Victorians have risen in the darkness to light their driveways and homes in honour of the nation’s Anzac heroes.
Suburban streets have been lit with candles, torches and mobile phone screens.
Veterans, including returned soldiers from World War II, stood in silence as the The Last Post played at 6am.
Neighbours, many with young children clad in their pyjamas and wearing war medals, joined them in a tribute repeated in suburbs and country towns across the state.
A dawn service began at 5.50am inside Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, which is closed to the public due to coronavirus precautions.
Victorian Governor Linda Dessau, who lay a wreath at the Stone of Remembrance, was among the small number of officials at the ceremony which was broadcast online.
RSL Victoria state president Dr Robert Webster, Major General Andrew Bottrell and veteran Daniel Costelloe also paid their respects.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. Thanks to all who have served our great country and those who still do, including my great uncle Alf Layfield, killed in France in 1917, aged 20.
— Glenn McFarlane (@MaccaHeraldSun) April 24, 2020
One of the Fair Dinkums. #AnzacDay2020 #AnzacAtHome pic.twitter.com/jck3hS7YZM
As someone who joins the droves at a dawn service to remember our fallen each year, wherever I may be, including two at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli, this year has been a very different one. Still the same meaning though. Lest We Forget 🙌 #AnzacDay2020 #LightUpTheDawn pic.twitter.com/xfHGqdEzlj
— Rebekah Cavanagh (@rebekahcavanagh) April 24, 2020
World War II veteran Wallace McGillivray, 96, rose before dawn this morning to honour his fallen mates.
The Ashwood great-grandfather, who served in Papua New Guinea and Morotai, stood at the end of his driveway with his wife Lorna, two daughters Heather and Judy, and a group of neighbours to hear The Last Post play at 6am.
With his medals on the chest of his black suit, lit only by the warm glow of candle light, Mr McGillivray stood in silence in the cold of the morning as the bugle played from his little wireless.
Many neighbours held candles while others just held their phones, one mother hugging her young daughter on the footpath.
As the Last Post was read out Mr and Mrs McGillivray repeated the words solemnly “Lest we forget”.
The sound of similar ceremonies being repeated in nearby streets could be heard through the darkness.
The pair, who would usually attended a service at their RSL, are among the many Victorians who are now paying tribute to the ANZAC legend from their driveways and homes.
Mr McGillivray, who was in the Army for five years and served in a signal unit as well as a top secret unit, said he was thinking only of his mates.
“All my mates, there were about 60 of us went through the signals and of that I’m here in Victoria and another mane is in a home in NSW and there’s only two of us left,” he said.
“In the secret unit there was six of us and I was the only one who came out.”
Mr McGillivray said it was a sense of “necessity” that led him to sign up at just 16.
“I just felt the country needed us that’s all there was too it,” he said.
He said one of his cousins realised he had enlisted and told on him getting him sent home, but he returned shortly after.
Their daughters Judy and Heather joining them, to honour their dad.
“In some respects I found it a bit more meaningful in lots of ways than ones I’ve been to at the RSL, where there are so many people it felt more private and personal to be here,” Judy said.
“For a long time he didn’t talk about it since the 50 year mark has come and gone he’s been more vocal.”
WWII veteran Jack Hair was joined by about 20 family members and neighbours outside his Langwarrin unit for the Last Post.
Grandson Dean Worton said it was “pretty strange” ANZAC day but none the less moving.
“Grandad was very quiet, he didn’t say much and was just reflecting,” he said.
“He lost his brother int the war and so he was thinking of them and remembering his mates.”
Frankston resident Lyn Lynch, whose father was a WWII veteran, said she was overjoyed when about 15 of her neighbours turned out to pay their respects.
She and her neighbours gathered around the flag, which was still at half mast out of respect for for the four police officers who died on the Eastern Freeway, for a minutes silence.
She had bought her husband Ian, whose birthday also happens to be today, the flag pole as a present many ANZAC days ago.
“It was beautiful, just as the sun was coming up and I could hear the music coming from other streets,” she said.
“I would be out there even if it was pouring with rain because what they went through was so much worse.”
A private commemorative service was also being held at the National War Memorial in Canberra, with proceedings broadcast on radio and television nationwide.
Special private services are also to be held at the MCG before what would have been the traditional Collingwood v Essendon blockbuster while for the first time in Melbourne Airport’s history, the Anzac Day dawn service was being held on the airfield with a small group of staff.
While dawn services for ANZAC day have been cancelled due to Covid-19, there are still ways to pay your respects in isolation.
People also stood in their driveways in New Zealand early this morning, while the sky lit up in Sydney at the Hyde Park war memorial.
READ MORE
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2020-04-25 03:21:57Z
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