Hannah Hammoud
As citizens throughout Australia and New Zealand prepare for another Anzac Day, Brimbank residents will be able to choose between a range of local services to attend.
Caroline Springs RSL will host a dawn service and Anzac Day event on April 25, at Lake Caroline.
The day will begin with a dawn service at the War Memorial on Lake Street in Caroline Springs at 5.45am, followed by a $5 Gunfire Breakfast at the Westwaters Hotel, and games of Two-up.
The morning service will feature a speech from Commander Jamie Watson from the Royal Australian Navy as a guest speaker from Canberra.
Caroline Springs RSL president Andy Marshall has been part of the RSL for 10 years and said Anzac Day is a time for the community to “gather and remember.”
“We usually expect to see 2000-3000 people on the day. It’s a solemn occasion during the dawn service because it is a commemoration and a moment of remembrance, and then the gunfire breakfast is a chance to let your hair down,” he said.
“We will have the Melton mayor in attendance as well as children delivering short speeches, and representatives from Victoria University Secondary College, Lakeview Secondary College and Gilson College taking part during the dawn service.”
Mr Marshall said badges can be purchased from the Burnside Pub Shopping Centre, the Caroline Springs Shopping Centre, outside Coles Taylors Hill shopping Centre and Watergardens Shopping Centre.
In an annual tradition, the Sunshine RSL Sub Branch has also extended a warm invitation to veterans and the broader community to join in an early Anzac Day march, scheduled for Sunday, April 21.
The gathering point for the march is Lynch Gardens, located on Hampshire Road in Sunshine, with assembly at 2pm. The march will commence at 2:30pm, proceeding down Hampshire Road and into Dickson Street, concluding at the Sunshine RSL Sub-Branch. Following the march, a brief service will be conducted, accompanied by afternoon tea.
Sunshine RSL Sub Branch president Garry Collins said the march has long been the centrepiece of Anzac Day.
“It honours lost friends and publicly expresses comradeship. Please join us on the day,” he said.
On April 25, a dawn service will also be hosted by the Sunshine RSL Sub Branch at the Cenotaph from 6.45am, at 99 Dickson Street, Sunshine.
The service will be followed by a gunfire breakfast, with a gold coin donation to be provided by those participating in the breakfast.
“These events provide an opportunity for the local community to come together and pay tribute to the “fallen heroes who bravely served our nation,” Mr Collins said.
