Anzac Day 2018: Australia remembers
SECURITY is on high alert in Canberra for Anzac Day ceremonies that have begun by honouring the brave and often unsung Australian women who have served.
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CONCRETE barriers have blocked off streets around the Australian War Memorial in Canberra where thousands of people have gathered for the national Anzac Day service.
There was a visible security presence at the service where Acting Prime Ministers Michael McCormack and Governor-general Peter Cosgrove were commemorating the 103rd anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
Before the crowds arrived for the parade, police were seen doing bomb checks under plastic seats with mirrors. At least 40 armed Australian Federal Police officers are dispersed around the site, along with security officials in plain clothes.
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A contingent of firefighters and a fire truck were posted around the back of the war memorial, along with at least ten cars, including some marked police cars, and a shipping container.
“We have implemented any and all advice received from ASIO,” Australian War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson told News Corp.
“There is no direct threat.”
“I’ve said to Canberrans they’re safer on Anzac Parade today than they are on Northbourne Ave.”
Thousands of people lined Anzac Parade for the parade and service, where 97-year-old World War II veteran Bob Semple — one of the legendary Rats of Tobruk — spoke this morning.
GALLIPOLI: Aussies flock to pay respects
Mr Semple said he could vividly recall his time with the gun crew in El Alamein — the strength and loyalty among the men, carting around his violin to entertain the crew, and the periodic shelling and dive bombing from German planes.
He recalled holding hands with his mates and muttering “If this is it, we go together”.
Mateship and the circumstances they survived was what brought veterans together on Anzac Day, he said.
“Anzac Day remains sacred to all of us,” Mr Semple told the crowd.
“Let us continue to make reference to the past but go forward with courage and honour.”
Earlier, 38,000 people attended the dawn service, roughly the same turnout as last year, where brave Australian women who have served and died for their country across the last century have been honoured at the Dawn Service in Canberra.
Retired Colonel Susan Neuhaus gave the commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial service this year where 38,000 people gathered in the pre-dawn dark to pay tribute to current and past serving personnel on the 103rd anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
The decorated ex-Army officer, whose more than 20-year-career included service in Cambodia, Bougainville and Afghanistan, was the first woman ever to give the address.
Dr Neuhaus spoke of all the Australian men and women who have fought for their country in her speech this morning but highlighted the often forgotten role of women who have served and died for Australia since the Boer War.
She spoke particularly of the 22 nurses evacuated from Singapore in 1942, who swam through the night to reach the shore when their ship sank and were then executed on the beach by Japanese soldiers.
She recalled Matron Irene Drummond, who spoke words of comfort and courage to her nurses before they were shot or pushed into the waves at bayonet point.
“Chins up girls,” Drummond said.
“I’m proud of you and I love you all.”
Dr Neuhaus choked back tears in an emotional speech as she recalled those she had fought
with, the servicemen and women who had died in past conflicts and “those whose names have yet to be written” on the walls of the Australian War Memorial.
The distinguished surgeon spoke of the devastation of war, the “severed limbs and broken bodies” and the families the Anzacs left behind.
“I stand in awe of what those before have given me,” she said, while highlighting that every Australian whether they have a direct link to the Anzacs or not, has benefited from their sacrifice.
“Now, I understand that when the bugler sounds the reveille, it is a call to awaken,” she said.
“It is not a call to the dead but a call to the living and it calls to each of us.
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“That we might use the threads of their sacrifice to strengthen the fabric of this nation.
“That we might live our lives with the same courage, the same loyalty, that we might be imbued with fairness and compassion for those less fortunate.”
Speaking after the service, Dr Neuhaus said she wanted to shine a light on women particularly.
But also others who were often forgotten in the dominant stereotype of the
Australian soldier, including indigenous and multinational soldiers.
