It was a time to pause and reflect.
Cobram and the surrounding area stood silent as the sun rose on ANZAC Day.
More than a thousand locals gathered in the crisp morning air at 6am as the traditional dawn service was held at the Cobram and District War Memorial.
Cobram Anglican Grammar School captains Madison McDiarmid and Thomas Corso led the dawn service proceedings while fellow student Lewis Brown played The Last Post and piper Gavin Davey played a tune that was both sombre and stirring.
Cobram Catholic priest Fr Junjun Amaya opened and closed the service with a prayer, with Cobram and Barooga RSL sub-branch president Barry Clarke laying a wreath in memory of the fallen.
A catafalque party of currently serving personnel from the Army School of Health stood guard as the ceremony was held.
The corporal who led the personnel was former Cobram local Allie Harvey, who joined the army after being inspired by her grandfather’s service in Vietnam.
After the dawn service, many attendees gathered at the Cobram Civic Centre, where the Sporties Barooga organisation hosted a gunfire breakfast of bacon and egg rolls.
At 9.30am, students, veterans, emergency services members and serving military personnel gathered for the traditional Anzac Day march down Punt Rd to the Cobram and District War Memorial.
The march to the memorial, led by personnel from the Army School of Health, sparkled with the sun shining on the various military medals pinned proudly on chests.
The guest speaker for the 10am ceremony was Cobram’s own Royal Australian Navy Commodore Ashley Papp.
Commodore Papp’s speech paid tribute to the servicemen and women who came before him and acknowledged the contribution of the Australian community in supporting the military from back home.
“Australia’s naval power at sea comes from its strength at home,” he said.
“I am proud to be an Australian sailor, and I am proud to serve you (the public).”
As per tradition, wreaths were laid by representatives of various groups, including the RSL, CAGS, Moira and Berrigan shire councils, Cobram Secondary College, Cobram police and various sporting groups.
Moira Shire Council chair of the panel administrators John Tanner said it was always important to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and that he was delighted with the turnout, especially among Cobram’s youth.
A fly-by was performed, and The Last Post’s solemn tunes once again rang out across central Cobram.
Speaking after the ceremony, Cpl Harvey said Anzac Day was a day to remember with gratitude those who fought for the freedoms enjoyed today.
“ANZAC Day is a day not only where we are able to appreciate how lucky we are for everything that we’ve got but also remember all those that came before us served and fought,” she said.
“We are now the ones out here representing them and trying to make them proud.”
Though the Cobram ANZAC Day services were the biggest ones in the region, the towns of Barooga and Strathmerton also held services.
A ceremony was also held in Katamatite on Wednesday, April 24, which was run by the Katamatite Primary School.
For the Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.
As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
— Written by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)