Anzac Day dawn services drew crowds across Australia, although some events were marred by booing and heckling. Photo / Getty Images
The Anzac Day dawn services in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide have been marred by booing during the Welcome to Country acknowledgment.
However, there were huge attendances by respectful Aussies across the nation this morning and emotional scenes.
Two Sunrise hosts broke down live on air after reflecting on their personal connections to Anzac Day and the horrors faced by scores of Australians who fought in World War II.
“Goodness me. Hard not to get very emotional watching that,” Michael Usher said, as he comforted his co-host Monique Wright.
Wright, who wiped away tears with a tissue, said she was overcome by thinking about the impact of war on children and men.
“I just think all of the kids that grew up without dads, and even when the dads came back, the horrors that they brought back from war,” she said.
“And those of us who are raising young men, you know, how very different life was.”
For Usher, a woman’s sombre reflection on World War II’s lost generation was what moved him most.
“Oh and that dear lady, that’s the bit that got me, where she said, ‘For the man who never came home, for the generation we lost’.”
In Melbourne, 55,000 attended this morning’s dawn service. An estimated 10,000 people lined the march route, lifting attendance to more than 65,000 across the event’s two parts.
Across the state hundreds of thousands more Victorians paid their respects at the more than 140 services held by Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) sub-branches.
“This morning was another powerful event that gave Victoria the chance to honour our veterans past and present and reflect on the great sacrifices of service,” RSL Victoria president Mark Schroffel said.
“A crowd of 55,000 at the dawn service is the biggest we’ve seen in years.”
On the disruption during the Welcome to Country, Schroffel said the acknowledgment was an appropriate way to recognise First Nations traditions and service before the official proceedings.
“Those who did the wrong thing showed they are weak-minded individuals who do not belong at this service,” Schroffel said.
“We understand the disrupters left before the end of the service, showing complete disrespect to veterans.
“They were overwhelmed by the vast majority of the attendees who applauded and supported proceedings.
“In relation to the defacing of monuments across a few sites in Victoria, it is mindless and completely disrespectful to all veterans and their families.”
Major General Richard Vagg, acting Chief of Army, said the heckling would upset those serving the nation.
“Anzac Day is a day where I reflect on the service and sacrifice of well over two million Australians that have served in the Australian Defence Force since Federation,” he said on ABC News Breakfast.
“Just about every service person, serving and past, would be upset with that type of behaviour. It misses the point.”
Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described the incidents as “disgraceful and deeply disappointing”.
“Acknowledgments to country are just an act of respect, and what characterises today is that it is a day of respect and to boo in that way goes completely against that,” he told the ABC.
Police in Melbourne have been unable to find the people who interrupted the Welcome to Country.
“Police are aware of two incidents of people booing during the dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance on April 25,” a police spokesperson said.
“As soon as police heard the behaviour, officers moved into the dense crowd, however, were unable to identify anyone at the time. No arrests have been made.”
Melbourne Acting Commander Troy Papworth said the Anzac Day dawn service was a time for solemn remembrance and to show respect for those who served and continue to serve.
“These ceremonies are not an appropriate platform to behave in a manner that will offend others,” he said.
NSW Police arrested a 24-year-old man after responding to an alleged act of nuisance during a Sydney dawn service.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan called the booing at the Melbourne event a “betrayal of everything Anzac Day stands for”.
“It is pure disrespect and to direct that at a Welcome to Country – at Aboriginal servicemen and women who served this nation – is as ignorant as it is shameful,” she said.
“Anzac Day is not a stage for division. It is about service, mateship, sacrifice, and we will never let a hateful few take that away.”
The Anzac Day National Commemorative Service march in Canberra kicked off to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, with Australian Defence Force Academy cadets leading the parade.
They were followed by Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who greeted former Labor leader and Australian War Memorial chairman Kim Beazley upon arrival.
Shortly after, an F-35A fighter jet flew overhead and the RSL ACT Branch joined the march to applause from supporters.
