William Bill Bruce, WWII veteran returns to Nebo for Anzac Day

Bill is the last of the Nebo ‘boys’ left who signed up for the war and he could be the oldest surviving veteran in the wider Mackay Whitsunday Isaac region

William ‘Bill’ Bruce is the last surviving World War II veteran from Nebo. Picture: File

At 104 years of age, William 'Bill' Bruce is flying across Queensland today so he can make the Anzac Day services in a small outback town.

The veteran has only ever missed one service in Nebo, about 90km from Mackay, when COVID-19 kept him in Caboolture last year.

Mr Bruce is the last of the Nebo "boys" left who signed up to fight in World War II and he could very well be the oldest surviving veteran in the wider Mackay Whitsunday Isaac region.

He enlisted in 1942 to protect the mainland from the Japanese; but then he became a member of the Australian Electrical Mechanical Engineers in the 2/137th Australian Brigade Workshop and was deployed to New Guinea.

William Wallace Mervyn Bruce, Qx57094, 2/137 Australian Brigade Workshop. Picture: National Archives of Australia

"We were told when we were on guard not to stand beside a tree because (the enemy) would come up to your neck and choke you with a bit of wire," he said.

Mr Bruce said his role was relatively safe except for the bomb scares with the camp shifting every few months but mosquitoes were a constant threat.

"I had to take these special tablets all the time because I didn't want to get malaria and all my singlets and clothing went yellow," he said.

"And there was no fresh food. We didn't have anything very flash.

"We had toast and beans every morning for six months.

"It was a red sort of bean, you used to get them in big drums."

It is no wonder Mr Bruce dislikes baked beans to this day.

William ‘Bill’ Bruce in 2018.

On Sunday, he will rise early to attend the 4.20am Dawn Service. It begins with a march taking off from the Nebo General Store, just down the road from where Mr Bruce was born.

"I was born in the Nebo Hotel, room 2," he said.

It was January 2, 1917 in the era of horse and buggies with the nearest hospital too far to reach in labour.

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Even a century later, there are not enough medical services in Nebo to allow Mr Bruce to live out his days there, forcing him to move away when he turned 100.

But that does not stop the poet from returning each year on April 25 to recite In Flanders Fields before those gathered to commemorate the fallen.

"They're all gone," Mr Bruce said.

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Originally published as William Bill Bruce, WWII veteran returns to Nebo for Anzac Day