A dawn commemoration on Anzac Day 2020 was well supported despite the COVID-19 restrictions.
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While the usual dawn and day services were not held, people across the Southern Highlands stepped out onto their front lawns and driveways in a show of united respect.
They held their candles, and stood quietly in reflection during the playing of The Last Post and Reveille on radios as they were broadcast through the airwaves.
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But most importantly they stopped for a minute's silence to remember all the men and women who had made the ultimate sacrifice serving their country in war and peacekeeping times.
One particularly moving site was that of a woman, Shirley, standing beside a table display featuring a photograph of a man. The photo was highlighted by a candle.
Further inquiry revealed the photo was that of Shirley's father.
He died as a Prisoner of War in Japan.
She never got to see him, but he was aware of her birth. Shirley was a war baby.
In another special moment one of the region's oldest returned serviceman Harry Bell, 95, made his way to the Bowral War Memorial to lay a wreath. Harry served in Papua New Guinea in WWII.
The occasion was supported by the Bowral RSL sub-branch with a recital of The Ode, the playing of The Last Post and Reveille, a minutes silence and the lower of the Australian flag to half mast.
Similar small services were held at memorials across the shire in an effort to maintain some level of Anzac Day tradition in a very unusual time.
It was a tradition that was recognised by residents from their homes across the region with many people going the extra mile in a show of support for a very different Anzac Day in 2020.
A tower of cardboard poppies surrounded by candles, a chalk message of 'Lest we forget' on the pathway complemented with a chalk picture of a poppy, as well as another impressive chalk creation of a lone soldier on a path at Robertson and a passing army green jeep with the Australian flag flying from the back of the vehicle all added to the atmosphere of the day.
There was a mini field of knitted poppies on one front lawn, a carefully crafted poppy wreath hang on the letterbox at another, meanwhile flags flying at half mast, displayed in front-of-house windows or draped over garden gates were a common site across the shire.
Clearly the people of the Southern Highlands were determined to ensure that the 105th Anzac Day did not pass without acknowledgement.
Lest we forget!
- Do you have photos you would like to share to this Anzac Day gallery? Please send them to jackie.meyers@southernhighlandnews.com.au
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