Thousands hail diggers in dawn services for Anzac Day

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07:51 AEST Fri Apr 25 2008


Tens of thousands have attended solemn dawn services across the country to mark the 93rd anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli and honour those who have fought since.

Among those remembered was Trooper David Pearce, 41, who was killed on October 8 last year when the light armoured vehicle he was driving was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

His wife Nicole Pearce and two daughters, Stephanie, 12, and Hanna, 6, laid a wreath at the memorial at the Oxenford-Coomera RSL on the Gold Coast.

The two girls will wear Trooper Pearce's medals in an Anzac Day march later in the morning.

A teary Mrs Pearce said she was pleased with the service.

"It's an emotional rollercoaster, but today's not just us," she told reporters.

Land Commander of Australia, Major General Mark Kelly, who delivered this year's dawn service address in Sydney, said Gallipoli was about more than the forging of a nation.

"It was Australia's shrine ... the cradle of our traditions and the tomb of our princes," Maj Gen Kelly said of Gallipoli.

"I feel the term Anzac has transcended the physical meaning to become a spirit, an inspiration which embodies the qualities of courage, discipline, sacrifice, self-reliance and in Australian terms, mateship and a fair go."

He also praised the thousands of Australian soldiers who gave their lives in other World War I battles and those who fought and died in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, East Timor and Iraq.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attended the Sydney service, alongside Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson and NSW Premier Morris Iemma.

Mr Rudd will attend the national ceremony in Canberra later on Friday, where an estimated 30,000 people attended the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial.

In Melbourne, tens of thousands of people gathered at the Shrine of Remembrance for a service that began in darkness with the playing of the Last Post and ended in the dawn light with a sole bag piper playing on top of the Shrine.

Governor David de Kretser led an official party to lay a wreath in the shrine on behalf of all Victorians and thousands then made their way inside to lay a poppy in tribute and gratitude to those who fought.

In Brisbane, 15,000 people began jostling for positions in the city's Anzac Square well before 4am (AEST), with some rugged up in scarves and beanies, while others opted for shorts and thongs.

A small group of ex-servicemen, led by a military band, marched down Adelaide Street and into Anzac Square to begin the service, which has now been held in Brisbane for 70 years.

Queensland Governor and governor-general designate, Quentin Bryce, delivered a short address, paying tribute to the courage and sacrifices of the soldiers at Gallipoli.

"Now, in 2008, as we are refreshed by the winds of change, we find new meanings in the achievements of those brave young men," Ms Bryce said.

"Above all, we contemplate their courage."

Light rain fell in Adelaide ahead of the service at the war memorial.

Overnight, more than 300 young people staged a vigil at the memorial with community and youth organisations, the St John cadets, military cadets and students from Christian colleges taking part in the guard of honour.

And at least 30,000 people are expected to attend Perth's Anzac Day dawn service at Kings Park overlooking the Swan River on Friday morning.

Services were also held in Auckland and Port Moresby, where Kokoda trekkers swelled numbers to about 500 at the Bomana War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea.

Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, along with others who have been in the country for the PNG-Australia government ministers forum this week, laid a wreath.

Thousands of young Australians will again make the traditional trek to Gallipoli, where the Anzac legend was born on April 25, 1915.

But the major focus this year will be on the Western Front.

Thousands of Australians have made the pilgrimage to the tiny French town of Villers-Bretonneux for the 90th anniversary of its liberation by diggers on Anzac Day, 1918.

Marches will also be held in major cities on Friday.

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Anzac parade underway in central Sydney
11:30 AEST Fri Apr 25 2008


Tens of thousands of flag-waving men, women and children have lined the streets of Sydney to honour war veterans taking part in the annual Anzac Day march.

NSW governor Marie Bashir led the procession of veterans, their descendants, current military personnel and NSW Police and Fire Brigade personnel who served in the military as it made its way from Martin Place along George Street to Hyde Park.

Lots of families and young children, some with Australian flags painted on their faces, are lining the march route.

Glenn Ruddle, from Zetland in inner-Sydney, brought his five-year-old daughter and 17-month-old son to their first Anzac parade.

"My kids wanted to come," he said while watching the march.

"I think it's important to pass it (the Anzac tradition) on to them.

"It's important to me more so now that I've got kids."

For the first time, the NSW branch of the RSL asked descendants of veterans to march this year at the back, rather than alongside the unit in which their relative served, amid concerns the veterans were being crowded out.

Marching veterans may be accompanied by a carer if needed, but only one designated descendant of a veteran can take part in the march.

"Our intention has never been to force people to march at the rear," NSW RSL resident Don Rowe told AAP ahead of the start of the march.

"The veterans were the ones that went to war. They were the ones who put their lives on the line.

"Let them have the pride of place in the march."

However, many people wearing their relative's medals marched with veterans in their units.

Angela and Maree Dew, daughters of Ray Dew, who fought in North Africa in World War II and was a prisoner of war for four years, will be respecting the RSL's request.

"We just want to be there to honour our father's memory," Angela Dew told AAP at the cenotaph in Martin Place.

"We're happy to do that as part of the descendants."

Her sister said the veterans were getting older and fewer in number, and descendants would likely end up marching with the units again in the future.

"It (marching with the units) makes the march too long for them, but in future years that could probably change when veterans can't march anymore," Maree said.

One descendant, who asked not to be named, will march with the remaining members of his father's battalion, which served in Malaya in the 1950s.

"My plan is to do exactly that," he said.

"It feels like the right thing to do, whether or not it meets their approval.

"I can understand their thoughts but would think most units would accept descendants."

Commodore Ian Callaway, chief marshal of the march, said the number of descendants were crowding out the dwindling number of veterans.

"It's more appropriate that the descendants participate in the march but that they bring up the rear and leave the veterans the honour of leading the march," he said.

The retired naval officer, who served for 40 years including the war in Vietnam, said descendants in small numbers did not take the focus from the veterans.

"But when you have six veterans and about 50 descendants then the thing is getting out of kilter," he said.

Trevor Cotton, 85, who served in New Guinea, marched with the Australian Cinema Unit Association, which he joined after World War II.

He said the cinema unit used to show films to soldiers in the jungle on movie screens they hung between trees.

Mr Cotton, who waved to his granddaughter watching the march, said he marched every year.

"It gives you a lift, and people come along and I like to acknowledge them."