A lifeboat used to row Australian troops ashore during the Gallipoli landing on April 25, 1915, was lowered into its new position at the Australian War Memorial on Tuesday night before the reopening of the First World War galleries later this year.
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It is an impressively tangible link with the events of that first day and night when the fate of the campaign hung in the balance and consideration was being given to an immediate withdrawal.
The steel lifeboat, and HMT Ascot, the ship from which it came, are mentioned at length in Sergeant Quartermaster Byron Charles Hobson's (of the 13th Battalion) account of the voyage to Turkey.
While the lifeboat is now rightly regarded as a priceless part of Australia's national heritage, the men who made that journey across the Mediterranean wouldn't have given you tuppence for the entire ship and everything it contained at the time.
Hobson, for example, repeatedly described the Ascot as ''an old tramp'' and ''the dirtiest thing afloat''.
The lifeboat, still bearing the scars of Turkish bullets, still wears its original white paint. This was hardly the perfect choice for a stealthy landing under the cover of evening darkness when it was used to take troops ashore at about 9.30pm.
Hobson described the landing in his diary: ''The actual task of landing the 13th Battalion troops from the Ascot was a three-phased affair. Firstly, the lifeboats were lowered and hitched to the torpedo boat destroyer, HMS Chelmer. Secondly, troops climbed the rope nets onto the Chelmer, which gave them a fast run into the beach, and thirdly, the troops disembarked into the Ascot's lifeboats which they then rowed ashore.
''The whole operation took place under enemy fire, and under covering fire from HMS Queen Elizabeth and Chelmer.''
Once ashore the troops went straight into the front line.
The Ascot left Gallipoli, without the lifeboats and with a full load of wounded, at the end of April.
AWM founder Charles Bean expressed interest in the boat, which was still on the beach where the troops disembarked, in 1919. It arrived in Australia in January, 1922.
The Ascot, laid down by Napier and Miller in Glasgow in 1902, was one of many unsung workhorses of the sea used to move men and materiel around the world during the war.
More than 100 metres long, displacing 4186 tonnes and steam powered, it developed about 240 kilowatts and maxed out at less than 12 knots.
On the plus side, the Ascot did have electric light and wireless.
Sergeant Hobson was not impressed: ''Our boat is an old tramp about 17-years old and I reckon the dirtiest afloat,'' he confided to his journal on April 12, 1915.
On the following day he noted that while he had slept well ''the smell below was none too healthy''.
He added: ''We left the wharf about noon for a destination unknown.''
By April 14 he was resigned to his surroundings, and obviously a little bored: ''Am as comfortable as it is possible to be aboard this rotten tub … I shall be glad to quit this tub.''
The World War I galleries are being refurbished and redeveloped at a cost of $32.52 million before the Anzac centenary in 1915.
Work on the redevelopment, which includes major restoration on the historic dioramas depicting World War I battlefields, is progressing well.
No standing zone, no flying either
Worker bees arriving at Russell headquarters on Wednesday morning discovered the mother of all parking violations in Blamey Square.
Somebody, either E.T. or possibly a time travelling cyborg here to bump off Linda Hamilton, had parked their 14.5-metre long and 40-metre wide (from wing tip to wing tip) aircraft on the grass just in front of the rabbit's ears.
As anybody who has ever tried to find a park in the defence precinct can attest, this is an absolute no-no. My guess is the owner is currently being held in the famous Russell tunnel complex where they are being waterboarded by an elite squad of men in black from the outdoor parking unit.
The machine bears a close resemblance to the Triton UAV used as a backdrop by the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, when he announced the acquisition of an undisclosed number of the high-tech drones at RAAF Edinburgh in Adelaide earlier this month.
The Triton is an ''unarmed maritime variant'' of the Global Hawk.
While we have been assured that one was just a model, the arrival of a lookalike in Canberra means Gang Gang can't rule out the possibility Mr Abbott has adopted a novel new form of transport in his ongoing quest to save the taxpayers' money.
