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This was the poignant scene on Saturday morning as Melbourne Airport shifted its Anzac dawn service onto the airfield for the first time in its history.
At 7am, 15 staff commemorated Australia’s service men and women, with Scot Dullard, Melbourne Airport’s head of aviation operations, reading the commemorative address, including The Ode. Shortly afterwards, Allan Hessey, an RSL bugler, played the Last Post at sunrise.
The traditional minute’s silence followed before Hessey played Reveille to indicate the service had concluded.
You can watch the video below:
As the sun rose, our airfield staff gathered at the aircraft warm up bay near Runway 27 to commemorate and remember our service men and women. Lest We Forget.
Credit to Allan Hessey for the performance of ‘The Last Post’.#AnzacDay2020 pic.twitter.com/u2YqITe7ff
— Melbourne Airport (@Melair) April 25, 2020
In his address at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this was not the first Anzac day to be a more sombre affair than usual.
“Our remembrances today small, quiet and homely will be,” Morrison said. “On Anzac Day 1919, the first after the Great War, there were no city marches or parades for returning veterans because we were battling the Spanish Flu pandemic. Though our streets were empty, the returning veterans were not forgotten.”
