Fremantle’s Anzac Day

After two years of observing Anzac Day Dawn Services from their front gates, restricted by Covid, an estimated 2000 people attended this year’s service at the Fremantle War Memorial on Monument Hill. Photograph by Roger Garwood.

Military personnel, veterans, emergency services members and cadets joined families, pyjama-clad children, numerous dogs and teddy bears for the service, which included a reminder that Anzac Day is not about glorifying war.

Like Albany, Fremantle was the last part of Australia servicemen saw when they sailed to World War I. Many of them didn’t return.

Later in the morning, Fremantle’s Anzac Day March assembled at Pioneer Park and several hundred spectators – far fewer than in pre-Covid years – lined its route along Market Street and South Terrace to Walyalup Koort.

A large grouping of poppies made by volunteers from recycled bottles had been planted on the council chamber’s grassy bank. The installation was a project overseen by artist Michael Alvares and became a feature of many group photographs.