Dimboola Memorial Secondary College Year 10 student Rebekah Albrecht, pictured above, recently spent ten days touring historic World War Two sites in Darwin and Singapore as one of twenty two recipients of the Premier's Spirit of Anzac Prize.

As part of the Anzac School Service held on Monday afternoon, Rebekah presented the following account of this trip.

At the beginning of the most recent school holidays, I flew with 21 other students from all around Victoria to Darwin and Singapore as part of the Victorian Premier's Spirit of Anzac Prize Overseas Study Tour.

As a group, we visited many significant sites relevant to World War Two over ten days, such as Fort Hill Wharf, World War Two Oil Tunnels, Coomalie Airstrip, and the Adelaide River War Cemetery in Darwin and the Kranji War Memorial, Changi Museum and Johore Battery in Singapore.

During our visit to the Adelaide River War Cemetery, a headstone of a WWII Aircraftsman was brought to my attention and stood out to me greatly. It was engraved with the two words "Our Daddy,' and after reading it, it really sunk in that the people that defended our country and that are still defending our country today are real people with real lives and loved ones back on the home front but were and are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

To know that many of those service people were not significantly older than some of us here today really gave me an opportunity to reflect on what the Spirit of Anzac means to me. As simple as it sounds, it's something that many of us take for granted and is easy to overlook. It's imperative that Australians never forget the sacrifices that our men and women made to make our country what it is today.

The highlight of the trip for me was definitely the Robertson Barracks in Darwin, which is an Australian Army base home to the First Brigade and First Aviation Regiment. Here we were given the opportunity to talk with infantry personnel about their roles, training, pathways and deployment and also got to interact with their weapons, machines and vehicles. It was an incredibly informative experience in a relaxed environment.

The study tour was an amazing opportunity to gain an insight and further understanding of the events that took place during World War II and to extend classroom knowledge. I highly recommend all eligible students to consider entering this year's competition and if anyone has any questions about my trip or the Spirit of Anzac Prize, please do not hesitate to ask!