Anzac Day services for 2022 on the Fraser Coast
Thousands of people have gathered across the Fraser Coast to pay tribute to service people past and present on Anzac Day. PHOTOS, VIDEOS AND FULL DETAILS:
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A crowd of hundreds, with some describing it as the best turnout they have ever seen, gathered to watch the Hervey Bay Anzac Day parade and main service.
The parade started at Hervey Bay RSL and was followed by the main service at 9.30am in Freedom Park.
National Servicemen’s Association of Australia Hervey Bay Branch president Brian Barker spoke about his service and the day’s events.
“It was a fantastic turnout and I’m glad to see so many community people supporting our veterans,” he said.
Mr Barker started his service in 1972, and completed 25 years service altogether.
“A lot of us have memories of our families who went over, some of us we decided to join ourselves,” Mr Barker said.
“Myself, and fellow Nashos here - we didn’t have the choice, we were called up, we were under age, couldn’t drink, couldn't vote, but we all went to service anyway.
“But, we’ve done our duty and we’ve got to remember those who didn’t come home.”
Mr Barker was joined by the association’s vice president Ray Duce, who completed 33 years service.
“This year it’s the 50th anniversary of the last national service,” Mr Barker said.
Cae Adams and Janette Worth from the Queensland Country Women’s Association Urangan Branch also attended the main service.
They both said the Anzac Day service was “wonderful”.
“The best turn out I’ve ever seen,” Mr Worth said.
Wreaths were laid by many members of the community including representatives from the Wide Bay Hospital Service, SES, Hervey Bay RSL and schools across the region.
Every year Jason and Brooke Sheriff attend the Anzac Day service, with Mr Sheriff adding the weather was nice for the day’s services.
Maryborough’s march and main service at 9.30am attracted a bumper crowd, with families, cadets, veterans, schoolchildren and other members of the community coming together to mark Anzac Day.
The haunting sound of the bagpipes floated across Maryborough CBD as the annual march was held through the main streets before people gathered around the cenotaph.
Rain fell again, just as it did during the dawn service, but that did not deter those gathered.
During the ceremony, a super hornet jet flew over those assembled around the cenotaph for the memorial.
At Glenwood, a dawn service was held in the morning before the main service at 11am.
Those gathered sang along to the hymn Abide With Me before two students from Glenwood State School shared some of the history of the Anzac landing in Gallipoli 107 years ago.
Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien attended the service in Glenwood, addressing the crowd.
“There is no more important event in our national calendar than Anzac Day where we acknowledge our Anzacs and our former and serving defence force personnel,” he said.
“We consider the importance of our national identity - our loyalty, mateship and fair minded Australian values.
“We honour the servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that we could continue to live in the peaceful, free Australia we know today.
“With the current situation evolving in Ukraine and China, the safety of our shores is something Australia must not take for granted.
“We are grateful to our current Australian defence personnel, risking their lives to keep Australia safe, and secure peace and freedom around the world.”
He acknowledged the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin in the Second World War during his speech.
“This year we observe the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.
“On the morning of the 19th of February, 1942, two Japanese raids devastated the city of Darwin.
“More than 250 Australian and allied service personnel were killed.
“A series of air raids across north western Australia continued for 21 long months until November, 1943.”
Wreaths were then laid at the Glenwood War Memorial, which was unveiled at last year’s Anzac Day ceremony.
“Under the threat of invasion, our country and the people of Darwin rose to the occasion.”
Mr O’Brien said both defence personnel and civilians were involved in rescues following the attack while doctors and nurses attended to the injured and dying.
“They showed determination, courage and mateship,” he said.
“Following the attack, our defence personnel in New Guinea, Borneo, Solomon Islands and across the South Pacific and south-east Asia helped to halt the Japanese forces.
“Working alongside our allies, Australia’s defence forces turned the tide against militarism and won a heroic victory.”
Through tears, and with her grandfather’s medals proudly displayed, Talahria Moy-Jensen watched on as hundreds gathered around Maryborough’s cenotaph to pay tribute to soldiers past and present on Anzac Day.
