2026 Calendar of events
25 April Anzac Day
FFFAIF has traditionally supported AWWOD organising descendants’ participation in the Sydney Anzac Day March.ABC Radio coverage of the Canberra Dawn Service and National Ceremony will be heard on local ABC Radio, RN and on the ABC Listen app from 5.30am – 6.00am. This will incorporate a minute’s silence at approximately 5.50am to synchronise the dawn drive-way vigils.
TV broadcasts of Sydney Dawn Service, Canberra Dawn Service and National Ceremony and Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance Service will all be live from 4.30am AEST on ABC TV and ABC NEWS channels, on iview, and streamed live on ABC Australia Facebook and YouTube.
State TV broadcasts of capital city marches and dawn services will also be streamed live on ABC capital city Facebook accounts and on the ABC’s capital city local radio websites.
Every capital city will have live coverage of a local march, however coverage of capital city dawn services will vary in each state. Broadcasts times can be found on the ABC Anzac Day website.
Gallipoli Day /ANZAC Day services will be held in the UK, including:
a Dawn Service at Hyde Park Corner and later the annual Service of Commemoration with a wreath laying at the Cenotaph followed by a Service held at Westminster Abbey;
Baverstock, Codford, Fovant and Sutton Veny on the Salisbury Plain; and at about 15 other locations in England and Scotland;
Also at the Menin Gate, Ieper; and
Fromelles FranceSaturday 23 May Australian Western Front Association, Gallipoli Association, Fromelles Association, FFFAIF Lecture Day
Sunday 19 July Fromelles Day Commemoration in Sydney at the Anzac Memorial and
Melbourne Wreath-laying at the Shrine of Remembrance and Ipswich in QueenslandSunday 26 July Pozieres Service St Columba Woollahra TBC
Saturday 26 September Commemoration of the Battles of 3rd Ypres
Monday 19 October War Widows Day
Saturday 7th November FFFAIF AGM and John Laffin Memorial Lecture Day
Venue: Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney and AGM On-line Zoom MeetingWednesday 11 November Remembrance Day
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Recent News
- DIGGER 94
- VALE Dame Marie Bashir: Professor The Honourable Dame Marie Bashir, AD CVO
- Patron-in-Chief Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia
- DIGGER 93
- 2025 FFFAIF Annual General Meeting and John Laffin Memorial Lecture series
- DIGGER 92
- Fromelles Day 2025 – Commemorating the 109th anniversary in Sydney of the Battle of Fromelles 19 July 1916
- Fromelles Day 2025 – Commemorating the 109th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles 19 July 1916
Category Archives: Diggers of First AIF
DIGGER 85
CONTENTS Articles Pte 2027 Arthur Montague Alchin, 35th Bn, Terry-Anne O’Neill 3-5 Pompey Elliott Eulogy 2016: ‘Peronne 1918,’ Dr Ross … Continue reading
DIGGER 84
CONTENTS Articles Major Murdoch Mackay, 22nd Bn, Ross McMullin (from his new book) 3-5 Padres of the 31st Battalion, Peter Nelson … Continue reading
DIGGER 83
CONTENTS Articles From the AIF to the RFC, Stephen Brooks … Continue reading
DIGGER 82
CONTENTS Articles The ANZAC Buffet, Sydney, Greg Knight 3-5 The famous photograph of men of the 9th Field Ambulance, Greg Ogle 6-8 1916 letter: Pte 576 George Howard MM, 20th Bn, found on Trove 9 Photograph of John Lyons Gray, … Continue reading
DIGGER 81
CONTENTS Articles Geoffrey Serle’s mistaken portrayal of Charles Bean in his biography of John Monash, Anne Carroll 3-11 A fallen Digger: Sgt 719 Walton Grayson DCM, 4th LHR, Andrew Pittaway 12-21 Christmas billies 1916: thank-you letters from Pte 2315 Joseph … Continue reading
DIGGER 80
CONTENTS Articles Red Dust (memoirs of a light horseman), Chapter 11 (final), Tpr 3073 John Gray, 6th LHR 3-20 Postscript to ‘Red Dust’: Who was ‘Donald Black’ (John Gray)? Graeme Hosken 20-21 Sgt 845 Edward Noah, 9th Bn, Graeme Hosken … Continue reading
ANZAC Day in the time of Coronavirus
1st Battalion at Mena Pyramids Source: Alan Andrews’ souvenir postcard collection. Due to the impact of the Coronavirus and control measures implemented, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Anzac Memorial in Sydney and Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne are closed to … Continue reading
Australian DIGGER stories on-line
The Families and Friends of the First AIF has brought its vast collection of Australian DIGGER stories on-line for its Members. First Issue 2002 and 2003 All 93 editions of DIGGER published from October 2002 are now available for reading … Continue reading
More identified from Fromelles
On 26 May 2014 the Assistant Minister for Defence, The Hon Stuart Robert MP, announced the names of a further 20 previously unidentified Australian soldiers who died at the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. 2560 Sgt David Samuel Anderson was amongst … Continue reading
Fromelles Update July 2013
Half of the Diggers from Pheasant Wood have been named. The graves of 124 of the 250 soldiers whose remains were recovered from the communal pits near Pheasant Wood, Fromelles in French Flanders and were reburied with full military honours … Continue reading