By JESSE GRAHAM
DAWN services and marches on Anzac Day are just a few of the ways that the community will stop to remember the country’s fallen Diggers.
Throughout coming weeks and months, there are a number of events paying tribute to Aussie soldiers and telling the stories of their courage and sacrifice on the battlefields.
Football teams will be facing off to mark the day, with the annual Anzac Day Challenge between Healesville and Warburton-Millgrove to be held at 2.10pm at Healesville’s Don Road Sporting Complex on Saturday 25 April.
The Mount Evelyn and Lilydale RSL clubs will lay a wreath at local memorials, including Wandin, Coldstream, Lilydale and Mount Evelyn, on the 100th anniversary of respective soldiers’ deaths.
Some of the first include a wreath-laying at 11am on Sunday 26 April for Frank Nichols at the Wandin War Memorial on the Corner of Hunter and Beenak Roads, and another on Friday 8 May at the Mount Evelyn War Memorial for William Aicher.
A special service will also be held on Sunday 3 May at 2pm, at the Lilydale Lawn Cemetery, to mark the centenary of the loss of the World War I submarine, AE2, at Gallipoli – a graveside service and a plaque will be unveiled at the grave of Geoffrey Haggard, 2IC on the submarine, hosted by Lilydale RSL.
On Friday, 1 May, there will be a performance of Gallipoli: a Manual of Trench Warfare, an emotional and powerful play set in a sandbagged trench at Gallipoli, at Upwey’s Burrinja Cultural Centre.
Following the story of Barry Moon, a country boy battling the enemy, himself and the establishment, Gallipoli tells stories of heroism, tragedy and nation-building in a place where many lost their lives.
From 30 May to 23 August, the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum at 35 Castella Street, Lilydale, will host the exhibition Australians Will Be There – Victorians in the First World War.
With photographs and personal stories from major collections and the families of soldiers, the exhibition displays the hardship the men and women serving in the war endured.
Gallipoli: A Manual of Trench Warfare will be performed from 8pm on Friday 1 May at Upwey’s Burrinja Cultural Centre. Tickets are $28 for adults, $24 for concession holders. Visit www.burrinja.org.au.
These are just some of the many Anzac Centenary events taking place in the Yarra Valley and surrounds. For more information, contact your local RSL.
