Anzac Day 2017
31 March 2017
PDF version [284KB]
David Watt
Foreign Affairs Defence andSecurity
History of Anzac Day
The first day to be called Anzac Day was 13 October 1915 and occurred in Adelaideas a replacement for the Eight-Hour Day holiday (a forerunner of Labour Day andalready a public holiday). This event was more of a patriotic carnival designedto raise awareness of, and funds for, the war effort than the solemn commemorationit was to become.
Anzac Day as we know it was first observed on 25 April 1916,as people came together to honour those lost at Gallipoli. In Australia, somestate governments organised events to commemorate the occasion—but theCommonwealth, other than naming the day as Anzac Day, did not.
By the late 1920s, Anzac Daywas a public holiday in every state and territory. In the 1930s, there wasrhetoric about the need to pass the ‘Anzac spirit’ down to the next generation.This was partly politically motivated, as there was a feeling that peopleneeded steeling for another war. In the Second World War, the ‘sons of theAnzacs’ were welcomed, and the day now honoured veterans of all wars. Butdespite greater numbers of veterans, by the 1960s its popularity had waned, andmany wondered if Anzac Day would survive.
The resurgence started in the 1980s and 1990s. The RSL hadbeen slow to welcome ‘others’—notably those who did not serve overseas,including most ex-servicewomen, and veterans of the ‘small’ wars. With ayounger leadership, it has relaxed the rules to be more inclusive. Governmentshave reinforced the day’s significance with commemorative programs that reachout to the community.
The Australian War Memorial’s (AWM) Anzac Dayelectronic encyclopaedia entry contains links to material on the history andtradition of Anzac Day, details and photographs of ceremonies, sound recordingsof the Last Post and the Rouse, and educational resources.
The Dawn Service
The first commemorative event of Anzac Day is the Dawn Serviceat 4.30am. This is about the time men of the ANZAC approached theGallipoli beach. However, the origin is the traditional ‘stand-to’, in whichtroops would be woken so that by the first rays of dawn they were in positionand alert, in case of an enemy attack in the eerie half-light. It is a ritualand a moment remembered by many veterans.
Some debate exists about the first Dawn Service.Nevertheless, early dawn services such as that held in 1923 at Albany, WesternAustralia, conducted by the Reverend Arthur White—Rector of St John’s Church,and formerly a padre with the 44th Battalion on the Western Front—were theforerunners of the modern tradition.
The firstofficial Dawn Service was held at Sydney’s Cenotaph during 1928. The simpleceremony was for veterans to assemble before dawn for ‘stand-to’ and twominutes of silence.
The story of the Dawn Service and its origins is found inthe article ‘Inhonour of Anzac Day: grave history of Dawn Service‘ (Air Force News,44(7), 25 April 2002).
Kerry Neale, ‘In the cold light of dawn’,discusses the significance of the Dawn Service continuing to grow whilequestions remain over its origin in Australia (Wartime, 38, 2007, pp.38–39).
In Originsof the Anzac Dawn Ceremony: Spontaneity and Nationhood, Robyn Mayeslooks at three possible origins of the Dawn Service and discusses thesociological context of these.
Gunfire breakfast
Many communities follow the dawn service with a‘traditional’ gunfire breakfast. ‘Gunfire’ is a British tradition and was:
... the usual term for the early cup of tea served out totroops in the morning before going on first parade, whenever possible. In theWar [WWI] recruits in training always had ‘Gun Fire’ supplied to them, the workbefore breakfast being found particularly trying. The morning gun in a garrisontown suggested the name probably.
(E Fraser and J Gibbons, Soldier & Sailor Words & Phrases,Routledge, London, 1925, p. 113)
The ‘gunfire breakfast’ seems to have evolved from theabove, and comprises whatever is available at the time—it could be ‘coffee andrum’ or ‘stew, sausage and bread’, or even ‘bacon and eggs’ (which is served bythe War Memorial for their ‘gunfire breakfast’ on Anzac Day).
