Many years ago when we lived in Brighton SA I wandered down to the Memorial Arch by the jetty just on daybreak on ANZAC Day.
A squad of blokes, some of an age to have served in WWII, were marching, silently and in good order, up Jetty Rd having just finished the Dawn Service. It was one of the more moving events I have attended.
Some years later when we were living in Bruce in Canberra I rode my bike down to the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) on Limestone Avenue. My guess was that there was no parking available on Limestone Av for 2km from the AWM. I think about 5,000 were in attendance on that day. Again it was very moving, in the form of a church service, similar to those held on the ships before the troops started landing. I recall a Currawong bursting into song just as daylight arrived.
Last year we weren't in Melbourne on ANZAC Day but this year we were so I decided to attend. Proceedings started at 0530 so I decided to catch a tram to ANZAC station somewhat before 0500 hours, not being sure how long it would take to get to the actual site. There were frequent trams and all were full (one didn't stop at 505 as it was overfull). The one I caught had some standing. These ladies had some serious soldiers to remember.
The tram pulled in to ANZAC and the driver announced that "If you are going to the Dawn Service this is your stop." and everybody got off. Here is the stream leaving ANZAC to cross St Kilda and Domain Rds. Note that it is still well dark.
This mud map shows the walk from the tram stop to where I stood (yellow line) and the possible boundary of the crowd (red line - it could have gone a lot further North).
The Shrine was well lit.
At this stage the obelisk was also floodlit, but that was turned off when the ceremony started.
An indication of the density of the crowd. The ABC has published an estimated size of 50,000.
The CBD was well lit.
This was as the ceremony started with a Welcome to Country.
As noted in the media some yoicks - dare I suggest One Nation voters - booed during the Welcome (and later when the Governor referred to the Welcome in her speech). It was pleasing to see that some other folk in the crowd thumped the hecklers (but then peacemakers stopped the thumping and just pushed the booers away down the hill).
The event was less religious that the event in Canberra, much more the RSL doing its schtick. They did read the Ode and a girl recited "In Flanders' Fields". The band and choir performed "Abide with Me" and somewhat to my surprise the crowd was silent for that. I recalled the crowd singing at Cardiff Arms Park (rugby) and
Wembly (soccer).
As the hymn was performed the sky got lighter, and a Kookaburra also offered a welcome to its country. Note the light dot on the RHS of this image: it is one of the several helicopters which hovered there throughout the event.
The crowd departs. My route out involved getting down a metre high retaining wall and about 5 people rushed over to help the decrepid old geezer down!
I thought the queue for a tram would be horrendous so set out to walk home. In fact the trams looked to have space so I hopped on at Toorak Road.
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