An Australian head of state will visit Israel for the first time to unveil a giant 1.5-ton sculpture.
The statue, by renowned Australian sculptor Peter Corlett, landed in Israel from Australia ahead of its official unveiling in Beersheba by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Governor-General Michael Jeffery on April 28 at the newly created Park of the Australian Soldier.
The statue of a World War I Australian soldier on horseback is a memorial to the Light Horse Brigades, which stormed the Turks at Beersheba in 1917 in what has been dubbed “the last great cavalry charge in history.”
Some 800 Australian soldiers, armed only with bayonets, routed about 4,000 Turks, who were armed with rifles. The death-defying Australian victory changed the course of the war, opening up the road to Jerusalem, and then Damascus, for the British.
The new park was funded by philanthropist Richard Pratt.
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