The ANZAC March down Bowra St to the cenotaph saw veterans, servicemen and women, family members and school children as one in their spirit of remembrance.

Special guest speakers at the service were the shire’s mayor, Rhonda Hoban, sharing her thoughts and fears of being a Defence Force mother and Colonel Luke Foster.

Mrs Hoban spoke of how her perspective on ANZAC Day had changed since her youngest son had joined the Navy.

Watch the Nambucca Heads march:

“On days such as these previously, I tried to imagine what it was like for those who served,” Mrs Hoban said.

“But they were only imaginings and I was not directly impacted … all that changed when my youngest, my baby, told me he a applied to become a naval officer.

“I hoped the novelty would wear off … but the gym and the training runs and the recruitment tests showed me he was serious.

The crowd gives generously for the Legacy collection: 

“While I felt proud to see my son march out, a fine young man, disciplined with a gun in his hand, I also felt ashamed because I wanted it to be someone else’s son, not mine.”

There were tears in the crowd as she spoke of glimpsing the pain of the mothers of the past, whose sons were cut down in the trenches, or those of the Vietnam veterans, who returned to such anger and bitterness.

Listen to the words of Defence Force mother, Rhonda Hoban:

“Am I selfish … or do I have good reason to hope that before he becomes a serving officer, mankind can learn to live alongside in peace.”

Colonel Foster said that lessons of the past had not been learnt and that wars continue.

“Today is a day of commemoration because the price society pays is a heavy one – it is the families who mourn the loss of their loved ones, even if they have returned – the mental and physical scars, the pain and the anguish are still there,” Col Foster said.

He said that ANZAC Day was a day to reflect on those families and their sacrifice, as well as all those men and women of the Australian Defence Forces, regardless of when and where they served.

His final words were a quote from a World War One digger, a Corporal Borger: “We won’t all get back, but we all deserve too.”