Anzac Day march
From cities to small towns, the march has long been thecentrepiece of Anzac Day. Marches were held during the Great War, and becamepopular with veterans in the 1920s, to honour lost friends and publicly expresscomradeship. The RSL organises the marches. While it was traditional forveterans who saw active service, it was later relaxed to include those whoserved in Australia in the armed services or ‘land armies’ during the SecondWorld War. It has been relaxed further, with some encouragement or acceptanceof children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren marching, to assist agedveterans or to represent relatives. Former soldiers from allied armies havealso been allowed to march.
Follow-on and two-up
The march may be followed by reunions and lunches put on bylocal establishments. This is also the one day that the traditional Australiangambling game of ‘two-up’, or ‘swy’, may be legally played at venues. Bets areplaced on how two pennies thrown into the air will fall. The ‘Ringer’ (incharge) will explain rules and betting procedures. Any persons of legalgambling age are welcome to participate. The entry on ‘two-up’from the Australian Encyclopaedia describes the ‘game’ and its origins.
Wearing medals
Only the person awarded or issued medals may claim thosemedals as his or her own. He or she wears the medals on their left breast.Others (those who did not earn the medals) may honour the service of a relativeby wearing medals on the right breast. Some veterans may be seen wearing medalson both breasts—their own on the left, and a relative’s on the right. Unitcitations are worn according to individual service instructions but are usuallyworn on the right.An ANZACCommemorative Medallion and Badge was issued in 1967 to surviving Gallipoliveterans.
Wearing rosemary
Rosemary is an emblem of remembrance. It is traditional onAnzac Day to wear a sprig of rosemary pinned to a coat lapel or to the breast(it does not matter which side, but left seems most common), or held in placeby medals. Rosemaryhas particular significance for Australians on Anzac Day as it grows wild onthe Gallipoli Peninsula.
Laying a wreath or flowers
A wreath or a small bunch of flowers is traditionally laidon memorials or graves in memory of the dead. They might contain laurel, atraditional symbol of honour, and rosemary, or they may be native or otherflowers. In recent years, it has also become popular to lay a wreath of redpoppies—formerly associated with Remembrance Day, 11 November. Any of thesewreaths or flowers are acceptable as a gesture of remembrance.
The Ode
The Ode comes from the fourth stanza of the poem For the Fallenby the English poet and writer, Laurence Binyon. It was published in London in TheWinnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War in 1914. It was used in associationwith commemorative services in Australia by 1921.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them.
At the Anzac Day ceremony, an invited speaker often recites The Ode andupon his or her completion of the recitation, those present repeat the lastwords ‘We will remember them’. After a short pause this is followed by ‘Lest weforget’.
The Last Post
This is one of a number of bugle calls in the militarytradition to mark phases of the day. Traditionally, it marked the end of theday. The Last Post was incorporated into funeral and memorial services as afinal farewell, and symbolises that the duty of the dead is over and that theycan rest in peace. On Anzac Day, it is followed by one or two minutes ofsilence, then a second bugle call, Reveille (also known as The Rouse).
The story of the Anzacbugle calls is told in Valley Voice, 19 April 2002.
The Anzac biscuit
The original Anzac biscuit,also known as the Anzac wafer or tile, was a hardtack biscuit or longshelf-life biscuit substitute for bread. These were not necessarily popularwith soldiers at Gallipoli, but there are now recipes formore edible domestic versions.
Anzac Day speeches
15 April 2016—address at Anzac Day National Ceremony, AustralianWar Memorial, Canberra, by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
25 April 2015—Anzac Day National Ceremony—commemorative address, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, by the Governor-General,Sir Peter Cosgrove.
25 April 2015—speech at the Dawn Service, Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, by thePrime Minister, Tony Abbott.
25 April 2005—addressat the Dawn Service, Gallipoli, by the Prime Minister, John Howard.
25 April 2005—addressdelivered by the Anglican Bishop to the Defence Force, Dawn Service, AustralianWar Memorial, Canberra.
11 November 1993—transcript of the speech made by the PrimeMinister, Paul Keating, at the tomb of the unknown soldier on the occasion ofthe Funeral of theUnknown Australian Soldier, Remembrance Day.
The Australian Army website contains a variety of suggestedspeech notes which can be used in different contexts.
