AROUND 800 people gathered at Laurieton’s Memorial Park to commemorate Anzac Day last Monday.
It marked 96 years since the landing of soliders at Gallipoli, the 70th anniversary of the seige of Tobruk and the Battle of Crete.
A strong crowd of several hundred also paid their respects at the dawn service.
Members of the RSL Sub Branch were buoyed by the sheer number of people of all ages gathering to remember the past and ongoing sacrifices of Australia’s servicemen and women.
“We are surprised every year by the growing numbers of people at the dawn service, the march and the 11am service,” said RSL sub branch secretary George Wise.
“It’s recognition by society of ANZAC and that the message is getting through to younger generations.
“We had a man in his 20s or 30s run up to us as we were marching and say he thought we were a great bunch of blokes and what a great job we did. We get a lot of acclaim from the crowd as we march.”
Mr Wise paid tribute to the team at the Laurieton United Services Club for setting up the chairs and marquees, formulating a workable layout to cope with the crowd numbers, and the State Emergency Service for their professional traffic management without which the march could not take place.
The march is also growing in numbers as family members take the place of veterans who have passed on, school groups attracted a good number of students to don their uniforms despite the school holidays, and community groups also marched to give their support.