*ANZAC Day: Mackay, Qld. '09.

FFFAIF member Mike Goodwin reports from Mackay, north Queensland ( 21° 8’40.70″S, 149°10’52.47″E)

 ANZAC Day – Mackay 2009

No other event unifies the Mackay community as much as the city’s Anzac Day observances.

This year, on a typically warm, sunny autumn day, the population of Mackay turned out in their thousands to honour our Anzac forebears and to pay homage to a tradition that has become a central feature of our national identity.

At 5 am a solemn Dawn Service was observed under the palm trees at Jubilee Park, where the city’s WW1 Cenotaph is located. Over 2000 residents attended this service and heard an address from Captain Kerin Connolly, a NZ soldier who has served in East Timor and Afghanistan.

Later in the day, the Mackay Anzac Day parade saw thousands more people line the city’s streets to support those who proudly marched from the RSL to Jubilee Park.

The Mackay RSL has a strong tradition of including young people in its Anzac Day Services. The most notable example of this conviction is the invitation for schools to march in the main parade.

Every school in Mackay takes part in this wonderful tradition and this year, nearly 4000 school students, from primary through to secondary levels, march proudly behind the city’s local veterans, serving Army units, cadets and a long list of service and community groups.

The sense of civic unity and pride was once again very apparent and showed that the Anzac Spirit is certainly alive and well in tropical North Queensland.