Bart Bear's Blog

Last Sunday, April 25, was ANZAC Day, the day on which we remember and honour all those who served (and are serving) in the armed forces of Australia and New Zealand. Our family has had many members in the forces; fathers, mothers, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. Mum even has a VC winner in hers (search Jeffries VC for earlier posts with his story). The national ceremony is held on the parade ground of the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra. The actual parade ground stretches back down ANZAC Parade in line with the old and new Parliament houses. Before Covid there were hundreds of service personnel marching in the ANZAC ceremonies, but last year during lock down things were very low-key. This year some cities had large marches, some were locked down again and had none. Canberra scaled the ceremony back to the full ceremonial parade and wreath-laying but the march-past was cut back to just the unit and commemorative banners and a few veterans from each unit. Two banners that I liked are the replica of the one made at ANZAC Cove during the campaign, and the 8th RAR one that had me excited because at a distance it looks like it says BEAR. The ceremony finished with a flypast by an F-35. Even flying as slow as it could there was not much time to get a photo so I gave full marks to the oldies for their efforts. Here's hoping that next year we will be back to full parades and marches.

And I was there for their ceremonial Flypast. The official celebration was the presentation of new Queen's Colours at Government House, followed by a flypast of over 60 aircraft. The flypast was right along the lake and by the start of flying the lake shore was thick with people. We found a less crowded spot, back from the lake a bit but with good sight lines to the action. All of the current RAAF aircraft were represented but I didn't get photos of the F-35s, they were too fast and snuck up behind us. I also missed the WW2 fighters (Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawk), they were kept high and I was busy enjoying the sight of those classics in formation. There were many classic aircraft in the flypast, the only group missing was the early jets (Meteor, Sabre and Canberra), but you can see photos of them on my earlier posts of the Temora collection. I leave it to you to identify the ones in these photos, my typing finger is getting sore (I have been helping Mum press down hard on stamps for the cards we are making). The display finished with great formation aerobatics by the Roulettes, the RAAF aerobatic team. I love aircraft and it was really special to see this massed flypast right here in Canberra.