Anzac Day: How the nation rose to remember the Diggers

There wasn’t one eternal flame this Anzac Day.

Instead, there were thousands of flames, flickering from candles in the dawn light as West Australians gathered at the end of their driveways to pay homage to the fallen Anzacs, maintaining a 105-year-old ritual of remembrance.

There was no Kings Park dawn service. No CBD parade. No two-up. No crowds. This was an Anzac Day unlike any other, equally powerful and not soon to be forgotten.

The COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed public gatherings, but hundreds of thousands tipped themselves out of bed before 6am to honour the pledge never to forget those whose lives were consumed in much darker times than these.

Whether it was in pyjamas and dressing gowns or dressed smartly with gleaming medals, people stood yards from their neighbours in solemn contemplation as the Last Post was broadcast from radios and phones.

In Mount Hawthorn, navy veterans Elaine and Lloyd Blake had handed out flyers to get their street involved.

Afterwards, Ms Blake said the occasion felt “more personal” than ever.

Being cooped up at home wasn’t a bother in the scheme of things.

“Lloyd was saying yesterday that this isolation isn’t an irritation at all, because when you live in a submarine for weeks and weeks, isolation is very much what he’s accustomed to,” she said.

The Blakes, above, never miss an Anzac Day and said they weren’t going to let that start just because of a pandemic. Mrs Blake said while yesterday didn't feel the same as a typical April 25, we were “alone together”.

WA Premier and navy veteran Mark McGowan said it was “a morning I will never forget”.

This year’s Anzac Day was a unique, moving and quite beautiful commemoration.

“To glance either side of our driveway and see neighbours standing there in quiet contemplation, on their own or with family members, was incredibly moving and gave me a great sense of pride.”

Tom Newby, 100, who served in the 4th Australian Infantry Battalion during World War II, played a key role in a drive-by parade of veterans at the Air Force Memorial Estate in Bull Creek.

Mr Newby saluted each car as it passed the care facility, with vintage military vehicles among those that lapped the estate three times.

“It means a damn lot, it means what I did in the war was worth it,” he said afterwards.

Mr Newby, whose service included 21/2 years in Papua New Guinea, had a close call when the enemy lobbed grenades into his camp.

Midland mother of five and former army chef Carli Felstead comes from a Defence force family — her nanna, father and two brothers all served, and she married a soldier too.

She and her children, all under eight, embraced the chance to shine a light at the end of the driveway.

Mrs Felstead, who spent 11 years in the army with stints in East Timor and Afghanistan, said she wanted her children to respect the great sacrifices made by Diggers, and hoped at least some of them grew up wanting to serve in the armed forces.

“I think I may even push them that way,” she joked.

“It’s such an honourable thing to do, to serve. I loved every moment of it.”

One of the people her children met yesterday was Vietnam veteran Alexander “Sandy/Jock” Coutts, who was devastated his yearly highlight of the Anzac Day parade wouldn’t be going ahead. Instead his daughter Fiona drove him past the homes of all the veterans that live in their area in a “drive-by” parade.