ANZAC Day 2013

The 25th April is celebrated nationally as ANZAC Day, where the exploits and tragedies of war are remembered. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and I believe the term was first coined during the First World War, which started almost 99 years ago. Certainly the ANZACs fought at the misguided Gallipoli campaign, a major defeat for them, but one that has delivered an amazing friendship between Australia and Turkey. ANZAC Day has metamorphosed almost into a secular religion with all sorts of observances, though I doubt if it differs much from similar occasions in other countries. Britain has its Armistice Day (11 November).

ANZAC Day is full of marches like the one below, dawn services, memorial gatherings in parks and gardens, two-up gambling in Ex-Services clubs, sporting events, dinners and the like. The average age of participants used to be 'elderly', but strangely it is plummeting as increasing numbers of children participate - the youngest reported today being a few hours old. The rituals of the young also tend to be on various battlefields around the world, especially in Turkey (Gallipoli itself), the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, and Myanmar. I've been invited to a re-enactment of the last cavalry charge in history at Beersheva in 2017 (the 100th anniversary).

Today's Armidale march was at least 1.5 km (almost a mile) long. And the following pictures show images of the event:

Assembly point in Moore Street

Start of the procession

Buses ferrying the elderly and handicapped

Local and invited dignitaries, including the mayor second from the right

Start of the (Ex-)Servicemen section

UNE's Army Contingent - there's a base on campus

Ex-Servicemen

Armidale Brass Band - they're very good

Naval contingent ... there was an HMAS Armidale, which was sunk!

A women's auxiliary?

The Armidale pipe band in full regalia playing some Scottish number, not a lament

Many children took part in the march sectioned according to School. Here we have Duval (where Emily became head girl in year 12 - and she also served in the local Naval Cadets ... at 1000m asl)

And here's the contingent from Ben Venue school attended both Rebecca and Emily

 AS