Remembrance at the Shrine

 Having been very impressed with the Shrine of Remembrance we thought it would be interesting to attend their event on Remembrance Day, 11 November 2024.  Coming in from St Kilda Rd we passed a couple of interesting works of art.  The first is basically a fountain ..

...while the other is a memorial to the battle at Fromelles: one of the worst bad decisions in the fighting on the Western Front.

The formal event of Remembrance started at the 11th hour.  However there was a large crowd already on deck when we got there at about 10:40.

A guard detachment was marched in.
We had missed the formal Welcome to Country but the smoker was still going.
There were many dignitaries present including the Premier, Leader of the Opposition, a Senator representing Albo and the Governor who was escorted down to inspect the guards, 
The crowd was quite diverse with this guy possibly being at one end of the range.  Here he is persuading his pooch to sit, which it did pretty well for the hour or so they were here.  Given the number of dogs around in Melbourne it was surprising that this was the only one there.  Possibly it was an official "companion animal".
This woman was the organiser of the event, Commander Priya Chanda who is a Governor of The Shrine and serves as an Assistant Inspector-General for the Office of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force.  She did a very good job.
At times proceedings were inside the Shrine and transmitted outside to large video screens.  This is the honour guard around the catafalque.
The Roulettes flew over twice during the ceremony.  Possibly a little surprising they didn't use the missing man formation, but perhaps that only applies to ceremonies honouring an individual.
A bugler leading into the minute of silence.
The Governor spoke for a few minutes on the theme of linking the events of WWI to Australian identity, with reference to the official history by C W Bean.
After a reading of "In Flanders Fields" by a school student, Brett West was invited to speak about his military service and what it meant to him.  A very good speech about his connection to his traditional country at Shark Bay and how it linked to his service in the RAAF (from the following linked site it includes time in bomb disposal).  I have just found this post by/about him on the RSL site: not exactly what he said yesterday but makes many of the same points - and possibly explains why he was tapped to make this speech.
As wreaths were laid the drum corps from South Caulfield School lined up in salute.
After everything wrapped up we headed for the Domain Parklands, passing by the Legacy Garden.
Our estimate was about 5,000 folk in the crowd for a very thoughtful and well organised event.  I commented to Frances that it was very good, albeit not as emotional as a Dawn Service on ANZAC Day.  I think I will always remember the minute of silence at the AWM with a coincidental Currawong call coming right at the end.


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