WA: Diggers' day, as historians march for those who can't

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2010
WA: Diggers' day, as historians march for those who can't

By Cortlan Bennett and Lloyd Jones

PERTH, April 25 AAP - They march for those who are no more - but who will never be forgotten.

Western Australia's last World War I Digger, Peter Casserly, may have passed five years
ago, but he and his comrades are commemorated each year by a group of dedicated ex-servicemen
and military historians.

Replete in hand-stitched uniforms, Lee Enfield rifles and bayonets, members of the
West Australian Great War Living History Association marched in front of a record crowd
of 50,000 in Perth on Sunday.

With members representing all the WA units that served in the Great War - from the
revered 10th Light Horse Regiment, to the Flying Corp, Navy, infantry and Army Nurses
- they exemplified the Anzac spirit of mateship.

"With the diminishing number of World War I Diggers, we decided to set up a ceremonial
unit to commemorate them in marches like Anzac Day, because there was no-one else there
to march for them," association vice-president Michael Bell said after the city parade.

"Over the years, we've been asked to do renditions of other periods of Australian soldiery
in the 20th century, so now we've done everything from the Boer War to Vietnam.

"But normally on Anzac day it's the Great War."

About 6000 veterans, servicemen and support groups marched down St Georges Terrace
in the heart of Perth, following a record turnout at the city's dawn service in Kings
Park.

Event organisers said the perfect Autumn weather, as well as the current conflict Afghanistan
- in which Australian servicemen and women are still fighting - had drawn record crowds.

"Perth is amazing - we always have a large turnout here. But the weather has been magnificent,
so that's obviously brought even more people out today," one organiser said.

No incidents were reported by police, as cheering crowds lined the city, waving a sea
of Australian flags.

After the parade, commemorative service master of ceremonies and Returned Services
League WA president Bill Gaynor said Anzac Day was "not a celebration of war, but a commemoration
of the 110,000 Australian lives lost in conflicts" over the years.

"April 25th is not about military victory," he told the assembled crowd.

"As a people, we chose this day when war first scarred the conscience of a young nation.

"The loss of a generation of life was felt across the whole community - it was a tragedy
that we all associate with Anzac Day.

"It gives us, as a nation, the opportunity to think as individuals of those ordinary
Australians serving their nation.

"We think of those who served, and those who are currently serving.

"Above all, on Anzac Day, we honour those who died for us, for our nation, and for peace."

Earlier, in the south coastal city of Albany, thousands gathered for the Anzac Day dawn service.

The service had extra significance for the people of Albany because the city lays claim
to holding the first dawn service in Australia - on April 25, 1930.

Eighty years on, the service was held at the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial near the
top of Mount Clarence.

Master of ceremonies Ken Ewers-Verge told the crowd that some claimed the commemoration
of Anzac Day glorified war.

"But every veteran will be the first to say that their greatest wish and most fervent
prayer is that their children and this nation may never have to witness the horrors of
war again," he said.

After the laying of the wreaths under the Desert Corps statue of diggers and horses,
the crowd was asked to look out onto King George Sound where a flare went up to mark the
laying of a wreath upon the waters.

At the launch of an Anzac Peace Park on Albany's foreshore on Saturday, federal Immigration
Minister Chris Evans said the significance of Albany in the Anzac legend was not as widely
appreciated as it should be.

"It is the birthplace of the Anzac dawn service and it's fantastic to know that those
services occur throughout the world now with increased numbers of people participating,"

he said.

Albany RSL sub-branch president Laurie Fraser said the city was gearing up for major
events in 2014 and 2015 to commemorate 100 years since the departure of the first troop
convoy and the Gallipoli landings.

He said he expected thousands of visitors from around the world.

The convoy taking 30,000 Australian and New Zealand troops and 7500 horses to the war
left King George Sound in November 1914.

Some on board would die at Gallipoli, in France or the Middle East, making the Albany
departure their last sight of Australia.

AAP csb/ldj/cdh

KEYWORD: ANZAC WA WRAP (PIX AVAILABLE)

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