{"id":3563,"date":"2009-04-29T06:50:25","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T19:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2009-04-29T06:50:25","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T19:50:25","slug":"anzac-day-mackay-qld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=3563","title":{"rendered":"*ANZAC Day: Mackay, Qld. &#039;09."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><em>FFFAIF<\/em> member Mike Goodwin reports from\u00a0Mackay, north Queensland ( 21\u00b0 8&#8217;40.70&#8243;S, 149\u00b010&#8217;52.47&#8243;E)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">\u00a0<strong>ANZAC Day\u00a0&#8211; Mackay 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No other event unifies the Mackay community as much as the city&#8217;s Anzac Day observances.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3569\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-6_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3569\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-6_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-6_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-6_sml\" width=\"299\" height=\"448\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3573\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-2_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3573\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-2_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-2_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-2_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At 5 am a solemn Dawn Service was observed under the palm trees at Jubilee Park, where the city&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3574\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-8_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3574\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-8_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-8_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-8_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Later in the day, the Mackay Anzac Day parade saw thousands more people line the city&#8217;s streets to support those who proudly marched from the RSL to Jubilee Park.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3575\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-1_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3575\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-1_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-1_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-1_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3578\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-9_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3578\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-9_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-9_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-9_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s local veterans, serving Army units, cadets and a long list of service and community groups.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3579\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-7_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3579\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-7_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-7_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-7_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3580\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/29\/anzac-day-mackay-qld\/mackay-anzac-day-5_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3580\" title=\"mackay-anzac-day-5_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/mackay-anzac-day-5_sml.jpg\" alt=\"mackay-anzac-day-5_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FFFAIF member Mike Goodwin reports from\u00a0Mackay, north Queensland ( 21\u00b0 8&#8217;40.70&#8243;S, 149\u00b010&#8217;52.47&#8243;E) \u00a0ANZAC Day\u00a0&#8211; Mackay 2009 No other event unifies the Mackay community as much as the city&#8217;s Anzac Day observances. This year, on a typically warm, sunny autumn day, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=3563\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anzac-day","category-commemorations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}