lives. Listen to accounts of events that took
place and admire the courage of the six survivors,
the bravery of native people who gave these men
food and comfort and the determination of those who
fought against the cruelty of war.
Macintosh
- Minimum requirements: Colour capable Macintosh
computer, double speed CD ROM drive, hard disk,
System 7.1 or above, QuickTime (supplied). Requires
2.5 MB of RAM above system requirements.
Windows
- Minimum requirements: MPC2 standard computer
running Windows 95, 8 MB of RAM, double speed CD
ROM drive, hard disk, mouse, Soundblaster
compatible sound card, 256 colours, QuickTime
(Supplied).
This
product is available for Macintosh CD ROM and
Windows 3.1+ CD ROM
Recommended for Year 4 and up (10 years +)
RRP AU$60.00 (includes GST, postage and
handling)
[back
to top of page]
by Jenny Millea- ACT writer and
editor
While I was growing up I watched a lot of war
movies. My mum loved John Wayne so Sands of Iwo
Jima Back to Bataan were part of my family's staple
movie diet. Australia didn't figure much in Wayne's
march across the Pacific and my knowledge of
Australia's involvement in World War 2 was gleaned
only by eavesdropping when my grandfather
complained about his bad shoulder. His shoulder, my
mother told me secretly, had been hit by a Japanese
bullet in Borneo.
When I asked him about the war for a school
assignment he refused to tell me anything Like many
men, his response to his war experiences was to
keep them to himself. It seemed that the legendary
Australian reticence, that laconic endurance of
hardship, that masculine reserve, would result in a
blank where our Australian war experiences should
have been. All that would remain would be an
American, John Wayne, striding unbeatable across
the Pacific.
It's a relief then to see something like Voices
from a War the latest CD ROM in the 'Australia on
CD' series which presents Australian war
experiences in an accessible and interesting
format. The
'Australia on CD' series came out of the former
Labor Government's Creative Nation statement and
has been strongly supported by the current
government as part of their commitment to utilising
new
technologies to showcase various elements of
Australian culture and history. Both parties are to
be commended for the commitment, and for the
results.
Voices from a War is an entertaining as well
as a learning experience. Not entertaining in a
flippant, belly laughing sort of way, but in a way
which brings a terrible global experience to a
human level and makes the horror something we can
feel, not something distant we can dismiss.
The CD is designed around four major areas of
Australia's involvement in World War 2: the seige
of Tobruk, the Battle of Berlin, the Sandakan Death
Marches and the Kokoda Track. Archival video, still
photos, maps, sketches, voiceovers and extracts
from real letters and documents illustrate,
illuminate and instruct - but more than that, the
CD engages the user in the personal stories of
endurance, fear and courage which underpin military
campaigns. The CD is peppered with short videos of
diggers' reminiscences which are both moving and
powerful.
But it's not all grim. Australians are renowned for
their sense of humour in adversity and even in the
horrible conditions of Tobruk they didn't lose it.
The rules of a cricket game include:
