Residents and visitors totalling 55 attended the Anzac Dawn Service in Baker Park, and for the first time since the wet morning in 2017 the kookaburras missed the Dawn Service. This years commemoration was attended by two serving Army personnel, Sergeant Matt Devereaux and Corporal Michael (Mick) Elliott, son of Bill Elliott, from the Air Support Unit, RAAF base in Richmond.
The Dawn Service followed the traditional format, Katie Davies read the names of the fallen from the Memorial, a single wreath was laid and a BBQ breakfast and rum ration followed.
The morning service started with the March from the Post Office, lead by Corporal Elliott, closely followed by a contingent of children who were able to keep up with Mick’s pace, reaching the park ahead of the rest of the parade.
Sergeant Devereaux’s address gave the history of Anzac relating it to todays Australian defence ethos. Corporal Elliott followed on with the reality of serving in conflicts in the 21st Century. Mick finished with detailing the lasting impact on the lives of servicemen and their families noting this has not changed since the first Anzac’s laid down their lives on foreign soil, and the survivors came home to live with the trauma they had witnessed.
Morning tea in the park followed. It was a chance to catch up with some former residents who had come back, Leila Mitselburg and 2 of her sons and Patsy Woodbury and daughter Leeanne. And a contingent of magpies joined in, just to show the kookaburras up.
Organisers thank all those who pitched in and helped set up in the pre-dawn quiet, those who cooked and served breakfast, who provided food for morning tea and helped out in the serving and cleaning up. Special thanks to Broken Hill’s Top End Meat who donated the sausages and bacon for breakfast.
Particular mention also to our new M.C. Following the retirement of long serving M.C. John Pineo, St Therese’s’ teacher Jeremy Auld stepped into the role, with his calm and gentle approach, the service ran like clockwork, to make you think he was born to it. Which maybe he was as he said his father and grandfather had played significant roles in their local Anzac services.
This article appeared in the Wilcannia News, May 2023.