ANZAC Day - Brothers in Arms

ANZAC day is always an occasion for reflection for New Zealand, but today even more so as we mark the centenary of the fateful Gallipoli landings and pay tribute to our soldiers who have served in conflicts since.

The Great War had a huge impact on a country that at the time had a population of just one million; over 100,000 troops served (42 per cent of men of eligible age) with 58 per cent of those being either killed or wounded, one of the highest per capita casualty rates of the conflict.

As such, no corner of New Zealand was untouched by the war, from the biggest cities to the tiniest of rural communities such of ours. The memorial on Peel Forest Rd is dedicated to the seventeen local men who fell, a truly horrendous number for such a small locality. Some were brothers, all were neighbours, and they now a remembered as brothers in arms.

And we will remember. 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.


For the Fallen,  R L Binyon (1914)