It was a smaller crowd than that of the dawn service, where about 35,000 people paid tribute to Australia’s service men and women.
Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh attended a dawn service at the Isurava Memorial in Papua New Guinea to pay tribute to the Australian soldiers who served along the Kokoda Track during World War II.
Speaking at the service, Keogh said more than 8000 Australians served along the track between July and November 1942.
They were sent to fight at a time when “the Japanese forces were advancing and the threat to Australia seemed very real”.
“In this special place, we remember all those who fought and died on the Kokoda Track and across Papua New Guinea and the significant contribution they made to ultimate victory in the Second World War,” he said.
“We also pay tribute to the families of those who served here and acknowledge the enduring grief of the loved ones of those who never came home.”
Tens of thousands of Australians gathered across the country for Anzac Day dawn service ceremonies to remember the 111th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at the service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Fallen Soldier.
Albanese had originally intended to be in Gallipoli for Anzac Day but cancelled the plans after the US-Iran war started.
RAAF Flying Officer Kbora Ali, whose family fled the war in Afghanistan, told the Canberra service how her father, trapped on a sinking ship in the Indian Ocean, was saved by Royal Australian Navy personnel.
Twenty-four years later, Ali said she stood “here as a proud daughter, a former immigrant, a former soldier, and now as an aviator”.
Veteran Luke McCallum told NewsWire before taking part in the veteran’s march that Anzac Day was often one of mixed emotions.
McCallum, a double amputee, recalled his deployment in Iraq in the early 2000s, where his crew got caught up in a suicide bombing on April 24 and lost three American comrades.
“From that moment on, things changed for me. The 24th is a bit of a rough day for me, but the 25th now, I’m getting better,” he said.
“A lot of us that were there that day struggle. I’m very lucky that some of them are also here in Canberra, so we sort of lean on each other.”
The dawn service held a special place in his heart, he said, particularly after his experience in Iraq.
“[During the suicide bombing] time zone changes meant we were in action, at the same time that the [dawn service] ceremony would have been happening in Australia,” he said.
He recalled his crew holding their own ceremony on the flight deck after the incident, in memory of the soldiers they lost.
Other major services across the country included one at Currumbin on the Gold Coast where Ben Roberts-Smith was seen.
The 47-year-old was charged this month with five counts of war crime murder relating to alleged conduct during his service in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
The Victoria Cross recipient has yet to enter pleas to any of the charges, but has denied the allegations.
He was at the Elephant Rock service at Currumbin wearing a suit and his medals, including the Victoria Cross.
Roberts-Smith told the Courier-Mail dozens of well-wishers spoke to him after the service. He said the support was “overwhelming” and he had never considered not being at the service despite the controversy surrounding his April 7 arrest.
RSL Queensland president Major General Stephen Day had given Roberts-Smith his blessing.
“He is absolutely welcome to any service that he chooses to join,” Day said on Friday.
Across Australia and New Zealand, dawn services were marked by the playing of the Last Post, a minute’s silence and the recitation of The Ode.
Communities then gathered for gunfire breakfasts, marches involving veterans and families, and moments of reunion that sit alongside remembrance.
The first of the Australian ceremonies began at the cenotaph in Sydney’s Martin Place at 4.20am.
Later in the day, two-up was legally played in pubs and clubs, while Anzac biscuits were shared and sprigs of rosemary and red poppies worn in remembrance of those who served at Gallipoli.
Increasingly, commemorations also incorporate purple poppies for animals and an infinity symbol recognising military personnel who have died by suicide.
Albanese also issued a video message today honouring the original Anzacs and all Australians who have served in the military since.
“Time and time again, Australians at war have embodied the courage, selflessness and mateship that define our national character,” he said.
“What their legacy proves to us is that even when peace seems elusive, it is always worth fighting for. So we gather.
“And as we give thanks for the light of every bright dawn that was their promise to us, we keep tending the flame of memory.
“Lest we forget.”
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