The meaning of Anzac
The history of the commemoration of Anzac and debate overits meaning has been discussed at length over many years.
The entries in the Oxford Companion to AustralianMilitary History on AnzacDay and the Anzaclegend provide good summaries of the importance of the day and of thelegend.
In Bean’s‘Anzac’ and the Making of the Anzac Legend, the author, David Kent,argues that the image of the Anzac was the careful creation of the officialhistorian, CEW Bean, who, as editor of the enormously popular 1916 publication,The Anzac Book, acted as a prism through which Australians were presentedwith an oversimplified view of the realities of war and its effect on men.
In ‘Apossession for ever: Charles Bean, the ancient Greeks, and militarycommemoration in Australia’, Peter Londey argues that the Australianofficial war historian drew parallels between the deeds of the AustralianImperial Force (AIF) and ancient Greece in the 5th century BC (AustralianJournal of Politics and History, 53(3), September 2007, pp. 344–349).
In ‘Re-readingBean’s last paragraph‘, Martin Ball discusses the last paragraph of CEWBean’s official history which has ‘long been appreciated as a concise yeteffective statement about Australia’s response to its war experience’. Althoughthe volume which contains it was published in 1942, the last paragraph wasactually the first to be written in 1919 (Australian Historical Studies,122, October 2003, pp. 231–247). Bean’s last paragraph reads:
What these men did nothing can alter now. The good and thebad, the greatness and smallness of their story will stand. Whatever of gloryit contains nothing now can lessen. It rises, as it will always rise, above themists of ages, a monument to great-hearted men; and, for their nation, apossession for ever.
(CEW Bean, Official History ofAustralia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. VI, chapter XXII, Sydney, Angus& Robertson, 1942, p.1096).
In his 1988 article, ‘Anzacand the Australian military tradition’, historian Ken Inglis describes theessential meaning of the word Anzac, its early use, the Anzac tradition inschools between the wars, the relationship between the Anzac concept and socialclass and between the Anzac tradition and feminism, the continuity of thetradition from the Second World War through to the Vietnam conflict, and theobservations of writers, scholars, artists and film makers (Current AffairsBulletin, 64(11), April, 1988).
In ‘ANZAC:the sacred in the secular’, Graham Seal argues that the resurgence ofinterest in Anzac Day has ‘only served to emphasise the strongly secular natureof Anzac and its centrality to widespread notions of Australian nationalism’ (Journalof Australian Studies, 91, 2007).
In ‘Reflections:a symposium on the meanings of Anzac’, to mark the 75th anniversary of thelandings at Gallipoli, ten Australians discuss various aspects of the meaningof Anzac to Indigenous Australians and Vietnam diggers, the place of Anzac inAustralian society and the future of Anzac (Journal of the Australian WarMemorial, 16, April 1990).
‘Anzac’sinfluence on Turkey and Australia’ was the keynote address given to the1990 War Memorial History Conference by Bill Gammage. In it he explored thedifferent ways in which Turks and Australians remember Canakkale (Gallipoli),and how they regard each other as a result of the campaign (Journal of theAustralian War Memorial, 18, April 1991).
In ‘Theunknown Australian soldier’, Ashley Ekins discusses the symbolicsignificance of the return of the remains of an unknown Australian soldier (Wartime,25, January 2004, pp. 11–13).
In ‘Lestwe forget the cult of the digger’, Nick Horden discusses how the memory ofpast wars continues to shape the Australian nation (The AustralianFinancial Review, 20 January 2000).
‘Whatis Anzac Day? It is the embodiment of the national ethos‘, retraces thehistory of 25 April and the traditions of Anzac (Stand To, April – May2002, pp. 4–5).
In ‘Whywe will never forget’, Graham Cooke talks about how, even after fourgenerations since Gallipoli, the Anzac spirit is still alive (Canberra TimesMagazine, April 2003).
In ‘Theyshall not grow old’, Ken Inglis discusses how the Anzac legend grows ratherthan recedes (The Age, 30 April 2004).
In ‘Themystique of Gallipoli’, Les Carlyon explains what makes Gallipoli soimportant to Australians (The Canberra Times, 13 November 2004).
