How coronavirus could change Anzac Day in Victoria
Anzac Day will go ahead in Victoria, despite coronavirus fears, but ceremonies may be forced to follow a non-traditional format. See what “extreme measures” are being proposed if the virus crisis escalates.
VIC News
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Anzac Day could go ahead this year with just “three or four people” if the state government moves to the next stage of its pandemic plan and bans mass gatherings.
The Herald Sun can reveal RSL Victoria is locked in talks with authorities about what Anzac Day would look like if the coronavirus crisis escalates.
Premier Dan Andrews has already warned Victorians “extreme measures” would likely be needed to stop the spread of the potentially deadly virus.
RSL Victoria chief executive Jamie Twidale on Wednesday vowed “There will still be an Anzac Day”, but he confirmed it could be without crowds and with veterans forced to watch from home.
“We will still do it even if it’s just three or four people at each cenotaph and five people at the dawn service,” he said.
“We will find a way of observing it.”
The current plan was to proceed as normal, but he said the RSL was not “ignorant of the threat” and would follow the advice of the premier and chief health officer.
Mr Twidale said the day was too “momentous” to lose and he wanted to assure the public coronavirus wouldn’t stop it completely.
“It’s too important a day,” he said. “It just might not be in the traditional format, but we will observe the day in one way or another.”
Details were still being discussed, but it could be Victorians watch a radically slimmed down event from home on television with just a handful of people at the Shrine of Remembrance.
“We are looking at what that might look like now.”
The Victorian RSL always had contingency plans — but he conceded that was mainly around planning for protests and not a “major contagion”.
He said the safety and wellbeing of the hugely popular services was their main focus — and although the elderly were more susceptible to the worst effects of coronavirus — mass gatherings such as Anzac Day could fuel the “whole community” contracting it.
RSL Victoria state president, Dr Robert Webster, said this year’s Anzac Day was the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII.
“There are many ways to participate in the commemoration of this event, whether it be by attending a Dawn Service, by watching a Last Post ceremony on TV or online, or by simply taking a moment and reflecting on the service and sacrifice of our veterans,” he said.
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