Off the Record: Albany’s ‘Anzac Peace Park Football Stadium’ and the coronavirus crisis two years on

LEST WE FORGET If you haven’t heard of Michael Tugwell, he’s the man that makes Albany’s RSL services pound-for-pound the best in the State. Mr Tugwell spent 33 years as an infantry soldier in the Australian Army, including several postings as a regimental sergeant major, so he knows how to make things happen. He is not the president of the Albany RSL sub-branch, but he takes his role as service director very seriously. Moments after last year’s Remembrance Day service on York Street, he was speaking to Off the Record about plans for Anzac Day 2022. A farmer in his spare time, he also has the rare ability to inject humour into these otherwise sombre commemorations. Mr Tugwell’s current mission is to honour the service and sacrifice of Australians in the defence forces — and he doesn’t let much stand in his way. On Anzac Day 2020, when the uncertainty of COVID was at its peak and all RSL services were cancelled across WA, there was a very small, very private dawn service held atop Mt Clarence. On Anzac Day 2021, when a snap lockdown in Perth had sparked an exodus into the regions and the Kings Park dawn service was scrapped once again, Albany’s services were the biggest in WA. According to him, Albany has only gone two years without an Anzac Day service since the end of World War I. “There was a two-year period in World War II — 1942 and 1943 — when the services weren’t held due to . . . largely unknown German and Japanese naval activity close to the Albany coast,” he said. OTR can only guess at his assessment of rules that would allow 30,000 people to attend Optus Stadium for a game of footy, while capping attendance at 500 for outdoor Anzac Day services. That is how things stand under WA’s Level 2 COVID restrictions. Premier Mark McGowan has vowed to review the restrictions by the end of March, flagging a move back to Level 1 which would allow bigger Anzac Day crowds. But Perth’s Kings Park dawn service has already fallen victim to that uncertainty, with the RSL announcing a scaled-down, invitation-only event for 500 people. Meanwhile in Albany, Mr Tugwell is keeping all options on the table as he waits for clarity from the State Government. “The intent is to achieve the best possible outcome we can under the circumstances we are working under, noting that our situation pales into insignificance compared with those dilemmas faced during war by those we pause to remember on Anzac Day,” he said. He told OTR he had been taking a lot of calls from people eager to attend Anzac Day services in “Australia’s home of Anzac”. “This has included some tongue-in-cheek ideas such as fencing the Anzac Peace Park and calling it the APP Football Stadium,” he said. TWO YEARS ON To anyone out there who feels the trials and tribulations of the COVID-19 pandemic might never end, OTR wants to give you hope by taking you back to the start. A little more than two years have passed since the Advertiser started speaking to health experts and community leaders about the potential impacts of the coronavirus crisis on Albany. At the time, some readers — and colleagues, truth be told — criticised those stories as fearmongering and sensationalist. Alas, it was about two years ago to the day that Albany had its first confirmed case of the virus — a woman who was a passenger on the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship. Suddenly, the virus was here. In those sketchy early days of the pandemic, COVID-19 felt like a storm cloud spreading over WA, threatening to subject us to the same cruel punishment it was dishing out in Europe. Streets were empty, events were cancelled, sport was called off and the City of Albany was putting out videos of the mayor that resembled wartime addresses from a council bunker. Health was our No. 1 priority, but the potential toll on jobs and businesses was also unsettling. It was an eerie, anxious time for our city as we bunkered down and focused on flattening the curve, cut off from other parts of WA by regional borders. Two years later, we are in a significantly different position, even if it doesn’t always feel like it. Most of us are triple-vaccinated and our incredible local businesses are battle-hardened after two years of adapting to various restrictions and requirements. Having pulled together to navigate this pandemic, our focus is rightly starting to switch from the threats around us to the path ahead. The regional borders are long gone and WA is opening up to the world. Bring it on.