They lined the side of the road from Hunter Street mall to Newcastle’s Civic Park.
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Mums and dads, boys and girls spread all the way along.
Some descendants of fallen servicemen and women.
Many relatives of serving Australian Defence Force personnel.
Others with perhaps little link at all.
Everybody there however, in the fickle morning weather, to acknowledge, pay their respects and remember.
Remember those who served and those now lost.
Brad Gardiner and his eight-year-old grandson, Harry Cramp, were there to remember Mr Gardiner’s grandfather, who fought “somewhere in Europe”.
The particulars of his service not known, but his name remembered some 40 years after his passing displayed along the city’s clifftop Memorial Walk.
He was one of the lucky ones who returned home, to his home, of Newcastle.
Mr Gardiner, 62, says he attends the service every year, bringing a grandchild each time to “keep the flame burning” among his family.
The young in the crowd of thousands not missed by Group Captain Nathan Christie, Chief of Staff of Surveillance and Response Group at RAAF Williamtown.
“It’s fantastic to see the amount of people, and especially young people, coming out and paying their respects in Newcastle,” he said.
A 27-year member of the Royal Australian Air Force, Mr Christie has served all over the world. Time abroad with the U.S Navy, in Europe and in the Middle East.
With his wife and three kids present, the 45-year-old acknowledged family support of defence personnel.
“I go away a lot and my wife, or the people we leave behind, have to pick up the pieces while we go away and do our job,” he said.
“I couldn’t do what I do without my wife. It’s the partners that stay at home and take care of all that we leave, that we couldn’t do without. It’s fundamental to how we do our business.”
Families adorned Civic Park for the commemoration service, which commenced after a trio of RAAF jets conducted a low-level flyover.
In his opening address, master of ceremonies Stephen Finney spoke of the places lives have been lost.
“With sacred remembrance, we commemorate every man, woman and child, in those crucial years [who] died so that the lights of freedom and humanity might continue to shine,” he said. “May we and our successors, prove worthy of their sacrifices.”
Defence leaders, dignitaries, members of parliament, the city’s lord mayor and others laid wreaths. Prayers were read by church ministers, a scripture lesson from a Salvation Army captain too.
Later the Ode of Remembrance, Last Post and a minute’s silence.
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