Goulburn Dawn Service Address – 25 April 2025

It was 110 years ago today, at about this time, that Australians sat in boats ready to land at Gallipoli. They were cold, they were wet. Most were young and most were scared.

It’s hard for most of us to imagine what that was like.

When I walk around at school and I look to my left and my right, I see kids chatting and laughing.

In 1915, when young men my age and older looked either side of them, they saw other young men in the trenches, holding guns, shaking, wondering if they’d live through this.

And many didn’t.

They were a long way from home. Many had never left their towns or farms before. But they were there to fight for their country, whatever it took.

At the time, the First World War was called the war to end all wars, but sadly it wasn’t.

In every generation, Australian men and women have been asked to put their lives on the line to keep their loved ones safe and to protect people from other countries they may barely have heard of. And in every generation, Australians have answered the call.

None of them came back the same, and some didn’t come back at all.

Country towns were particularly affected by war. From the First World War, where towns and families enlisted in the same units, whole families were obliterated, and in some towns the best and brightest of a whole generation were decimated in a single battle. For many, the men they fought with became like brothers to them as they experienced the horrors of war together.

It’s hard for someone my age to appreciate what that felt like.

Goulburn has its own special bonds to our servicemen and women over the years. The famous Kangaroo March consisting of men wanting to enlist travelled through many country areas in Southern NSW before passing through Goulburn on their way to Sydney.

A military camp was set up in Goulburn in 1915, somewhere near where the Recreation Area is now, where men from regional areas signed up to take the load off Sydney registrations.

Our War Memorial stands proudly above our town and is one of the most recognisable War Memorials in Australia. Its light is a constant reminder of why we have the freedom to live as we do today.

In the Second World War, in what was the biggest evacuation in Australia’s history until then, patients of Kenmore Hospital were relocated en masse so that the hospital could become a wartime repatriation hospital.

And just a few feet from where we stand today lie the names of many of those who served, and those who died in that service. For many of us, those names include our relatives and ancestors.

Today we remember not just those who served at Gallipoli but all of those men and women who risked, and in many cases, gave their lives so that their families and future generations… that’s us… could live in safety and freedom.

The Gallipoli campaign was not a military success and I think that’s one of the key things about ANZAC Day. It reminds us that we aren’t celebrating glory… we’re celebrating sacrifice and bravery.

There is a well-known song called “And the band played Waltzing Matilda.” It talks about the day when, once all the old diggers have passed away, there’ll be nobody marching at all.

It’s a great song, but looking around us today, that’s not the case.

Every year the numbers seem to increase.

When you look to your left and your right, you’ll see people who’ve braved the cold just like you have, people who’ve left the comfort of their home, who in many cases only ever get up this early on this one day of the year, to show that these sacrifices were not in vain. That these people are remembered, and what they did mattered.

While we all pray for the day when there is no war, we remember those who answered the call.

May we always remember. Lest we forget.