Flyers to the fore for Anzac Day services as RAAF notches up 100 years

This year’s Anzac Day dawn service and march will honour the role played by the state’s many RAAF veterans as the air force turns 100. SEE WHERE YOU CAN PARTICIPATE >>

TASMANIA’S Royal Australian Air Force history is central to this year’s Anzac Day commemorations, with RAAF veterans to lead tomorrow’s march in Hobart.

This year marks 100 years of the air force in Australia and RSL Tasmania president Robert Dick said the dawn service and march would honour the role played by the state’s many RAAF veterans and other past and present members of the Defence Force.

“Tasmania has a very good reputation across all three (Defence Force) services including the air force as having the highest enlistment rate per capita, even in peacetime,” Mr Dick said.

Due to ongoing COVID restrictions, the 6am dawn service and 11am commem­orative service at the Hobart Cenotaph are free ticketed events, while only veterans and serving ADF members will take part in the march down Macquarie Street at 11am.

Mr Dick did not expect that to deter people from showing their respects.

“Last year could be used as an example — we couldn’t have marches or dawn services but people turned up during the day at local cenotaphs to lay a wreath and we had a lot of support for Light Up the Dawn, which was quite humbling,” he said.

Retired Air Vice Marshall Peter Scully served for 40 years with the RAAF. he will march in the Hobart Anzac parade tomorrow. Picture: Eddie Safarik

Joining tomorrow’s march in Hobart will be retired pilot Peter Scully, who enjoyed an immensely satisfying, and often thrilling, 40-year career with the RAAF.

Having become hooked on flying as a youngster during World War II, Mr Scully joined the Air Force College at 17 and graduated over time from Tiger Moths to his favourite aircraft, the French-designed Mirage jet, which could fly at twice the speed of sound.

Even as an assistant Air Force chief in Canberra, he managed to “keep flying on the side” and he instructed countless pilots over his career.

Mr Scully served in the Malayan Emergency and, during the 1960s, led air force aerobatics teams abroad and in Sale, Victoria.

“I had a lot of fun. As we used to say, ‘There’s nothing better than punching holes in the sky at government expense’,” he said.

Mr Scully now helps run the RAAF Association museum at 61 Davey Street in Hobart, which is open to the public on Wednesdays and for guided tours by appointment.

“There have been quite a number of very significant Tasmanians among the RAAF veterans, including Stuart Crosby Walch, who was the only Tasmanian who took part in the Battle of Britain and who was killed in that conflict,” he said.

“(Tasmanian-born) Brian Eaton was a very prominent member of the No 3 Squadron during the (Second World) war and was Australia’s most decorated pilot. He was shot down three times, but just kept grabbing another airplane.”

Peter Scully, circa 1971, when he was commanding officer of a Mirage squadron at Butterworth in Malaysia.

Reflecting a common view among veterans and historians, Mr Scully said it was a shame Australia’s military history was not taught more prominently at schools.

“We don’t glorify war at all, in fact we remember those we lost. We are called the Defence Force and we defend democracy against those who are evil, so I don’t understand this feeling that it’s not something we should talk about,” he said.

For tomorrow’s COVID-safe Anzac Day commemorations in Hobart, spectators and participants must register for a ticket through the RSL Tasmania website, and are required to check in using the Check In TAS app.