Light up the dawn: call to commemorate Anzac Day at home

RETURNED and Service Leagues (RSL) across the country are asking people on the Bellarine Peninsula to commemorate Anzac Day this Saturday (April 25) in alternate ways due to the cancellation of their traditional services for the first time in more than 100 years because of coronavirus.
About a month before the dawn services were to be held on the Bellarine and across the state, RSL Victoria announced all public Anzac Day services would not be held.
However, in place of the regular dawn services, RSL Victoria is promoting the Light up the Dawn initiative.
This initiative invites people to stand on their driveway at 6am on Anzac Day with a candle, lantern or some other light.
Portarlington/St Leonards RSL president Barry Smith said it was heartening to see locals still eager to commemorate Anzac Day despite being restricted in how they would so.
“We’re encouraging people to stand at the bottom of their driveways with their lights.
“We are getting a lot of encouragement from people. There are people raising flags on their properties.
“It’s lovely we’ve got a good strong community down in this area of Portarlington, St Leonards and Indented Heads.”
He said the Portarlington/St Leonards RSL would also help mark the day on behalf of their community.
“What we’ll be doing is laying a wreath at both the Portarlington cenotaph and also at the St Leonards Progress Association Hall for the Dawn Service.
“We’re going to have a framed statement as to who was laying the wreath, that being the Portarlington/St Leonards RSL, on behalf of all the associations and community groups in the areas of Portarlington, St Leonards and Indented Head and together with the residents of those towns.”
In Drysdale, the Australian flag at the cenotaph on High Street will be flown at half-mast between the hours of 7am and noon on Saturday, and Drysdale RSL Sub-branch president Geoff Zanker will lay one wreath.
Sub-branch secretary D.W. Paterson said the RSL’s Poppy Appeal would still go ahead in the next couple of weeks, with badges to be available for sale at various locations in the Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Curlewis area.
Local radio stations bay 93.9 and K rock will simulcast the entire official Victorian dawn service from the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, beginning at 5.45am. The service will also be streamed on RSL Victoria’s Facebook page (facebook.com/rslvic).
RSL Victoria also encourages people joining in the Light Up the Dawn movement to take a photo from their driveway and share it on the Facebook page with the hashtag #STANDTO.