It is difficult to ignore the
warble of magpies, lunatic with life in the park’s large trees which seem to
have exploded with all the rain which has fallen of late. Magnificent!
Just as magnificent as the sky, a hopeful bright blue, which turned out
in Esk on April 25th along with the masses at Memorial Park for the
morning service on ANZAC DAY.
Unless you arrived early you
would have missed the procession of servicemen and women, both ex and serving,
led by Piper, Joe McGhee and the singing of the New Zealand and Australian
Anthems by Sue and Maree from the Choir. The local scouts were there, the rural firies,
ambos, police, representatives of the SES, children from Esk and Toogoolawah with
mums, dads and friends and, at the ready to lead in song, members of the Esk
Community Choir.
Prior to the service, a welcome
by RSL President, Charlie Elwell BM and prayers by Pastor Gordon Millerick,
both of whom struggled to put the human experience of horror and loss in a
context primary children would understand. The eloquent ANZAC address by
Toogoolawah High School’s Captain, Eloise Alderson may have been enough.
A small company of soldiers from
2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (QMI) stood, heads bowed,
one on each corner of the memorial. The
soldiers looked solemn but sure in their polished black boots, their weapons
across their chests. As they looked up,
they were noticeably young, probably not much older than the young men known to
have served in World War 1. It is hard to believe 14-year-old soldiers
existed. But they did.
To Alexis’s consummate
accompaniment, the Choir’s songs Soul of Australia and The Last
ANZAC gave deeper meaning to the lyrics which speak of and celebrate the
freedoms afforded Australians by the sacrifices of so many of those men and
women.
Esk’s War Memorial was built in
1920 with money raised by the community, just two years after the first world war
ended. Many of Esk’s young men who went
to war suffered casualties and, engraved on the memorial are names of those who
died in the two Great Wars, in Korea, Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam. On this day following Matthew Lukritz’s
flawless playing of the Last Post and Reveille, and the offering of wreaths,
the veterans and others serving gathered before the steps of the memorial to
honour those whose lives were lost. Though
it is unimaginable that young men and women should go away to fight, never to
return, it is easier to remember something awful if there is hope.
The landing on the beaches of
Gallipoli took place 110 years ago. We
in Esk were just one of the dozens of communities who came together to remember
a war that has no longer a living memory and to remember all those wars that
have followed. In 1933 Queensland
Premier, Ned Hanlon stated that ANZAC Day is not a day to glorify war. ‘The
hope is to make war impossible’. Let us
all continue to hope.
By: Sue Walker
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| Esk Community Choir |
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| Di Chaplin and Marina Crichton |
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| Maree Lansdown |
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| Susan Walker |
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