Anzac Day is an event commemorated across Australia every year, but each year the celebration reflects something slightly different.
In 2022, Anzac Day was a time when fewer Australian defence personnel were serving overseas than at any time in recent decades.
For the men and women of our defence forces, that means more opportunities to spend time with comrades, friends and family.
The solemn quiet of the pre-dawn on Anzac Day is always an opportunity to pause and reflect on the nature of service and sacrifice.
Since that morning in 1915 when troops from Australia and New Zealand waded ashore in a foreign land, Anzac Day has given Australians a standard of mateship and duty.
Of what it means to serve.
Of course, service to our community takes so many forms.
It is the health workers and police officers who kept our community safe through the pandemic.
It is the firefighters and SES volunteers who protect Queenslanders from the ravages of natural disasters.
But most of all, it is those who put on the uniform of our defence forces, willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect our freedom and our way of life.
This Anzac Day, we can be thankful that more of serving women and men are safe at home than has been the case for so long.
But as we look at conflict in other parts of the world, we recognise the importance of their eternal vigil to defend Australia.
Lest we forget.
