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Centenary of ANZAC Day Commemorations
CRESWICK 1915 

ANZAC Day



At 08:00am, Albert Street was blocked off until 12 Noon,  for the Vintage Car display that lined the side of the street, the working horse cart and stagecoach rides, recruitment re-enactment and the ANZAC Day March.

At 02:00pm, the Creswick Lighthorse  Troop conducted the largest Lighthorse March ever seen in Creswick.

Photos courtesy: Terry Hope & Phil Greenbank
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09:00 - Service at Kingston Avenue of Honour Cenotoph
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09:30 - Service at Veterans Graves, Creswick Cemetary
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Re-enactment of the recuitment of young men from Creswick to fight in the war for the Empire
Hepburn Shire Town Crier Philip Greenbank calls the young men of Creswick to enlist and serve the Empire.

Phil Carter welcomes the young men and reads the Oath of Allegiance before the are marched off to be kitted out in uniform, for the ANZAC Day March.
The Call to Enlist
Ozey, Ozey, Ozey

Young men of Creswick
Come answer the call

Help defend the empire from the menace that threatens your freedom

Join the Australian Imperial Forces for a free trip to Europe
Invitations issued today

Is it nice to be on the beaches but what about the men in the trenches?
Come and sign up

The call from the Dardanelles
Coo-ee won't you come
Enlist now
Australia has promised Britain 50,000 more men 
Will you help us keep the promise?

Join together, train together
Embark together, fight together
Enlist in the Sportsmen's Thousand
Show the enemy what Australian sporting men can do 

Fall in now
In your country's hour of need

Boys come over here, you're wanted
Sign up today

God Save the King
God Save the Empire

10:30 - Service at the Memorial Stones, RSL Hall
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Centenary ANZAC Day March 2015 - Creswick
Participants in the march started forming up near the old Bowling Greens at 10:15 ready for a 10:45 Step off.

Order of ANZAC Day March 2015

Creswick Brass Band
Colour Party including WWI Nurses
Creswick-Smeaton RSL - Serving and Ex Serving Personnel
Families of Ex-Serving Personnel
Creswick CFA
Creswick Football & Netball Club
Creswick Soccer Club
Creswick Scouts & Guides
Creswick Primary School
Creswick North Primary School
Newlyn Primary School
Mt.Blowhard Primary School
St. Augustine's Primary School & Steam Traction Engine
Vintage Vehicles
Heavy Horses & Wagons

ANZAC Day Service, 11:00am 2015

Welcome: Alan Morris, President Creswick-Smeaton RSL

Opening Address 
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of all the Creswick-Smeaton RSL members I welcome  you to this ANZAC Service on this 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli and thus the 100th anniversary of the formation of the ANZAC legend.

Thanks 
Each year there are many organisations and people who do so much to ensure that the Field of Crosses, the Dawn Service, the Gunfire Breakfast, the street March and this service occur. They include:

The RSL,
The Red Cross,
Shire of Hepburn & staff
Creswick Municipal Band,
Suzie Koene, The Bugler
Malcolm Mackenzie – Bruce, the piper
Local Schools,
The Creswick Football/Netball Club
The Creswick Fire Brigade
The Creswick Police
The Creswick Light Horse Troop.
The Farmers Arms Hotel
The American Hotel
Creswick Historical Society
Creswick Museum
Creswick Garden Club
The Creswick Bakery
Terry Hope - Our Creswick 1915 official photographer
Robert Haugie - Our Creswick 1915 Program designer.

On behalf of our RSL I thank all these organisations and the many individuals who have so willingly given of their time to make sure this special day’s commemorative activities are a fitting tribute to those have given their lives for this country and for our community.

A special thanks to those who have maintained this Cenotaph and its surrounds throughout the year and to all those who have contributed to making the wreaths that we will shortly be laying as we pay our tribute.

This morning at the Dawn Service the 8/7th Royal Victorian Regiment based in Ballarat provided the Catafalque Party. Our RSL wishes to thank the men and women of this regiment.

