A dedicated committee of Hume councillors and community leaders has spent months planning the most appropriate ways to commemorate the Anzac centenary.
The six-member committee has organised exhibitions, billboards, floral tributes and photo competitions to encourage community involvement.
Anzac Day this year will kick-off four years of commemorations recognising Australia’s involvement in the First World War and more than a century of service by Australian servicemen and women.
Hume council allocated $70,000 last year to fund this year’s activities and set up the inaugural $10,000 Cameron Baird scholarship, in honour of the VC winner who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013.
Councillor and committee member Casey Nunn said a huge amount of work had gone into preparations for the day.
She said the scholarship was particularly close to her heart due to her father and uncle’s connections with Cameron through the Greenvale Football Club.
When Cr Nunn had to telephone Cameron’s father, Doug, to ask permission to use his son’s name for the scholarship, Mr Baird senior shared “something special” with the former mayor.
“He talked about Cameron being the 100th Victoria Cross recipient and also the most recent. Doug is praying that he will remain the last because that would mean Australia won’t be engaged in active conflict [again],” she said.
“He [Cameron] was an outstanding young person and we’ll use his memory to inspire other young people. What a great way for his legacy to continue.”
The council has also commissioned three memorial billboards to be erected in Sunbury, Broadmeadows and Craigieburn.
Mature trees propagated from the Gallipoli Pine will be planted by Sunbury RSL, the Turkish community, Craigieburn Anzac Day committee, and at the Maygar Barracks.
Floral tributes will be installed at the Sunbury memorial, Broadmeadows’ Vietnam Memorial and the Craigieburn Memorial.
Sunbury RSL will hold a dawn service from 6am with a march from the train station on Brook Street to Barkly Street from 10.30am.
Craigieburn SES will hold a march at 9.50am and Epping RSL will host a service at 10am. For more details go to www.hume.vic.gov.au.
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