Anzac Day means a great many things to all different people, but most of all, it’s a chance to remember, to pause and reflect on the conflicts that have gone before us, and are still being battled.
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Moree RSL Sub-branch vice-president Roger Butler said Anzac Day is Australia’s “real national day”.
“We have Australia Day but it doesn’t invoke some of the memories and the same significance as Anzac Day,” he said. “So many Australians have lost their lives in so many wars and conflicts. It’s a day for all those who lost their lives and all those who served.”
“It means a lot of things but mostly remembering all our comrades who didn’t make it,” World War II veteran Des Hurst added.
Mr Butler, who was a national serviceman during the Vietnam War, has been commemorating Anzac Day for as long as he can remember.
“I used to march with my father who was an airforce lieutenant in New Guinea during World War II, and I marched with scouts and school cadets,” he said.
“I have an uncle who became a paraplegic in New Guinea and another uncle who served in the army.
“Most Australians my age will have inherited that association with Anzac Day.”
Anzac Day is particularly poignant for Moree’s Mark Armstrong, who lost friends and comrades while serving with the British Army during the Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
“It’s the fact that we’re remembering those who lost their lives to give us the freedom that we have now and the ongoing freedom that we strive for,” Mr Armstrong said.
“Without their sacrifice, and not just them going off to war, but what their families went through, it’s paramount that we remember all aspects of every conflict we’ve been involved in.”
Mr Butler said it’s an important day to honour those who sacrificed their lives for our country and to acknowledge the sacrifices all service men and women made during conflicts.
“It demonstrates why peace is so important and why we should be striving for peace, because the cost of not having peace is the death of loved ones,” he said.
“The day also makes us aware of the needs of those veterans.”
More and more people are attending Anzac Day services around the country, with numbers at Moree’s dawn service and main service increasing each year.
Mr Butler said it’s particularly pleasing to see an increasing number of young people taking an interest in Anzac Day and carrying on the tradition.
“I suspect it’s the fact of Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq that have brought war-like experiences to the public,” he said. “We spent so long when war was a memory, but now, we’re seeing a situation where anyone watching television is aware of the horrors of war.”
