IT was an Anzac Day like no other.

Australian and New Zealand’s special day of remembrance and gratitude in 2020 is now recorded as one of observance, ingenuity and indomitable spirit amid very strange times.

By mid-morning on April 25, 2020, the main thoroughfares of cities, towns and villages across Australia were deserted.

Covid-19 gathering and social-distancing restrictions meant traditional 6am dawn services were cancelled.

But that didn’t stop tens of thousands of people across the nation – and abroad – from standing proudly and recognising past and current armed services personnel.

Residents were asked to stand at the head of driveways, on kerbsides and nature strips, atop balconies and front decks and verandas and remember the fallen.

People emerged from homes and workplaces to pause and remember past and current armed services personnel who fought and are still fighting for Australia and New Zealand’s freedom.

In Moree, as part of the Light up the Dawn initiative, Moree Show Society played The Last Post, The Piper’s Lament and Reveille from loudspeakers perched high atop a boom lift at Moree Showground.

The Ode was read by Moree RSL Sub-Branch Roger Butler and a chilling rendition of The Piper’s Lament was performed by Jack McCudden.

The address reached hundreds of homes across Moree.

In Gwydir Street, Timothy and Zeena Tesoriero played Amazing Grace as part of a co-ordinated, across-town service performed by members of Moree Caledonian Pipes and Drums.

Returned serviceman Eric Carrigan proudly parked his fully restored army jeep in front of Moree Memorial Hall as a silent tribute and was joined by Moree RSL Sub-Branch members Darryl Brady, Geoff Cantrill and John Tramby.

Residents and staff of Whiddon Retirement Village gathered on Victoria Terrace to pay their respects and throughout Moree, driveways, kerbsides, nature strips, balconies, decks and verandas were filled with families paying tribute.

In villages and towns across the vast Moree Plains Shire, residents paused and remembered in their own special way.

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 and the following year commemorations and services were held across Australia on that date.

In 1916, more than 2000 soldiers from Australian and New Zealand marched through the London CBD. On the other side of the world, wounded soldiers and their nurses were conveyed through the streets of Sydney.

They were marches that instilled the Anzac tradition on April 25 each year.

And every year since, the “knights of Gallipoli” have been remembered for their bravery and resilience in a campaign that lasted eight gruelling months and resulted in the deaths of more than 11,000 soldiers from Australian and New Zealand.

Not even the Spanish flu in 1919 completely stopped Anzac Day commemorations, even though public gatherings were forbidden.

But in 2020 it was different.

Men, women and children in towns, villages and cities across Australia and New Zealand saluted in their own way, hitting home hard that a pandemic like Covid-19 would not deny them.

Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in his commemorative address to the nation from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra that Anzac Day was “our most sacred day”.

“The service and sacrifice we remember today has always been expressed . . . in hardship on the beaches of Gallipoli, the deserts of Egypt, in the mud of the Somme, the jungles of New Guinea and the death marches from Sachsenhausen,” Mr Morrison said

“Australians have faced the very worst, and they have done so for us to defend our land and protect our people and to make for us a freer and more just world,” he said.

On the eve of Anzac Day in 2020, returned serviceman Eric Carrigan encouraged Moree residents to pause and remember – if only for a few minutes.

“The day has got to be recognised, some way or another, and what is being planned (around Australia) is the best that can be done under these terrible conditions,” Mr Carrigan said.

For many years Mr Carrigan, who served in Malaya in the late 1960s, has been parade master at Moree’s Anzac Day Dawn Service every second year.

In alternate years he travels to Sydney to march with the mates he served with in the Royal Australian Artillery 107 Field Battery in Malaya.

“Every other year I march under their banner with the friends I served with. There are usually about 16 of us,” Mr Carrigan said.

Mr Carrigan was 21 when called up for National Service in 1966.

“When I was called up the Malayan confrontation and the war in Vietnam were both going on so I did my national service at Singleton for 10 weeks and then joined the artillery,” Mr Carrigan said.

“I went on to North Head and did 10 weeks artillery training there on 105s. Then I was posted to Holsworthy for about four weeks.

“We were gathered together at Holsworthy and told ‘prepare yourselves and get your affairs in order, you’re off to Saigon or Malacca’,” he said.

Mr Carrigan, a fourth-generation farmer whose family first settled near Millie in the Moree district in the 1860s, was posted in Malacca, arriving as an ammunition number. He returned to Australia just over 12 months later a bombardier.

“I went up there for one year and 48 days,” he said.

“We moved from one end of Malaya to the other, from the Thai border right down to Singapore.

“I basically got straight out of the army when I got home because I’d done my two years. I went back to the land at Garah and resumed my life.”

April 25 is arguably the most important date on the Australian calendar.

The date – one that should never be forgotten – marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during The Great War.

As one decade rolled into the next, Anzac Day also served to commemorate the lives of Australians who died in World War II.

In later years, Anzac Day ceremonies were broadened to include remembrance of those who lost their lives in all military and peacekeeping operations in which Australia has been involved.

While the Gallipoli Campaign was still being fought, the landing on Gallipoli became a defining moment in Australia’s history.

In 1916, Acting Prime Minister, George Pearce, officially named April 25 as Anzac Day and the first anniversary of the landing was observed in Australia, New Zealand and England.

On November 11, 1918 The Great War had ended – and a rich history, remembrance and tradition began.

By war’s end 61,512 Australians were killed or had died from wounds or disease, and another 152,000 were wounded or injured.

On June 28 the following year the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

The Great War was officially over.

Lest We Forget.

Anzac Day Moree 2025

Dawn Service

Where: Moree Services Club Memorial Window

Time: 6am

Private Max Wales Memorial Service

Where: Wales Memorial Park on the western side of Moree Services Club

Time: 9am

Anzac Day March and Memorial Service

Where: Balo Street

Time: from 9.30am

Service: Moree War Memorial Hall

Please note: Moree RSL Regional Military Museum will be open to the public from about 1pm until 5pm