PROUD Brimbank war veterans, parents and children packed into the Sunshine RSL last Wednesday to mark this year’s Anzac Day, with a dawn breakfast and service before many retired to the bar for some well-earned refreshments.
An estimated 200 people turned up for the traditional gunfire breakfast at dawn and the service at the RSL’s cenotaph last week. It was the biggest crowd yet for the club’s memorial celebrations, according to president David Twidle.
It was a solemn start to a long day of celebration and remembrance, with the RSL bar opening its taps and pouring its first beer shortly after 7am.
Games of two-up and crown and anchor were hard to ignore in the morning, and a spare spot at the bar became almost impossible to find until the crowd thinned out in the afternoon.
A World War II veteran and St Albans resident, Frank Meech, marched with the Royal Air Force Association in the city before arriving at the Sunshine RSL in the early afternoon.
“Today was the most spectacular day I’ve ever had,” 81-year-old Mr Meech said. “It’s bigger and bigger this year.
“And the crowds, they clapped from the time we left to the very shrine itself, and it was a marvellous atmosphere,” he said.
Originally from Wales, Mr Meech said he had lied about his age so he could join the Royal Air Force when he was only 15, and moved to Australia after the war had ended.
Mr Meech flew 30 missions over Europe during the war.
Just like the Sunshine RSL’s Anzac march and service, which was held on Sunday 22 April, last Wednesday’s celebrations attracted large numbers of children and young families.
“There are a lot of young people around, a lot of young kids. It’s amazing the amount of young kids that turn up,” Mr Twidle said on the day.
Nicole Porter and her two-year-old daughter Grace had been at the RSL since about 6.30 that morning.
“It’s just respect, respect for the people who actually had to go to war,” Ms Porter said. Ms Porter now hopes to pass some of that same respect on to her daughter.
