Anzac Daze

I’ve never been to war, but like many of my generation, we have in some way been touched by it. My years are dotted with memorable Anzac Days. As a child I attended the dawn services at Anzac Cove in Gundagai, at my father’s side, surrounded by the hard faces of old men. Some of them would have been in their 30s and some in their 60s – they looked old to a small boy. After the service, the sun would rise over Mount Parnassus. I can’t remember a rainy 25 April. Every year, through secondary school, I’d attend the march through the streets of Sydney, my school contributing with a fine pipe band, and we’d watch the men and women wear their medals with pride. Then there was Vietnam, the divisive war that produced an uncomfortable period of history for many protesters as they came to realise that, while the war may have been wrong, the people who went to fight weren’t. Songs like Khe Sanh and I Was Only Nineteen helped touch a conscience.

Attendances for Anzac Day dropped off, through natural attrition of those who fought and through those disenchanted with Vietnam. Without promotion, the numbers over the last decade have swelled again with young people marching with their parents’ medals. More and more people each year gather to watch the parades.

An Anzac Day in Vanuatu was perhaps the most moving. For the first time, I had my small boy next to me. It was also the first service that I’d seen both parts of ‘Anzac’, with Australian and New Zealand expatriates standing side by side. Rum and coffee were served before sunrise, poppies were worn, three country’s anthems were played by an army band, the Australian and New Zealand High Commissioners spoke with emotion, wreaths were laid and Binyon’s Ode was recited by a crusty-voiced digger.

Occasionally the argument rears its head that 25 April should be our national day. Not for me. Australia Day should be on 26 January. It should be a day of family fun, of beaches and barbecues, of thong-tossing, partying and reconciliation. Anzac Day is the day to remember those who fought, and died, so we can enjoy the freedom and fun of an Australia Day.