AUSTRALIA was unique in its commemorative services to recall the service and sacrifice of servicemen and women.
Wing Commander Stuart Waldon, a Royal Australian Air Force reserve specialist capability officer, told Wedderburn’’s Dawn Service last Thursday that Australians had started the custom of a Dawn Service on the Western Front in World War One.
He said the significance of the observance was in its timing - the most vulnerable time of the day for defence personnel was between dusk and dawn.
And Anzac Day itself was also unique with Britain and other countries remembering the sacrifices of soldiers on Remembrance Day each November.
Remembrance Day, that marks the Armistice that ended fighting in World War One highlighted another difference for Australia, he said. Anzac Day observed a battle that was at the start of war.
Wing Commander Waldon was visiting Wedderburn with wife Jo White, a former dux of Wedderburn College and now director of Questacon science and technology centre in Canberra.
He said the  Wedderburn district had a strong record of service in war - Victoria Cross recipients Albert Jacka and Albert Borella and Charlton’s Brigadier General Harold (Pompey) Elliott in reclaiming the French village of Villers Bretonneux on Anzac Eve 1918.
And he said local memorials recorded the names of many brothers and cousins who had served in that war. One family was the Bakers from Berrimul  with seven names on the honour roll.
Wedderburn-Korong Vale sub-branch president Roger Paterson recited The Ode before bugler Jake Murphy played the Last Post and Rouse.