Ms Moy-Jensen’s grandfather fought in Vietnam and his service gave the Riverside Christian College student special insight into the sacrifice made by past generations that fought for the freedom of Australia and other nations around the world.
“It gives me a lot of pride to wear his medals every year,” she said.
“It was so moving to see so many people. I almost bawled my eyes out.”
Ms Moy-Jensen said even for those who hadn’t had family members fight in conflict, the day had special meaning, as it gave them a chance to remember those who had fought for the freedoms we enjoy today.
The Maryborough dawn service started about 5.45am, with light rain falling on those who had gathered at first light for the 107th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli.
Veteran Wade High, attending the service with his wife Natalie and daughter Atlanta, said it was good to see so many people in the city centre, paying their respects to fallen and returned servicemen and women.
He said he held concerns that Remembrance Day and Anzac Day numbers were falling, so to see so many people was heartening.
Diane and Bob Carruthers were also at the Maryborough service.
Mr Carruthers served in the air force and they moved around a lot, living in every Australian state except for Tasmania and Western Australia during his 25 years of service.
Mrs Carruthers said it was special seeing so many children and young people at the service.
She felt the war in Ukraine had reminded people of the sacrifice made by past generations and the fact that war wasn’t a thing of the past.
In Hervey Bay, the community also turned out in droves for the annual dawn service, while hundreds also attended services in Tinana, Howard, Glenwood and Tiaro as day broke.
The haunting sounds of the Last Post sounded out over the cities and towns of the Fraser Coast, while the national anthems of both Australia and New Zealand were sung.
Dozens of wreaths were laid as the community gathered in Howard to pay their respects.
The Chronicle spoke with the president of the Burrum District Sub-Branch RSL Steve Grainger about Monday’s Anzac Day services.
“We started off at 4.28am, the dawn service, that was followed by a service out at the cemetery – a tradition that has happened ever since 1937,” he said.
“We go out to the cemetery and place poppies on all the returned servicemens’ graves.
“We also have a monument that the RSL built out there and today was the first day we‘ve used that … just as a memorial to the diggers that are buried in our cemetery.”
Mr Grainger said the dawn service attracted around 150 to 200 people and the main service had between 200 to 250 members of the community.
In between the day’s services, veterans were served whiting.
“And then of course, in between that we serve whiting to the veterans because that’s what they used to have in the early days because it was cheap,” Mr Grainger said.
The main service was followed by a traditional English breakfast at the RSL.
Touching moment Turkish ties were marked at memorial
The Turkish Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Korhan Karakoc, and his wife Swetnava visited Maryborough’s Gallipoli to Armistice Memorial on Friday, ahead of Anzac Day.
The couple was accompanied by Queensland Turkish Consul Turgut Manli, who donated the sculpted profile of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to the Fraser Coast.
Gallipoli to Armistice Committee chair Nancy Bates said the Duncan Chapman statue (which went viral earlier this year in a moving picture taken during the Maryborough floods, mirroring the Gallipoli landing) had been given its annual spruce up from the team at Olds Engineering.
She said on this occasion the refurbishment was particularly timely given the visit from dignitaries.
The Olds team also refurbished the Ataturk profile sculpture which was donated to the Gallipoli to Armistice memorial.
The Memorial, in addition to paying tribute to Maryborough’s Duncan Chapman, the first man ashore at Gallipoli, also pays tribute to the special relationship that has developed between Australia and Turkey in the years since the end of the war.
Part of the memorial is a sculptured relief mask of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, famed for his words about the fallen Anzacs who remained behind after the Australians were forced to retreat: “those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace”.
Also part of the memorial is sand from Gallipoli at the footsteps of the statue of Major Chapman, another gift from Mr Manli.
Ms Bates, who was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the memorial, said the ambassador and his wife had been impressed by what they saw, paying special attention to the mask of Ataturk.
She spoke of Australian soldier Archie Barwick, who kept a set of diaries during the First World War, including his time at Gallipoli.
He had spoken of the pain felt among the soldiers of having to leave their fallen comrades when leaving Gallipoli.
