DUTY and service were honoured at Kyalite on Monday morning, as about 150 people gathered to pay their respects at a dawn service.
Congregating on the banks of the Wakool River in the early morning chill, many in the crowd partook in a pre-dawn tipple over the road at the Kyalite pub before the service.
MC Lance Howley told The Guardian the turn-out for Anzac Day had increased steadily over the 15 years he had been involved in organising the event.
Mr Howley said public attitudes towards army personnel had softened since he was a National Serviceman in the early 1970s — the time of the unpopular Vietnam War.
“I was discharged in 1972 (when National Service ended) and in those days people in the services weren’t particularly respected by the population,” he said.
“(Anzac Day) is a time to pay tribute to those who have served their country and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
Every year at the Kyalite dawn service, a letter sent from a soldier at war with a link to the district is read aloud.
This year, Kyalite’s Lois Tippett shared a letter written by her grandfather Gordon Spittle in November 1916, penned while he was serving as a driver in France.
Mr Spittle was nicknamed ‘war correspondent’ by other soldiers due to his prolific letter writing.
“When I was growing up my father had an old tin trunk full of letters,” Ms Tippett said.
“I never met (my grandfather) — I discovered him through these letters.
“To think, this time 100 years ago he wrote this letter. I’m immensely proud.”
The younger generation were represented too, with Tooleybuc Central School captains Callum McNab and Jaide Berg reciting a poem written from the perspective of a war veteran.
Then, as the clear morning dawned, wreaths were laid at the foot at the cenotaph carrying the names of men from the Kyalite district who lost their lives through war.
Balranald Shire Council general manager Aaron Drenovksi, Tooleybuc Central School and the Williams family all laid wreaths, while many others offered up sprigs of rosemary distributed by Kyalite publican Vicki Barnes prior to the service.
