Bunbury’s First Anzac Day

Twelve months on from the horrors of Gallipoli, Bunbury residents gathered to honour the sons they had lost and those still fighting in foreign lands. On 25 April 1915, the Australians, at what is now known as Anzac Cove, performed one of the greatest feats of arms in the history of modern times, “a deed that startled the whole world, and raised Australian soldiers at one bound into the ranks of the world's best warriors. Bunbury and the South West can never forget the day, for when the first casualty list came through, nearly half the names in it were from this part of the State. It was not known for days afterwards that those names were of men who had helped in the ever-memorable landing, but the crowds that thronged Victoria-street in front of the ‘Southern Times’ office watching the names go up choked down a sob as they read the identity of the first heroes to fall in the grim struggle. The day of the Landing put a new name on the map, it being composed of the initial letters of ‘Australian and New Zealand Army Corps’. On Tuesday, therefore, Anzac Day was celebrated in Bunbury with solemnity and deep feeling, in memory of our brave dead, and with grateful thoughts of those who lived through the awful days of the Landing, and after events.  “In the morning, a Requiem was celebrated at the Cathedral, Bunbury, by his Lordship the Bishop, and amongst the large congregation were many relatives of those who took part in the Landing.”

Written by Christine Hunter for the Streets of Bunbury project. 

See the original article in the Southern Times here: Link