Around 40000 people showed up for the dawn service at King's Park. Quite a feat for one of the smallest capital cities in Australia.
The dawn service is followed by the ANZAC day parade. This includes currently serving members of the army, navy and airforce as well as retired veterons and retired nurses and doctors who have served in the war. The Governor, the Premier and the Mayor of Perth are in attendance along with senior command of the military.
This year in particular women featured strongly in all areas of the military and the old nurses who had served in the war(s) were well received and applauded as they were driven through the city. It is a great way of showing your appreciation and you can tell people are humbled and a bit embarrassed (in a good way) by that experience.
At the dawn service as well we saw the East Timor occupation strongly focused on by the speech and the initial war history video that was played. This is a good thing as having had a couple of members of my family serve in East Timor and knowing some of the more horrible things they had to see and experience - it was "good" to see this particular battle recognised. I feel that it was often forgotten and people simply considered it to only be peacekeeping and they are blissfully unaware of the more darker sides of that conflict.
Finally a picture of us after the dawn service, from left (my cousin, my Uncle, my Auntie who has served in East Timor, The Solomon Islands and briefly in Fiji. She served in the army for just over 20 years. And then me
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