On 25th April, our community will gather to mark the 111th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.
Anzac Day is a day that asks us to pause. In 1915, young Australians and New Zealanders landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Many had never left home before. More than 8,000 Australians would not return.
Australia was a young nation then, only 13 years into Federation. When Britain declared war, we went too. Gallipoli did not succeed in its military aim, but it left a deep mark on our national life. The qualities we associate with the Anzacs – courage, endurance, loyalty to one another – have become part of how we understand ourselves as a nation.
Each year, I think particularly of the young men from our own community who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Men like Private Ormond Fathers, a Hornsby apprentice, who enlisted in September 1914 and was among those sent to Gallipoli for the landing on 25 April 1915. Just weeks later, in June 1915, he was killed in action. His battalion would go on to fight at Lone Pine in August that year.
He was one of many local sons who never came home.
Each year I am struck by the sight of people gathering before dawn – young families, veterans, school students – standing quietly together as the sun rises. The dawn service speaks to something enduring in the Australian character.
I encourage you to attend one of our local services this Anzac Day:
- Annangrove: Annangrove Park – 11:00am
- Beecroft: Beecroft Cenotaph – 3:00pm
- Berowra: Berowra RFS car park, March and Service – 7:30am
- Berowra Waters: Western Shoreline Forecourt – 5:00am
- Brooklyn: Brooklyn Oval on 27th – 10:45am
- Cherrybrook: Anzac Jawan Cenotaph on 20th – 3:00pm
- Galston: Glaston Cenotaph – 6:00am
- Glenorie: Glenorie Memorial – 6:00am
- Glenorie: Woolworths car park, March and Service – 3:15pm
- Hornsby: Hornsby Cenotaph – 5:00am
- Kenthurst: John Benyon Park, March and Service – 8.30am
- West Pennant Hills: WPH Sports Club – 5:00pm
- Wisemans Ferry: Anzac Memorial – 6:00am
- Wisemans Ferry: Primary School, March and Service – 10:00am
Thank you to Karen Richardson for her work on the biography of Private Fathers.
