Anzac Day 2025

Alec Campbell b.1899, was the last surviving ANZAC, dying in 2002. He was invalided home on 24 June 1916, and was formally discharged on 22 August 1916—a Gallipoli veteran at only 17. He only fought in the war for two months; he later explained tersely,
"I joined for adventure. There was not a great feeling of defending the Empire. I lived through it, somehow. I enjoyed some of it. I am not a philosopher. Gallipoli was Gallipoli."
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I knew him, he lived 2 doors away.

There was a big turn out this morning at 6am in Mandurah.
There is still quite a few at the memorial at 10.30am

ABC Radio podcast ( up on the website 2 hrs ago ) of " Encore : The case of the unknown sailor " , one Brisbane boy , 21 year old Thomas Clark washed up on Christmas Island in a life raft , early in the war . The only one of 640 crew who did not go down with the HMS Sydney after a deadly encounter with an enemy cruiser disguised as a harmless Dutch trader . Those sneaky - bastard Germans pulled alongside , threw back the covers and opened up with naval guns blazing , killing the lot of them .
Richard Fidler's program will take an hour to sit through but for any science and / or WW II nutter , I guarantee you'll be enthralled .
DNA scientist Jeremy Austin took 14 years to put a name to the unknown sailor . Finding the unmarked grave was just pure luck . Getting DNA out of his jaw and teeth as well as what eventually proved to be a bit of German schrapnel , out of the poor bugger's scull was fairly straightforward , too . But the real clincher : finding long dead relatives , only happened when he gave a talk to an Ancestry social group . By pure chance , one woman in the audience went home with the mtDNA info which she then traced back to a Scottish ancestor . Great program. Don't miss it . All you right wing , money grubbing ferkels can lay off our ABC now, huh ? Go " Auntie " ! Go the Anzacs , too . It's their day .

While watching the TV news, lunchtime today, a very impressive ANZAC coverage was given, only from the Eastern States though.
Of course WA does not exist when these sort of news events are broadcast.
The ceremony for the start of the AFL game was also top class, with the fly past of the Air Force planes, just brilliant and timed to perfection. Just a pity that the players started to move around before the various personnel from the armed forces had not left the ground.
This I found rather disappointing, what would another couple of minutes meant.