Sue Burgess was invited to speak to the club about Anzac Day. She chose as her topic the ‘Relevance of Anzac Day to the youth of Australia today’
Sue gave a brief outline of the history of Anzac Day. It started in London in 1916 by returned soldiers to remember those who did not return from war. It had no funding but the originators just wanted to establish a commemorative day to remember. By 1918 it was established and by 1927 a public holiday was declared in every state. The Dawn Service started in 1930.
The RSL took control in 1970. But it was not until the Howard Government, started to make it part of the education curriculum that it was available for students to research and explore. Students were encouraged to search family history to see if grandparents and other family members had taken part in various wars. While not relevant to a lot of families at the time it made students aware of the significance of the day. Later as sport was introduced to play on Anzac Day it became r
elevant to the vast majority of the youth today.Anzac Day, starting with the Dawn Service and later in the day various sporting events, has brought together people of all ages that have seen the large crowds increase year on year.