Boorowa Central School participating in the march.
Alan Banks, president of the Boorowa RSL said “It was the first Anzac Day we’ve had without a frost that I can ever remember.
“The Dawn Service went well, the Gunfire breakfast went well and was well attended.”
Dean Franklin, Vice President of the Boorowa RSL said that “the Gunfire breakfast is a tradition that dates back to World War I in Gallipoli where they would have a bit of milk and rum before they charged the trenches, so to speak.
“Every year after a dawn service they’ll have a gunfire breakfast and we have a group of volunteers some of them have been doing it for four or five years. We cook the barbecue and then in the War Memorial we just have tea coffee, whiskey, rum or whatever. So that’s sort of what it’s about. It’s about having a drink with your mates as the sun comes up. It’s not any actual gun firing.
Alan reported that “the march was really well attended. I think it was probably the most that have marched in a long time. The actual servicemen and people wearing medals was down probably a little bit, but the actual schools were well represented. Our band was great and done a great job. The choir was just fantastic, it was made up of mostly locals.
“We had a guest speaker. She was Captain Ashley Keighley is an Army Legal Officer and she spoke about Private Joseph Prosper from Frogmore and how his death in service devastated the community. Ashley is a captain in the legal corps. She was down from Townsville, but her parents come from Young and it was an amazing speech at the main service. She also spoke about herself at the dinner, which was very interesting. She done all her degrees and everything before she joined the Army and then that’s what she wanted to do after working with a legal team as a civilian in Canberra in the Defence Force, so she went off and done her four months training and now she’s a solicitor in the Army in the Legal Corps.
“We raised about $1200 for Legacy. It was amazing. I only know of three people outside that threw heads consecutive in a row in two-up, because whatever you start with goes to Legacy. So if you start with $50, you take three $50s, $50 goes into Legacy. Considering that, there were a lot of donations. It was just incredible.
“Special thanks to our band and the school captains.”
Alan was impressed with the school captains “they spoke brilliantly because they speak about their stories now, not any script stuff, they do it themselves and a young lady from Boorowa Central, she had two great grandfathers. It was amazing to hear her story.
Dean said that “the big feedback we got was about how well the children spoke. Every year we get the school captains, the captain from Central and the captain from Saint Joey’s to give us a speech. Saint Joey’s captain normally do a prayer, the central school captain normally does the speech on what Anzac Day means to them.
“This year’s school captain was Jenna Gardner, she’s also an Australian Army Cadet Corporal and she was part of the catafalque party as well as providing the captain’s speech. She talked about her family’s history with both her grandfathers being in the war and her great-great grandfathers and the interactions she had with them.
“It’s the first time in ten years the Cadets have been able to do any sort of weapons drill. They changed the policy ten years ago, but they have changed it back so they were able to sword drill which is just a lot nicer to watch than doing the drill without weapons at all.
“We normally have a fly-over but they were cancelled this year. We got a notification on Thursday afternoon that we wouldn’t have a fly-over on Friday and that was an Air Force decision.
“Other than that it was a great day with good feedback.”
Dean confirmed that the Boorowa RSL do a veterans coffee catchup once a month, the last Monday of the month at the Services Club. So it’s a way of catching up, but we also have veterans involved with an exercise program two days a week, it’s a gentle exercise for the older people in the community and encouraging our veterans to get down and do that and just a way for us to make sure they keep moving, but it’s also a way for us to keep an eye on them just to see how they are going.
-Robyn Atherton
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