Our guest speaker today is Superintendent Daryl Clifton
Daryl is a fifth generation Creswickian  who’s family settled in Creswick  in 1856.  He has been a member of the Victoria Police for 40 years and has served nearly all of this time in the operational areas of crime and general policing.  Currently managing  Operational Policing Services for South West Victoria, he is the holder of the Australian National Service Medal 4th Clasp, The Victoria Police Service Medal and The Australian National Police Service Medal.  He is proud to be given the honour of speaking here today on the 100th Anniversary of Gallipoli and would like to acknowledge 3 of his great uncles who served in the first world war,  particularly Lance Corporal Fredrick Charles Clifton who served and died at Gallipoli.  In continuing an armed services tradition on this special anniversary, he he is also pleased to be speaking today in the presence of his son, Squadron Sergeant Major Christopher Clifton of the 1st Armoured Regiment Darwin."

Alan Gay, Vice President of RSL read the;

Act of Remembrance  
On the morning of 25th April, 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops landed under fire at Gallipoli, and it was then and in the violent campaign which followed, that the ANZAC tradition was forged. The elements of that tradition have inspired and offered an enduring example to later generations of Australians.

On this day, above all days, we remember all those, whether service personnel or civilians, of every nation, who have suffered or continue to suffer because of war. In particular, we remember those who served in the Australian Defence Forces on land, sea and in the air, from the Boer War through two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam, to Rwanda, East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan.

So we pay homage not only to those original Anzac’s, but to all who died or were disabled in their service to their country. They enrich our nation’s history. Their hope was for the freedom of mankind and we remember with pride their courage,their compassion and their comradeship.

May we and our successors be worthy of their sacrifice.


Hymn - Abide with Me.      Our singer today is  Guiliana DAppio.  

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Reverend Ryan Bennet Anglican Parish of Springmount

Poem - Elizabeth
Written & read by Caelli Greenbank our Creswick ANZAC Centenary Ambassador

The train blew its whistle pulling into the station
Puffing steam through the morning chill,
Signalling the start of tearful goodbyes
With the sound of the engine’s warning shrill.

Her eyes rested on lively Frank,
A young lad, 18 summers old,
His grey eyes lit with youthful vim
At the thought of adventures yet to unfold.

This was her second such painful farewell,
Her fourth son off to follow his brother,
And the pack and uniform in the hallway at home
Portended that she would soon lose another.

Her boys were not the first to go
And she feared that they’d not be the last;
While England issued her call to war
The boys of Australia grew up too fast.





Poem – Tribute to ANZAC Day 
Written by Ken Bunker
  

Readers:
Newlyn Primary School
Jack Elliot and Maynard Keays

Creswick North Primary School 
Olivia Morris-Flynn and Georgia Howell

Newlyn
With their hair a little whiter, their step not quite so sure
Still they march on proudly as they did the year before.
Theirs were the hands that saved us, their courage showed the way
Their lives they laid down for us, that we may live today.

From Gallipoli's rugged hillsides, to the sands of Alamein
On rolling seas and in the skies, those memories will remain.
Of airmen and the sailors, of Lone Pine and Suvla Bay
The boys of the Dardenelles are remembered on this day.



Poem – For the Fallen written by Robert Binyon

Readers :
Mount Blowhard Primary School
Johanna Wison and Aiden O’Brien

Creswick Primary School
Alex Davies and Grace Charry

St Augustine's Primary School
Will Preston and Mackenzie Maher

Mount Blowhard
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

​Creswick
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
One by one they emerged in khaki
From a quiet office in Albert St,
With hopes and dreams of seeing the world
And a bayonet in the pack at their feet.

​The whistle blew, and mothers hugged sons
While husbands bade their wives adieu,
And Elizabeth kissed her son goodbye
And prayed that God would see him through.

She wished she could know that he’d be safe,
But the war, like his life, was just begun;
Her son was known by a number now:
1st AIF, Private 1271.

She knew not even what he might face
For reports from abroad were quite concerning –
The papers wrote that all went well,
Yet the boys of England were not returning.
 
She watched him wave as the train pulled out
And as the whistle faded away,
She couldn't help but wonder if
She’d see ‘F. Lambert’ on a wall someday.