The ceremony opened with a haunting didgeridoo refrain by Wing Commander Jonathan Lilley, a member of the Worimi people and the air force Senior indigenous Liaison Officer.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Governor-general Peter Cosgrove were in attendance, along with Vice Chief of the Defence Force Ray Griggs.
Former Labor leader and former Australian Ambassador to the US Kim Beazley is due to speak at the national service in Canberra midmorning, along with 97-year-old veteran Bob Semple.
Mr Semple was one of the legendary Rats of Tobruk, who held the Libyan port against the Afrika Korps for eight months in World War II.
MASSIVE CROWDS ATTEND SYDNEY SERVICES
Because extremists have targeted annual Anzac Day ceremonies in the past, concrete barriers were placed around the service in downtown Sydney at the Cenotaph to protect those who gathered at Martin Place.
Thousands have gathered in Sydney’s CBD for this year’s Anzac Day parade which, for the first time, is being led by hundreds of female veterans.
Rain has not deterred crowds from lining Elizabeth Street to watch more than 16,000 servicemen and women march to commemorate 103 years since troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
Among those at the head of the parade will be 100-year-old Molly Cummings, who is honouring her many family members who have served for Australia.
MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO RECOGNISE WOMEN
In Adelaide thousands gathered at the South Australian National War Memorial and spilling down North Terrace, for the annual dawn service to mark Australia’s national day of remembrance.
Ian Smith, chair of the RSL SA’s Anzac Day committee, said more work needs to be done to recognise the service of women in the armed forces.
Women were restricted to nursing roles prior to World War II, when all three services introduced women’s branches.
“Women were fully integrated during the 1970s and 80s, and since then have continued to make their mark with a full range of responsibilities across all three services,” he told the crowd.
Mr Smith said 2018 marked the centenary of the end of the First World War, and Australian involvement in stopping the German spring offensive and in supporting the allied 100 offensive that drove the Germans back.
It also marks the 75th anniversary of many World War II battles and events, including the last Japanese air raid on Darwin, and the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War.
MELBOURNE REMEMBERS EMOTION OF SERVICE
Surgeon Annette Holian’s military battles involved scalpels, anaesthetic, blood and dressings.
The Group Captain and first serving woman to address an Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne told the tens of thousands packed around the Shrine of Remembrance about courage on the field.
“My medals represent personal hardship, specific challenges and many victories. Medical battles with scalpels, antiseptics, blood and dressing,” she said.
“They remind me of the emotion we faced living in the devastation in Aceh, its streets and rivers choked with the debris of thousands of bodies.”
An estimated 35,000 attended the service, which marks 100 years since the WWI battle of Villers-Bretonneux when Australian soldiers and their allies recaptured crucial territory from the Germans.
The numbers swelled by 10,000 from last year which organisers attributed to better weather and the ongoing commitment of Victorians to honouring service and sacrifice.
DRIZZLY DAY GREETS SOLEMN BRISBANE SERVICE
Dawn in Brisbane broke softly on Anzac Day morning as thousands of people gathered in drizzling rain to remember the fallen.
Armed with umbrellas and coffee, families, veterans and locals met in a darkened Anzac Square in the CBD to for the solemn service, which began at 4.28am. The muffled sound of drums on Adelaide Street heralded the arrival of the Veterans Parade.
Children perched atop shoulders to watch wreaths being laid at the Shrine of Remembrance.
Heads bowed as the last post echoed into the gloom.
ANZAC CROWDS DOWN IN PERTH
Crowd numbers were down slightly this year at the Kings Park State War Memorial service in Perth, with about 30,000 people in attendance.
Brigadier Peter Moore told the crowd that Anzac Day was about remembering and honouring those who have served their country.
“We are not here to glorify war,” he said.
“We are here to reflect on the almost incomprehensible sacrifice of so many young lives in so many conflicts that Australia has been involved in and recognise the service of all.” “Little did the soldiers who landed on April 25, 1915 imagine what they were embarking on would become the thing of legend.”
Originally published as Anzac Day 2018: Australia remembers
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