Torquay remembers at dawn service

Thousands of people again gathered in Torquay before sunrise today to show their respect to those who have served the nation, both past and present, on Anzac Day.

The Torquay RSL presented its annual dawn service at Point Danger – the largest Anzac Day dawn service in Victoria outside of the Shrine of Remembrance – with veterans marching in just before 6am.

Torquay RSL president, Paul Barker, delivered the Anzac Requiem, followed by Surf Coast Secondary College students telling the story of two diggers from the Torquay area: Mount Duneed’s Chas Harold Gogoll and Connewarre East’s Percy George Graham.

The guest speaker on the day was 100-year-old veteran Cliff Dunstone, who spoke to the crowd via a pre-recorded interview.

Originally working at a telegraph messenger with the Postmaster General, Dunstone enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force at the age of 18 in 1943, with his initial flight training in Tasmania and then in Canada.

 

 

 

He qualified as a bomber pilot on 29 March 1945 but as Dunstone said, “five weeks later, Hitler pulled the pin”, so he returned to Australia later that year.

Dunstone said it was terrific to see people still gathering on Anzac Day.

“For the sacrifices people made, for the ones who didn’t return, and even people like myself who left their job, came back and started all over again,” he said.

Dunstone said he moved to Jan Juc in 1984 and attended the dawn service at Point Danger for many years afterwards.

“I used to walk from Jan Juc at half past five and I could see car lines coming down from Geelong and the western district,” he said.

 

 

 

Corangamite federal member, Libby Coker, presented a message from the prime minister and recalled her recent trip to the Kododa Track in Papua New Guinea.

“The mud and the steep terrain were hard going, but for our world war 2 soldiers, it was a bitter, relentless battle, fought in densely forested terrain, carrying heavy packs, weapons, and their wounded comrades on stretchers,” Coker said.

“They did it for each other; that’s what stands out most – not just the hardship but the humanity, the determination to never leave a mate behind.”

She said the graves at Port Moresby left a lasting impression on her.

“This brought home to me something very real – how close the war came to our shores, how much was at stake, and how much was given and sacrificed,” Coker said.

 

 

 

“Those who served in PNG and conflict throughout our history believed in something bigger than themselves, they believed in the values we still hold today: democracy, freedom, compassion and the dignity of others.

“That is what the Anzac legacy is about, and it lives on, not just in the way we look out for each other, but the way we come together in difficult times.”

The dawn service was followed by a gunfire breakfast, as well as a veterans’ reunion at Bells Beach Brewing.