Gallipoli centenary: Record crowds flock to dawn services across the Gold Coast
RECORD crowds have turned out to dawn services across the Gold Coast to mark the Gallipoli centenary this morning.
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RECORD crowds have turned out to dawn services across the Gold Coast to mark the Gallipoli centenary this morning.
About 30,000 people — the largest crowd ever — turned out for the Currumbin RSL dawn service, which was so popular phone networks were even jammed until the end of the service.
Another 15,000 attended both the Southport and Tweed/Coolangatta service while thousands of people also turned out for smaller suburban services across the city. Meanwhile thousands lined the Gold Coast Highway for the 8am Southport parade.
WE SALUTE FOUR OF COAST’S BEST
ARM BLOWN OFF, HE STILL SAVED MATES
The emotional ceremony at Currumbin brought tears to the faces of veterans both old and young, as the names of Diggers who had passed away in the past year were read out.
A 21-gun salute was rendered after The Last Post and Reverie were played on a century old bugle which had been carried at Gallipoli during the Anzac campaign.
Currumbin RSL president Ron Workman, who led the ceremony, told the crowd he was “bloody proud”.
Police were on high alert in the hours before the commemoration began, with POLAIR 1, the police helicopter, patrolling above the beach.
#Anzac. The legend @GCBulletin pic.twitter.com/wJYBPwMiRr
— Andrew Potts (@GCS_Pottsy) April 24, 2015At Southport, the service was so overwhelmingly popular that crowds spread as far as the eye could see over Broadwater Parklands and spilt on to Gold Coast Highway — filling the road with a sea of people.
Up to 15,000 people were estimated to have attended the Southport service with RSL treasurer Slim Boese saying ‘I’ve never seen so many people here in my life’.
More than 1000 people participated in the Dawn Service march from Short Street — double from last year.
The service started in spectacular fashion with flares let off from a flotilla of boats moored nearby in the Broadwater.
“We remember those who still sleep where they were left — amid the holly scrub in the valleys and the ridges of Gallipoli — on the rocky and terraced hills of Palestine — and in the lovely cemeteries of France,” Southport RSL president Lawrie Pollard said as he recited the ANZAC Requiem to the crowds.
“We remember those who lie asleep in ground beneath the shimmering haze of the Libyan Desert — at Bardia, Derna, Tobruk — and amid the mountain passes and olive groves of Greece and Crete, and the rugged, snow-capped hills of Lebanon and Syria.
“We remember those who lie buried amid loving friends in our Motherland and in our own far North.
“We remember those who lie in unknown resting places in almost every land, and those gallant men whose grave is the unending sea.”
Lest We Forget pic.twitter.com/xzQbFGo5pI
— Currumbin RSL (@CurrumbinRSL) April 24, 2015At Burleigh, more than 2,000 people commemorated ANZAC DAY with Burleigh RSL president Chris Keating saying it was one of the biggest crowds in recent memory.
At Tweed, a hush fell over the crowd at the Jack Evans Boat Harbour as gunfire sounded.
Men in uniforms rowed towards the shore and jumped out of the boats with replica guns in hand — the look of fear in their eyes.
They crawled up the beach, some writhing in agony as though they had been shot — taking the crowds back to 100 years earlier when the Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed at Gallipoli in what is now known as Anzac Cove.
The re-enactment by local surf club members acting as soldiers began at 5am with orange lights giving the shores a warm orange glow.
A record crowd of about 15,000 people attended according to Tweed Heads and Coolangatta sub-branch committee member Norm Henstridge.
“We usually get 5000 which fills the park and although it’s hard to guess crowd figures we believe there was at least three times that here today,” he said.
“And there’s a lot of kids which is a great thing to see.”
John Griffin, from the sub-branch, said the service was a beautiful tribute to the fallen soldiers and anyone who has served Australia and New Zealand.
“The ANZAC tradition is very much a historical thing for us, as the Tweed Heads Coolangatta RSL sub-branch is one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1919,” he said.
“We are still one of the largest RSLs even so many years on, and I think the community has really come to respect what we are doing.
“There is a real authenticity to what is going on — the detail of the re-enactment was down to the finest level, even the colour patch on the uniforms represents the 9th division.”
There were technical difficulties with the big screens to broadcast the re-enactment across the record crowd, but the images flickered to life just in time to watch the landing and the following dawn service.
The all-male choir The Blenders sang the Australian and New Zealand national anthems, with wreaths laid and the Last Post played.
The actors in uniform stayed to mingle with the crowd following the service, before heading to the RSL for breakfast.
Did you attend a Dawn Service on the Gold Coast? Tell us where you went in the comments
Originally published as Gallipoli centenary: Record crowds flock to dawn services across the Gold Coast
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