While the sky was leaden, rain held off for the Anzac Day ceremony in Taree.
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Early risers weren’t as fortunate at the Dawn Service and it didn’t look promising as the parade made its way to the Memorial Clock in Fotheringham Park.
However, the wet weather held off although the crowd was slightly down on previous years, according to mayor David West. He estimated the turnout to be around the 2000 mark. The crowd for the Dawn Service was around 500.
St Clare’s High School captains Macabe Grass and Ruby McIntosh spoke of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in France, one of the defining operations in World War I, where the Australians, under Sir John Monash, fought heroically and successfully.
This was seen as a turning point in the war.
“They were ordinary Australians called upon to do extraordinary things and they reacted extraordinarily,’’ Macabe said.
Mayor West dedicated his address to General Sir John Monash, a military commander in the First World War. That day Prime Minister Malcolmn Turnbull opened the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers Bretonneux that honours the more than 295,000 Australians who served on the Western Front during World War I.
Cr West said Monash took warfare from the ‘mechanised murder’ to something that involved ‘doing something for our troops and protecting them.’
He said it was Monash’s tactics that helped bring an end to the hostilities.
Cr West later explained that his wife looks after those in aged care.
“We have Vietnam vets, who are in their 70s and who are suffering significant post war trauma,’’ he said.
“This is a war that we as a nation treated these people with contempt and they today are suffering.’
“We pay our respects to those in the Manning Valley who served in our name. Many of their family members are represented here today.
“Around us we see the involvement of so many of our children. To the parents who have brought your children here in this inclement weather, as the mayor of 90,000 people, I thank you from my heart.
“Today is testament to the ongoing strength of the Anzac spirit.’’