THOUSANDS of Busselton and Dunsborough residents gathered at Busselton’s darkened foreshore this morning to remember the fallen Anzacs at Gallipoli.
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This year’s dawn service saw the biggest turnout yet.
RSL vice president Grant Henley opened the service with an account of the first wave of men, whose task it was to storm the beach of Gallipoli, later known as Anzac Cove, on April 25, 1915.
Mr Helney introduced RSL President Bob Wood who welcomed the thousands who had gathered.
“This morning all of us are thinking of that terrible morning exactly 100 years ago today,” Mr Wood said.
“On our beautiful shore as dawn approaches we remember the courage of those who left their homes to fight for our freedom.
“How different their shore was to where we stand now.”
Mr Wood reminded residents that the tormented soldiers suffered contributed to being able to stand on Busselton’s peaceful shore today.
He also remembered one of the youngest Anzac privates who was “not a man but a boy”.
Private Jim Martin died before his fifteenth birthday on a hospital ship off the coast of Gallipoli.
“Young Jim was not a victim of a Turkish bullet but of typhoid fever,” Mr Wood said.
“1250 soldiers were killed in the first week of the campaign.
“The military campaign was a total failure with the only successful part, the withdrawal of troops on December 20, 1915.”
Mr Wood invited student leadership groups from Busselton high school’s to recite the names of the fallen soldiers from the district who fought in all wars during the last century.
After each name was read there was brief pause and a bell was sounded in memory.
Mr Wood recited the Ode of Remembrance followed by one minute of silence.
