‘Remember, represent and resilience’: Tatura’s Anzac Day dawn service

Tatura RSL Sub-branch president Robin Fairchild spoke of the birth of Anzac and the importance of remembering those who served Australia.

“It comprised of ordinary Australians who believed strongly in world peace, and rather than leave it up to someone else, they took it upon themselves to do something about it,” he said.

“They were men and women of great character, resilience, selflessness and perseverance.”

Mr Fairchild served in the Vietnam War in 1967-68 when he was 20, he is now 76.

“It gives us the opportunity to remember the fallen, the people who put their lives on hold, and they went to fight for our country like I did,“ he said.

He remembers a close friend he lost in Vietnam, with whom he trained with back in Puckapunyal.

“Whenever I do anything like this, he is probably one of the first people that I think of — he put his life on hold and he didn’t come back,” Mr Fairchild said.

In the crowd was Private Rebecca Hamilton, who joined the army last year and was visiting her home town of Tatura from Townsville.

“Growing up here, having all my family here, I thought it would be a good opportunity to represent the army in my town,” she said.

Pte Hamilton’s great uncle Samuel John Hamilton died at war at the age 19.

His name is engraved on the cenotaph at the Robert Mactier Memorial Gardens, named after World War I Victoria Cross recipient Robert Mactier.

She said it was an “incredible feeling” to represent her great uncle.