Albany Anzac Day 2023: Hundreds flock to first restrictions-free Mt Clarence dawn service since 2019

Cold winds did little to deter hundreds from making the trip up Mt Clarence to the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial for the first restriction-free Albany dawn service since 2019. The strong showing was a sign the community wants to remember the sacrifices made by those who have served and continue to serve in both the Australian and New Zealand defence forces. During his dawn service address, Lt-Col John Coleman of the New Zealand Defence Force said he felt privileged to share in “the remembrance of those who sacrificed so much”. He opened his remarks with a traditional Maori address, acknowledging God, the Menang-Noongar traditional custodians of the land, defence force personnel, and leadership and community leaders. He said much had changed in the two countries in the 105 years since the end of World War I but “what has not changed is a commitment to acknowledge and respectfully honour all those that have served both our nations”. “Take time to think of those that paid the ultimate sacrifice, those that did not return to their families and those that are still suffering from their service today while they are living among us,” he said. “Few of the people here today have not been touched by the sacrifice of war. “We all know people who have suffered, we know families that have lost loved ones and we remember them, especially on a day like today, and it is right that during that moment of silence, we think of those people and feel their sorrow.” As part of the service Bethel Christian School student Isobella Zeibari read a letter written home by a soldier in hospital 1917. In the letter, Sgt James Thomas Magee recounts how he came to be in the hospital after a gas shell “burst right on us and so endeth a perfect day”. Reverend Canon Karen Cave delivered the prayer of remembrance and benediction and was joined by Reverend Jacqui Chesley-Ingles who delivered it in Maori. Among those who laid wreathes at the base of the monument were WA Opposition leader Shane Love, a representative of the Belgian consulate, sailors from HMAS Waller, Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington and RSL Albany sub-branch president Helen Tasker. The formalities of the service were brought to a close by the traditional laying of a wreath in Albany’s harbour, which has been carried out since the days of Padre White’s original Albany dawn services. Service MC Ken Ewers-Verge said the Padre had believed “it was easy enough to place a wreath at a memorial but unique to place one in the water.” “Particularly in the water where the men had sailed from that very last time for so many of them,” he said. Once the wreath was laid in the waters a flare was shot into the sky to signal the end of proceedings.