With bonfires set on the parade ground soldiers and their families gathered for a traditional gunfire breakfast of rum and coffee before the start of the dawn service at Lone Pine Barracks.
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At 5:25am the formalities commenced led by the School of Infantry’s Regimental Sergeant Major Warrant Officer Class 1 Adrian Hodges.
Listing the countries where Australian men and women have fought since Gallipoli in 1915 he described today’s ceremony as one that remembered their sacrifice.
Prayers were delivered before the sounding of the Last Post and a silence which was only broken by a truly Australian voice the call of a kookaburra.
A crowd, that included many young men all dressed in their best suits, stood to attention for the national anthem before heading back to the mess for a more conventional breakfast.
As they walked away our thoughts returned to those past campaigns on distant shores where so many of our young were lost and injured both physically and mentally and of the generations of infantry who were trained at Singleton and marched on this parade ground.
Lest we forget.
Louise Nichols
From cattle to coal. Once a specialist agriculture writer today its about community, in particular, the Upper Hunter. I have lived and worked in the region for more than 30 years. Land use issues and the future direction of our region. But you cannot take ag out of the picture - our food and how we grow it is the basis of all life. Covering the Hunter and Mid North Coast rural issues is now part of my role with ACM.
From cattle to coal. Once a specialist agriculture writer today its about community, in particular, the Upper Hunter. I have lived and worked in the region for more than 30 years. Land use issues and the future direction of our region. But you cannot take ag out of the picture - our food and how we grow it is the basis of all life. Covering the Hunter and Mid North Coast rural issues is now part of my role with ACM.
