On Monday, local residents will pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
This year will see the return of local ANZAC services back to their full capacity for the first time since 2019, which St Marys RSL Sub-Branch Secretary Tony Fryer said has been long awaited.
“Certainly everyone’s invited in the general community to come along and join in the service,” Mr Fryer said.
“We’re hoping to get back to the 2019 scenario, where we had five to six thousand people there in attendance, and it would be nice to see that sort of number.”
Mr Fryer said that the Sub-Branch’s Dawn Service, held at the Guns War Memorial, will begin at 5.00am, preceded by several short video clips.
Penrith RSL Sub-Branch Vice President Peter Ward said that he also anticipates large numbers at their service.
“At this point, we’ve got up to 100 uniformed personnel marching, and maybe up to 200 veterans as well,” he said.
“It will be a silent march starting at 4.40am, we’ll start marching down Castlereagh and High Street, and then into Memory Park.”
Both services will have additional measures, such as television monitors, in place to ensure that vision is not obstructed.
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.
