As ever, grey nomads have been well represented among the many thousands of people who have gathered at services across the country to pay tribute to those who have served in the defence forces.
Whether their Big Lap itinerary sees them near small Outback towns or in the capital cities, many travellers ensure that attending a service, or paying respects in their own way, is an integral part of their Anzac Day tradition.
Many tens of thousands of people were at dawn services in the major cities while in smaller centres the numbers were equally impressive. At Torquay on Victoria’s surf coast, for example, 13,000 people gathered at Point Danger as dawn broke.
This year marks the 101st anniversary of the ill-fated landings at Gallipoli, and it is also the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, in which 108 Australian troops held off more than 1,500 Viet Cong soldiers.
In Canberra, the Australian War Memorial director, Dr Brendan Nelson, said Anzac Day was not a celebration of war, but rather love and friendship.
“Love of family, of country and honouring those who devote their lives not to themselves but to us and their last moments to one another,” he said. “After the bloodbath at Fromelles, Sergeant Simon Fraser spent three backbreaking days bringing in the wounded from No Man’s Land. A lone voice pleaded through the fog, ‘Don’t forget me cobber’. He didn’t. We won’t. We never will.”
Lest we forget.