In ‘Historyshould respect realities’, authors Craig Barrett and Martin Crotty argue thatit is possible to balance a questioning approach towards the Anzac traditionwith respect for the men who fought at Gallipoli (The Australian,1 February 2006).
In ‘TheAnzac myth: patriot act‘, Mark McKenna argues that ‘since the early 1990sAustralians have lost the ability (or inclination) to debate Anzac Day’ (AustralianLiterary Review, June 2007).
In their 2010 book What’sWrong with Anzac?: the Militarisation of Australian History, HenryReynolds and Marilyn Lake criticise what they describe as ‘the relentlessmilitarisation’ of Australian history and argue that it is no longerappropriate to have a military event playing such an important role in definingthe Australian identity (H Reynolds and M Lake, eds, What’s Wrong withAnzac?: the Militarisation of Australian History, University of NewSouth Wales Press, Sydney, 2010).
In a review of What’s Wrong with Anzac, GeoffreyBlainey rejects many of the arguments made by the authors, and states that thepopularity of Anzac Day has fluctuated, and in all probability will continue todo so (‘Weweren’t that dumb’, The Australian, 7 April 2010).
James Brown’s 2014 book Anzac’sLong Shadow: the Cost of our National Obsession arguesthat, although important, commemorating those Australians who served and losttheir lives during war should not take resources away from currently servingpersonnel. Brown summarised his views in an articlefor The Age.
The debate about the use of the history of Anzac and whatkind of commemorative activities are appropriate has gained pace since thepublication of What’s Wrong with Anzac, and there are perhaps moredissenting voices now than has been the case in the past. The website Honest History contains asection entitled AnzacAnalysed which attempts to promote some of these voices.
In ‘Theminefield of Australian military history’, Martin Crotty andCraig Stockings discuss the sometimes difficult relationship between academicsand popular history (Australian Journal of Politics and History, 60(4),2014).
Joan Beaumont, ‘Symposium:commemoration in Australia: a memory orgy?’ (AustralianJournal of Political Science, September 2015, pp. 536–544).
AnzacDay Then and Now (edited by Tom Frame, UNSW Press, 2016) contains avariety of essays which reflect on the history and meaning of Anzac Day. In hisintroduction to the book Frame discusses something of the tension that existsbetween differing viewpoints about Anzac Day in contemporary Australia.
Poetry
A selection of four First World War poems by LeonGellert: Anzac Cove (written in January 1916) and three poems aboutlife and death in the trenches, from Volume 1 of Poetry in Australia.
The text of twofamous First World War poems, In Flanders Fields and For the Fallenis here .
In ‘Theyalso served—and wrote‘, Steve Meacham discusses a compilation of Anzacpoetry, commenting particularly about Banjo Paterson and his association withthe First World War (The Sydney Morning Herald, 25April2002).
Is it Anzac Day or ANZAC Day?
The Anzac acronym comesfrom the initial letters of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, intowhich Australian and New Zealand troops were formed in Egypt before thelandings at Gallipoli in April 1915. The official historian, Charles Bean,wroteof a day in early 1915 when a staff officer arrived at HQ seeking a code namefor the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Having noticed ‘A&NZAC’stencilled on cases and also rubber stamps bearing this mark, a clerksuggested:
‘How about ANZAC?’ Major Wagstaff proposed the word to thegeneral, who approved of it, and ‘Anzac’ thereupon became the code name for theAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps.
(CEW Bean, The Story of ANZAC fromthe Outbreak of War to the End of the First Phase of the Gallipoli Campaign,May 4, 1915 (Volume 1 of The Official History of Australia in theWar of 1914–1918, pp. 124–25.)
As a proper noun, as well as an acronym, ‘Anzac’ entered thevernacular of the diggers and Kiwis. At Gallipoli, they called their position,simply, Anzac; and the famous cove, Anzac Cove. They started referring to eachother as Anzacs too. Eventually, any Australian or New Zealander who served inthe war could be called an Anzac—although to them a true Anzac was a man whoserved at Gallipoli (later issued with a brass ‘A’ to stitch onto their unitcolour patches).
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