Torquay RSL urges rethink of dawn service

THE Anzac Day dawn service at Point Danger will again not be held this year, and the Torquay RSL is urging the community to use the hiatus to rethink how the event will be organised, funded and run in the future.

Torquay’s annual dawn service on April 25 is Australia’s largest outside the capital cities but takes months to organise – with preparations starting the previous August – and typically costs about $60,000 to stage, with the Torquay RSL footing the bill for at least $40,000 of that figure.

Recent posts on social media complaining about the 2021 dawn service being cancelled despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions has spurred the Torquay RSL to better explain the arrangements for Anzac Day and the need for it to change in 2022 and beyond.

“I think it’s been on our radar for a long time that the community are not going to be happy with the Point Danger service being cancelled and that we needed to have some communications about that,” Torquay RSL committee member Katie Reaper said.

The welfare organisation appreciates the ongoing popularity of the event – which attracts between 8,000 to 15,000 people each year – but says the load must be spread more evenly, as crowd sizes are getting out of hand and the Torquay RSL is bearing not only all of the costs but also all of the risk.

Ms Reaper said there was a misconception that Surf Coast Shire funded and ran the dawn service, which was not the case, although the shire did help with traffic management and a small amount of funding.

“I think the community had no idea and do have no idea that the RSL does it all,” she said.

Torquay RSL president Bob Tyler said his organisation applied for various grants each year to offset costs, but would not know by April how much that year’s service would cost or if any of its grant applications were successful.

He said the 2020 service still cost the Torquay RSL $15,000 in cancellation fees despite it being called off a month beforehand.

“In 2019, we were out of pocket $40,000 and a welfare organisation can’t afford that,” Mr Tyler said.

He said there would be “a lot of changes” to future dawn services at Point Danger.

“If we could get the support from the public, we would look at something similar to what’s happening, but it won’t be exactly the same – there’s no way in the world it’ll go back to what it was.

“My aim is to be as fair as I can to everyone, but I’ve got to look after 80 people (the Torquay RSL’s veterans) more than I have to look after 14,000.”

Ms Reaper estimated the dawn service would cost $150,000-$200,000 to run if the hours of contributions from volunteers were included.

She suggested a community group should be formed to co-ordinate Anzac Day, to which the Torquay RSL would be an invitee but only responsible for the ceremonial formalities.

This year, Point Danger will be fenced off to the public from April 24 until later on April 25.

Ms Reaper said the Torquay RSL had no choice but to do so.

“We learnt from Remembrance Day last year, which was a closed service, and we were in a lockdown – 10 people were invited, we had cones up, we had people manning it, and people drove straight through; 150 people did not care and none of those were veterans,” she said.

“It’s shown to us that you either don’t do it at all, or you do it in its entirety.”