THE rain cleared for a sunny start to the Phillip Island Remembrance Day observance on Tuesday, November 11 at the Cowes cenotaph.
But the blustery wind blew over the table holding a chrome bowl for the Remembrance poppies and sent the white plastic chairs cartwheeling back as the guests and participants started to arrive including a team of HMAS Cerberus sailors practicing their marching drill resplendent in the white dress uniforms.
They’d arrived by boat across a surprisingly calm Western Port and left it tied up the Cowes Jetty.
But inevitably the showers returned, especially heavy during the minutes’ silence as everyone stood stoically to attention, with Craig Marinus playing mournfully on the bugle, reminded of the mud, the blood, the showers and the tears on the horrific Western Front in Flanders Fields where the red poppies grow.
The rain came and went, stopping just as wreaths were being laid but threatening again later and finally forcing the cancellation of a hoped-for flyover.
The turnout didn’t rival the iconic Anzac Day dawn service by the lapping waters of Cowes cove but there was a strong response all the same and particularly noticeable that a lot of ex-service personnel were there, among them Warrant Officer Trevor McFarlane who was a supply officer in the air force serving in a number of locations including overseas in Malaysia or Malaya as it was then.
Phillip Island RSL President Peter Paul offered the welcome, saying on a number of occasions, how pleasing it was to see so many people come along despite the inclement weather, but on a workday he said he felt sure that businesses and schools across the Island would be joining the official gathering in a minute's silence.
Mr Paul gave a brief address as part of his welcome mentioning a number of local service people named on the cenotaph as serving in World War 1 however while they returned home, he said, more than 100,000 Australians didn’t, many buried in foreign lands so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today; freedom to live, freedom to speak, freedom of religion and freedom to enjoy our lives.
Retired Captain Paul Scott was the keynote speaker, a highly experienced officer formerly trained as a Navy mine clearance diver who went on to command the HMAS Diamantina and Tobruk, serving in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and the Middle East. In reserve service now he spoke first about this day in 1918 when the guns fell silent and the Great War ended.
“But it brought about a promise that we will remember them, a promise carried out across Australia and elsewhere around the world and here today. And carried on through the years,” said Captain Scott.
“But remembering is an active act, compelling us to protect the rights that have been won, in the pursuit of peace.
“We call on the lessons they have learned and observe a moments silence in the rain and remember the conditions ahead of the armistice.”
Craig Marinus played the last post as the rain tumbled down. Bob Woods recited the ode. Cowes Primary School student Bonnie Brydon and Cheryl Overton read out a special poem, Glenyce Paul handed out the poppies and a number of people laid wreaths including Vietnam Veteran Laurie Jones and Bass Coast Shire Councillors Ron Bauer, Tim O’Brien and Tracy Bell.
The remembrance service concluded with the Māori verse of the New Zealand national anthem and the Australian national anthem led by Natasha Crestani.