​

Creswick North

They fought their way through jungles, their blood soaked desert sands
They still remember comrades who rest in foreign lands.
They remember the siege of old Tobruk, the mud of the Kokoda Trail
Some paying the supreme sacrifice with courage that did not fail.
To the icy land of Korea, the steamy jungles of Vietnam
And the heroic battle of Kapyong and that epic victory at Long Tan.

Fathers, sons and brothers, together they fought and died
That we may live in peace together, while at home their mothers cried.
When that final bugle calls them to cross that great divide
Those comrades will be waiting when they reach the other side.







They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.


St Augustine
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain. 


​Laying of Wreaths (during which a collection was taken up by members of the Football – Netball club)
 Our Piper Malcolm Mackenzie Bruce will now play the Lament as the Wreaths 
are laid.

In November and December 1914 not long after the war was declared, three Lambert brothers, Henry Alfred, 25, William Joseph, 22 , and Frank Arnold, 18, enlisted at Creswick in the AIF and served at Gallipoli. They were all in the building trade, one a bricklayer, one a carpenter and one a painter. All were dead within a year.

Henry was in the 5th Battalion and landed at Gallipoli on 25 April. He was killed in the tragic events at Krithia, some time between 8 and 12 May 1915. His body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Helles Memorial.

A few days later on the 15 May Frank who was in the 8th Battalion died of wounds in Alexandria and is buried in the Alexandria Chatby cemetery. Franks records are scanty but he was wounded some time after the landing.

William in the 7th Battalion was killed in action at Lone Pine on 8th August and was buried in the trench with others during that horrific battle. A mate reporting to the Red Cross said that their identity discs were not collected because bombs were coming over in hundreds. William is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial.

Incredibly a fourth brother Albert, 25 enlisted in March 1916 in the 39th Battalion sfter the deaths of his three brothers. He served in France and returned to his parents William and Elizabeth in 1919.

Therefore I would like John Lambert  (whose grandfather unveiled this cenotaph) to lay the first wreath in honour of those four brave men.

John Lambert for Lambert Family

Ms Alexandria Devitt on behalf of Catherine King MHR for Ballarat
Don Henderson for the Shire of Hepburn
Alan Gay  for Creswick Smeaton RSL

The Red Cross has been present in all centres of war since it was formed at the end of the Crimean War. They are there to help defence forces on both sides and also the refugees displaced by war. Alma Dimond our Creswick member laying the wreath will be remembering her father Edward George Lay who fought at Gallipoli and France and returned home to take up a soldiers settlement block at Sutton Park Newlyn.
Alma  Dimond for Creswick Red Cross

Suzi Koene for the Creswick Light Horse Troop
Alan Gay for Creswick Legacy
Jack Sewell for Creswick Laurel Club
Creswick CFA
Ballarat State Emergency Service – providing own wreath
Friends of Park Lake
Friends of Smeaton
Creswick Primary School
North Creswick Primary School
Newlyn Primary School
Mount Blowhard Primary School
St Augustine’s Primary School
St Augustines Parents and Friends
Ballarat Christian College – providing own wreath
Farmers Arms Hotel
Creswick senior Citizens
Creswick Medical Centre
Creswick Pharmacy
Creswick Lions Club
Creswick Probus Club
Creswick Football / Netball Club
Creswick Havilah  Masonic Lodge
Creswick Bowling Club
Creswick Municipal Band
Creswick Museum
Creswick and District Historical Society
Creswick Garden Club

Ode  
“They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.”


Last Post  (Susie Koene – Bugler)     

Period of Silence  

Lest We Forget   

Rouse  (Susie Koene – Bugler) 

Royal Hymn, NZ National Anthem and the Australian National Anthem, sung by  Guiliana D’Appio accompanied by the Creswick Brass Band.   

Royal Hymn:
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen.
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.


New Zealand National Anthem:   
God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.

Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.



Australian National Anthem:   
Australians all let us rejoice, 
For we are young and free. 
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil; 
Our home is girt by sea;

Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage 
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair.


End of Service:

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for your attendance today. Please remember that the Creswick light horse troop with other light horse troops from surrounding areas along with the Creswick band, the Ballarat band and the Daylesford band will be parading through our town from about 2 o’clock this afternoon.

Also there will be a service of commemoration here tomorrow at 1030.

Thankyou ladies and gentlemen
Ode of Remembrance

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them