ANZAC Day: Sconeites resurge to commemorate

THIS year, the crowds returned to commemorate ANZAC Day, beginning with more than 400 people at the Dawn Service and a similar number at the main ceremony later this morning.

Due to ongoing COVID restrictions the main parade began after the service and marched down Guernsey Street, finishing at the RSL. 

Photo gallery below…

At the dawn service Val Quinnell recounted the first dawn services, which began with a few soldiers, gathering as they used to on the battlefield before first light and the threat of the first attack; a tradition they continued to share quietly when they returned home on ANZAC Day.

For some time the dawn service was reserved for returned service people, but nowadays family, friends and the community rise with them to remember.

Barnaby Joyce MP was present and was reflective of the people of Scone, “people like yourselves, who swam in your rivers and travelled down your roads, left their home to go to war.”

“Their names can be seen on the local cenotaphs of people from our district,” said Mr Joyce.

Mr Joyce also said he had family members who returned from war and understood how war can impact people for the rest of their lives, “sometimes the mental fighting of war happens for the rest of their life.”

At the 11am service, Val Quinnell shared one of his favourite poems about the war, which was written by Thomas Hamilton, who he explained was a local poet who had been a soldier.

As 30,000 soldier’s left Australian shores during WWI, many kept their eyes on a small island off Albany, there lived Faye Catherine Howe a 15 year old who relayed messages via semaphore flags or Morse code to the troops from their loved ones as the men waited at sea to set sail. She became a cherished symbol of home, she never met them, but many soldiers wrote postcards from the front to her. 

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter

Born in a lighthouse by blue and salty spray

She became her father’s keeper when her mother passed away

Her time for school yard games, another skill she made

With Morse code and semaphore, she learned her father’s trade

She kept a silent vigil over King George Sound

Watching war bound convoys from a break-sea mound

With flags and a mirror she became the link link

Between the families and an army starting off to hell’s brink

Barely 15 years of age she left her childhood ways

Thrust into maturity to pray for peaceful days

She was soon to realise, from the lessons all would learn

From the countless lines of thousands, the one’s who’d not return

She was like a beacon on her island on the coast

Where southern winds blew a gale she gamely held her post

As each ship departed and ploughed the story foam

She sent the soldier’s greeting to loved ones left at home

When those vessels made their sad return, with the wounded sick and lame

Her messages would bring them hope, though few would know her name

As the last shot was fired and the final words were said

Only then the country paused to try and count the dead

Now a nation stops in silence to remember those who died

The trusted souls of Albany recall her name with pride

Though glory bestow on generals renown

For the girl on Breaksea Island her title is her crown.