Dawn service: The Last Post rang true and clear

JULIA WADE

08 May, 2023

An estimated 250 people rose extra early on April 25 to attend the third annual Anzac Day dawn service along the Mangawhai harbour shoreline, organised by local ex-servicemen and MC’d by Vietnam veteran Dave Chisholm.

Accompanied by dramatic sound effects of marching boots and war noises, 21 veterans and still-serving personnel marched down Alamar Crescent before ‘falling in’ outside a private address, where the large crowd had gathered for the ceremony of speeches, wreath laying and music, national anthems, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, and ‘Beautiful Soldier’ by kiwi singer/songwriter Marion Burns.

As the sun rose over the cool estuary waters, The Last Post rang true and clear in a moment of revered silence and as a salute of honour to the auspicious day, a Hercules plane dipped its wings over the harbour in a fly by, courtesy of the NZ Airforce.

Guest speakers this year had a local touch with Carter Bland, a young flight officer in the Whenuapai Air Force Base – son of Mangawhai resident, former Air Force personnel Joanne Bland – reading the Government speech. Local woman Paula Dowson spoke about the life of her great-great uncle, a young soldier in the Otamatea Mounted Rifles who served in the Boer War over a hundred years ago, which lasted from October 1899 to May 1902.

Dave Chisholm says the dawn service programme’s proven formula of the past two years ‘with my usual accompaniment of recordings of marching feet, explosions and carry on’ appears to appeal to locals.

“We had so many people stopping by the next day saying how much they enjoyed the ceremony. As the Last Post played, the sun just started coming up, it was just that bang on, and it lit up over the sand dunes turning them pink… so it all went off pretty well,” he says. “Don't know how I'm going to top it next year… though I have been asking all my Navy friends if they can arrange for a frigate to come into the harbour…”

The sun rose as the Last Post played – a poignant moment for Anzac Day. PHOTO/JULIA WADE