BUSSELTON resident and RSL president Bob Wood will be attending the ANZAC Albany commemoration with 24 men who he fought alongside in 1963.
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Mr Wood said the weekend was a once in a life time trip and would be an amazing few days with veterans from all over Australia in attendance.
“I’ve known the men in my group since I was 17 so it’s very special to be here with them,” Mr Wood said.
“We have been planning the trip for 18 months and have various things organised one of which is a dinner with the Governor General on Saturday.”
One of the most significant events of the weekend will be the seven navy vessels from Australia, New Zealand and Japan performing a sail past at King George Sound to commemorate the departure of the first convoy.
More than 70,000 people, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, are expected to attend the ANZAC commemorations in Albany.
From October 31 to November 2 the original ANZAC troops will not only be remembered at the centenary of the first fleet’s departure from King George Sound but Australian servicemen and women will also be commemorated for more than a century of service.
At the outbreak of World War 1, Busselton officer in artillery William John Goodhew left his Wildwood Road property to join the first ANZAC convoy in Albany.
Joining 40000 soldiers from Australia and New Zealand he departed from the large sheltered anchorage at King George Sound for the fatal battlefields of Gallipoli and Europe.
After several months training in Egypt and the Middle East, the Australian and New Zealand troops landed at dawn on the beaches of Gallipoli.
Officer Goodhew was one of the lucky few soldiers to make it home alive and in 1921 he was paid off by the military and returned to West Australia.
While most Australian troops departed from Albany the majority of West Australian troops sailed from Fremantle two days later.
Six Busselton boys including Dudley Maurice Anderson, Vernan Llewellyn Bovell, Alfred Joseph Bussell, Thomas Cunningham Hedley, Robert John Lodge and Alfred Fordman Savage will be remembered at a service held at Fremantle Port on November 1.
