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| OUR ANZAC VOICE Edition 5007, 03 May, 2007 |
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In capital cities from Perth to Melbourne to Hobart, in regional cities and towns across the nation; in New Zealand and in numerous locations across the globe including Turkey, the Middle East Area of Operations, Timor Leste and the Solomons, civilians joined Defence members to remember the fallen. They took part in dawn and sunset services, marches, special parades, gunfire breakfasts and reunions. And the Navy featured strongly, adding its voice and spirit to proceedings. Most prominent in the public imagination perhaps was the dawn service at Anzac Cove, where the Navy provided members of the Federation Guard and the Royal Australian Navy Band featured strongly. In Ipswich, crew of the soon to be decommissioned HMAS Ipswich led the Anzac Day march. At Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory personnel from HMAS Warramunga took part in the march. Warramunga has strong ties with Tennant Creek and the Warumungu tribe. In Nowra, as in other locations, veterans were pushed in wheelchairs by serving Navy personnel. The Nowra effort was organised by Lieutenant Commander Kel Turner of HMAS Albatross and there was no shortage of volunteers willing to help. “To me the old saying Lest We Forget is just that - the whole idea is that you don’t forget the old fellas,” he said. A notorious WWII location was also remembered. In Hellfire Pass, an infamous part of the Burma-Thailand railway where the Japanese used Allied prisoners of war as slave labour and many were worked to death, personnel from HMAS Farncomb based at HMAS Stirling, paid their respects. The biggest Naval presence is of course in Sydney and the Navy was well represented there, as our story inside shows. And the general consensus across the country, from the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to others around the nation, is that crowds are getting bigger and a lot more young people are taking part. Why? One explanation could be that “Gallipoli stands as a powerful silent witness to the search in each of us for meaning, purpose and belonging.” That suggestion was made by the Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, in an address at the Turkish memorial in Morto Bay Turkey on the eve of Anzac Day. On Anzac Day itself, at the dawn service at Anzac Cove, he stated: “No group of Australians has given more, nor worked harder to shape and define our identity than those who have worn - and now wear - the uniform of the Australian Navy, Army and Air Force ... we will be at our best in facing different, threatening horizons, if we triumph as [the Anzacs] did, over fear.” New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, spoke movingly of the sacrifice of the New Zealanders and the ties that bind our two nations. And the hand of friendship was extended to old enemies, with Turkey an integral part of the commemorations. |
