A fitting tribute to the important part women played during two world wars has won Great Lakes College Tuncurry campus student Byron Panos a seat on the 2019 Premier's Anzac Memorial Scholarship tour.
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For his entry in the State-wide competition - for both government and non-government schools - the Year 10 student moved away from traditional essay writing and designed a website womeninwars.com detailing the roles and achievements of women during World War I and World War II.
Byron said he chose that topic from the four suggested titles because he believed the role of women in both conflicts was under appreciated.
"They did so much. We could not have won the wars without women," he said.
"They took over the men's jobs when they were fighting; I think the outcome would have been a lot different without them."
Byron - who is almost a dab hand at creating websites - said he enjoyed the process much more as opposed to writing an essay.
Using a utility called WordPress, Byron said building a website wasn't that difficult.
"I have always been interested in computers and technology.
He has even tried his hand a building a computer, but had to abandon the idea due to a few issues.
Working over a succession of weeks Byron took about 48 hours to build the site of stories, photographs and captions linked to external websites.
Byron will join 20 fellow secondary students on the two week tour of significant battle fields in Germany, France and Belgium.
The students will visit sites where Australians fought to learn about the causes of both the world wars, and to commemorate their service.
When Byron learned of his success from relieving principal Paul Rosenbaum he was literally speechless.
"I was so happy when I found out; I was ecstatic."
However, when Byron called mum, Monica, Mr Rosenbaum had do the talking.
Naturally, both his mum and dad Steve were thrilled and proud of Byron's achievement.
Byron's maternal great grandfather fought in WWII and his great grandmother was a member of the women's land army, while his paternal Greek great grandfather fought with the Australians also in WWII.
While his website was due to expire in October, Byron would like it to continue for at least another 12 months.
"I think a lot of people could use this in their school projects."
Jeanene Duncan
Jeanene has more than 40 years experience as a regional and rural journalist starting at The Land Newspaper. She also worked for Stock Journal Newspaper (SA), McPherson, Fairfax newspapers and Rural Press, and contributed to various magazines.
Jeanene has more than 40 years experience as a regional and rural journalist starting at The Land Newspaper. She also worked for Stock Journal Newspaper (SA), McPherson, Fairfax newspapers and Rural Press, and contributed to various magazines.
