WATCH: Tweed Heads re-enacts Gallipoli landing in ‘eerie’ and ‘terrifying’ display
WATCH: The Gallipoli landing was re-enacted at Tweed Heads before dawn in a haunting display this morning.
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THE men kept quiet as they rowed towards the shore.
Clutching their oars, with fear in their eyes, they travelled towards the gunfire which greeted them.
There were 40 men who took part in the Tweed Heads re-enactment of the Gallipoli landing before first light this morning, each one dressed in authentic 1914-era uniforms.
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From age 17 through to their 60s, members of the local surf clubs gave the 15,000-strong crowd a glimpse of what it would have been like during the landing at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula on that fated morning 100 years ago.
As gun shots sounded and lights flashed, the men jumped from the boats and crawled along the sand with replica weapons, shooting towards the netted cliff face constructed before them.
Some writhed as though in pain and others fell, an eerie reflection of the battle wounds and lives lost on April 25, 1915.
Brisbane father-of-three Hamish Bonifant travelled to Tweed Heads especially for the service with his daughters Jami, Taylor and Sarah.
Jami, 11, said she enjoyed watching the re-enactment, especially after recently learning about the Gallipoli landing in school.
“I also got to watch my pop singing the Australian anthem with The Blenders,” she said of her grandfather David Bonifant.
“I was very proud.”
Hamish Bonifant described the landing re-enactment as “eerie” and “amazing”.
“It was very real and quite terrifying,” he said.
“The screens with the footage really showed the fear in their eyes as they made their way to the unknown.”
To deliver the national anthem alongside The Blenders, David Bonifant wore the medals of his father, Ian Bonifant, who was the youngest Brigadier General in the British allied forces.
“He was well-decorated and was granted a distinguished service order twice,” he said.
“For his service in North Africa and Italy.”
Originally published as WATCH: Tweed Heads re-enacts Gallipoli landing in ‘eerie’ and ‘terrifying’ display
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