By Oscar Parry
On a mild Sunbury morning, the sound of bagpipes greeted those approaching the Sunbury War Memorial for the beginning of the town’s Anzac Day dawn service.
With about 1500 attendees, the beginning of the service was marked with the completion of the overnight Sunbury Anzac Youth Vigil, where local youth from Sunbury Scout groups, St John Ambulance, Sunbury Lions Football Netball Club, and the CFA and SES took turns in shifts throughout the night to maintain a continuous silent watch at the memorial cenotaph.
A tradition beginning in Adelaide, this was the fifth Anzac Youth Vigil in Sunbury since it was introduced as part of the town’s Anzac Day services.
The Sunbury RSL’s dawn service began at 6am, with vice president Dieter Jankovic addressing the silent crowd, thanking them for their attendance.
“On the morning of 25th of April, 1915, the Australian and New Zealand troops landed under fire at Gallipoli. It was then, and in the battles which followed, that the Anzac tradition was formed,” Mr Jankovic said.
“On this day above all days, we remember those who served our nation in times of war and peacekeeping. We remember with pride their courage, their compassion, and their comradeship,” he said.
“We honour those who died, or were disabled, in the tragedy of war – they adored our nation’s history.”
The guest speaker at the dawn service was Sunbury veteran David Jordan, who shared the story of two local Sunbury brothers – Harold and Norman Benzley – who were raised on Barkly Street and fought in World War I.
“Their family faced hardship even before the war. In 1911, their father was accidentally killed at the Sunbury Train Station,” Mr Jordan said.
“Harold, the youngest, enlisted at just 19 … He fought at Gallipoli – a name that still resonates deeply across Australia and New Zealand. Harold’s military journey didn’t end at Gallipoli. He went on to France, where he was wounded in action and died on [August 6], 1916,” he said.
Mr Jordan said that Harold’s older brother Norman enlisted at 32, rising through military ranks and receiving a Belgian Croix de Guerre award that made news in Sunbury, and wrote a haunting letter home saying “I am still going well, but you can never tell when your number is going to be up.”
Norman was severely wounded after being shot in the shoulder and was listed as dangerously ill, but recovered and returned home, marrying and then living until 73.
“The legacy of Anzac is not a distant chapter of history. It is here. It is local. It is ours,” Mr Jordan said.
Wreaths were laid at the cenotaph, and the attending crowd remained silent for The Last Post.
Talking with Star Weekly after the service, Mr Jankovic said that the dawn service and the crowd it drew “reflects on the love the Sunbury community have for our dawn service.”
“I’d like to thank all the people of Sunbury – and particularly the people of the Sunbury Youth Vigil, who [stood] by the cenotaph for the previous 12 hours,” Mr Jankovic said.
Mr Jordan said that it was “great to see the number of people from the local community turn out, especially on the back of identifying those two locals as part of the Anzac Day address.”
The Sunbury RSL’s Anzac Day services continued with a march to the memorial on Stawell Street from 9.50am, followed by a morning service from 10.15am.