Well known was the story of the self-firing rifles that were erected by the Australians to deceive the Turks during the evacuation.
But Mr Barwick had written that the Anzac soldiers also left behind notes, asking those who had once been their enemies to care for the bodies and graves of those left behind – a request that Turkey has honoured.
Ms Bates said the ambassador’s wife had also visited the Story Bank, a Mary Poppins museum in the birthplace of the author who created the famed nanny, PL Travers.
She said they had both also admired the city’s heritage buildings and homes.
Moving scenes have also been unfolding in Hervey Bay where lovingly made ceramic poppies are being sold at the RSL to raise money for Mates4Mates, a charity which supports veterans and their families through service-related injuries.
An incredible 1442 ceramic poppies – to reflect the number of names listed on the Hervey Bay Light Horse Memorial at Freedom Park and the Pialba Memorial Cenotaph – have been made by dedicated volunteers Annie Alexander, Carol Bedding, Camille Sangster, Fay Thomson, Helen Kirk, Irene Brown, Jo Shadbolt, Kaye Moffat and Ruth Dillon.
The poppies are being sponsored and bought by businesses and locals across Hervey Bay and will be displayed at the Light Horse Memorial on Anzac Day.
Friday also marked another chapter in the federal election campaign with a pledge from the Coalition to deliver a $5million Veteran Wellbeing Centre in the Wide Bay-Burnett region.
In a statement, Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien said “the new centre will make it easier for veterans, their families and current service personnel to access health and wellbeing support, help with finding work and assistance as they transition out of military life”.
Hinkler MP Keith Pitt “we have more than 8,000 veterans and their families living here and I am pleased our government is delivering better access to important assistance for them”.
Mr Pitt is up against Labor candidate Jason Scanes, a former army captain who served in Afghanistan (and whose campaign corflutes include a picture of his medals), is patron for TS Maryborough Navy Cadets as well as being Veteran Advocate and Ambassador to the ‘Aussie Vets for PTSD’ charity.
Anzac Day services across the Fraser Coast
From dawn services to marches and breakfasts, here’s where you can go on the Fraser Coast this Anzac Day to commemorate those who served.
We will remember them.
Hervey Bay
Parade from RSL Club to Freedom Park, Main Street @5.15am & 9.30am
Services at Freedom Park, dawn service @5.30am, main service @9.45am
Maryborough
March from Adelaide St to Cenotaph @5.30am & 9am
Services at Cenotaph, Bazaar Street, dawn service @5.45am, main service @9.30am
K’Gari (Fraser Island)
Maheno Wreck, 75 Mile Beach, Fraser Island @10am
Tiaro
Service at Cenotaph, beside Memorial Hall @5.45am
Tinana
Service at Tinana War Memorial, Gympie Road @5.40am
Followed by a sausage sizzle
Tinnanbar
Service at Flagpole, Pioneer Drive @5.30am
Followed by breakfast
Toogoom
Service near Community Hall, Toogoom Road @5.45am
Followed by gunfire breakfast at hall and BBQ lunch at Toogoom & District RSL Sub-Branch
Howard
Main Parade from RSL Hall, Steley Street @7.20am
Howard Cenotaph, William Street, dawn service @4.28am, main service @7.30am
Poppy Placement, Howard Cemetery, Cemetery Road @5.15am
Children’s sausage sizzle, Burrum District Community Centre @8.30am
Miva
Service at QCWA Rooms, Miva Road @11am
Brooweena
Service at War Memorial, Lahey Street @9am
Service at Memorial Bridge @11.30am
Burrum Heads
March from Burrum Heads boat ramp to War Memorial @8am
Service at Community Hall, Burrum Heads Road @8.15am
River Heads
Service at Community Hall, Ariadne Street @5.50am
Followed by gunfire breakfast
Poona
Service at Anzac Memorial, Boronia Drive @5.45am
Glenwood
Glenwood Memorial, dawn service @5.30am, main service @11am
Gunfire breakfast @7am
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Originally published as Anzac Day services for 2022 on the Fraser Coast
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