By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
AT 11 O’CLOCK on 11 November, the Berwick community stood silent.
It was there, at the Cenotaph on Main Street on Tuesday morning, that the Berwick RSL held their Remembrance Day service to honour those Australians who had fought for their country.
While the wind blew and the sky turned overcast, the rain stayed away as many veterans and members of the public paid their respects.
Berwick RSL member Wayne A’Vard was MC for the event, while Colin Tidball was guest speaker at the service.
Mr Tidball was a former sailor with the Royal Australian Navy and served on HMAS Voyager in the 1960s.
“Colin was a former sailor with the RAN and was serving on the destroyer HMAS Voyager on that fateful night of February 1964, when the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with the Voyager with the loss of 82 lives and 126 seriously injured,” Mr A’Vard said after the service.
“In his speech Colin articulated the significance of Remembrance Day and why we observe one minute’s silence, to remember those we lost in the defence of freedom.”
Mr A’Vard also noted that in 2009 the Governor-General proclaimed that as Australians, we should promise to renew our pledge to remember those who died in defence of our freedom.
“By renewing our pledge that they who died ‘are not missing, you are here’,” he said.
“Colin also said that we are a nation not only of birth but also by choice and that patriotism in Australia is quiet but deep.”
