Anzac Day Boulia 2016

April 26, 2016 by annbritton

Each year at the Dawn Service this Anzac Poem is read out

An Anzac Day Poem

It’s just a simple service in a little place I know, when steady stars are paling and the sleepy earth wakes slow, with the greasy smell of morning in a little town at dawn, as with sleepy eyes and stiffened limbs we stifle back a yawn.

There isn’t any grand parade of marching or a band, but a little group of blokes who watch and think and stand.
There isn’t any bugler to play a sad Last Post, but from the midst of memories, the past steals like a ghost.

And all the intervening years the busy mind will bridge, to deserts harsh, the beaches cold and ragged jungle ridges, to laughter, fear, a thousand things, the faces and the jokes, and how it all comes back again, just standing with the blokes.

It’s just a simple service while the dawn is breaking red, it’s not the words a fellow hears, but those that stay unsaid. It’s not the glow of glory that the fleeting moment lends, it’s the memories in the morning-memories of your friends.

I can remember when we first started going to Boulia Dawn Services, about 20 years ago, there were sometimes less than 10 locals attending. It was lovely to see over 70 this year and the locals outnumbering the visitors.
One of your earlier Mayors, Ron McGlinchey, an ex Vet himself, use to do the dawn service with his father and one other person for many years. From little things, and respect, big things grow, I know Ronnie would be so pleased to hear that Boulia’s Dawn Services and Anzac Day commemorations are growing stronger and stronger every year.

Flags at half mast for the Dawn Service.

I, amongst many, are so proud of our cenotaph. Thanks to another of Boulia’s ex Vets and his coastal ex Vet mates, we have this buy diclofenac sodium 50mg amazing piece of art. The army personal on each side of the cenotaph is “drawn” using tiny dots in the stone. Truly is amazing. This fellow representing the infantry is facing east.

The Australian and New Zealand flags at half mast with the moon in the west, looking on, before sunrise.

This airman is facing south.

I took this photo with Annabelle Brayley in mind. Her book Our Vietnam Nurses is released by Penguin Books Australia on the 2 May (make a good Mother’s Day present) This army nurse faces north.

The sailor facing west (with the moon reflecting above his head) and the airman again, in more detail. Yes lots of little dots, lasered into the stone, pretty awesome isn’t it?

A poem written by a Facebook friend that lives in the UK….Anzac spirit across the sea….combined with the sunrise Anzac Day 2016 in Boulia…..another reason to be humble, respectful and grateful.

Boulia’s Anzac Day March lead by the school children and staff.

11am service

#BossMan wearing his Mayor’s hat addressing the 11am commemorations.
“At the battle of Fromelles almost 300,000 Australians served on the Western Front in France and Flanders, taking part in every major British offensive between 1916 and Armistice. More than 46,000 lost their lives and 18,000 have no known grave……….Australians suffered 5,533 casualties in one night”
It was the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history.

#BossMan helping Kathryn South, one of Boulia’s State School Captain, informing the gathering of the history of the “50th Year Anniversary of The Battle of Long Tan”

So proud to be apart of this bunch of local and visitors alike….Boulia Anzac Day 2016

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
Lest We Forget