I went to the Dawn Service this morning here in Caufield. I had intended to go to the main service in Melbourne, but when the tram never made it, I walked back up along the tracks and found that the traffic had been blocked because of the service at our local RSL. So I went there instead. Not as exciting perhaps as the 100,000 that went to the Shrine of Remembrance. But there were a couple of thousand, the speeches were excellent and the Last Post just as moving no matter where I might have been. We even had a fly-past of our own.

The speeches by our local RSL President, Bob Larkin, struck exactly the right note, as did the speech by the Special Guest Speaker, Colonel Michael Joseph “Mike” Kelly (Retd). Former Labor member for Eden-Monaro though he may have been, his speech resonated with my conservative instincts as he focused on the importance of “unity, community and purpose”.

And this contrasted very badly for me with the speech given by “the New Zealand Sub-Branch President” who spoke favourably about the New Zealand ANZACs who had had separate Maori battalions where they were able to maintain their way of life and camaraderie even under arms. This was unlike the circumstance of our Australian aboriginal soldiers, he said, who had been merely melded into the regular Australia army, just like anyone else.

So I have to tell you, that for me listening on this 100th anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove, I felt a renewed sense of what a great country this is. Even a hundred years ago, we did not segregate and separate out our fellow aboriginal soldiers, but allowed them to fight and die with the rest of us together, as the members of our one united national army. This is as it should be, and it made me once again proud to be Australian.