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Around 30,000 West Australians have come together to commemorate those who fought for the country, waking early to attend the Anzac Day dawn service at Kings Park.
The battle of Gallipoli in 1915 was the largest single loss of Australian life in armed conflict, with the 2026 service marking 111 years since the battle begun.
RSL WA chief executive Stephen Barton, who was emceeing the event, said that the service was a time to “reflect on the pities of war and the stories of sacrifice and loss.”
John McPherson was at the front of the crowd on Saturday morning to pay his respects.
The 78-year-old was conscripted in the Vietnam War, joining more than 15,000 other young Australian men, and was later sent to Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey and Malaya during his 30-year career in the service.
“I’ve been around a bit,” he said.
“I was a 20-year-old who had his marble pulled out of the lottery, and because my birthdate came out, I was in.
“I got it deferred for a couple of years while I finished my journalistic cadetship at The Age, they were four-year cadetships back then, and then ended up being a public affairs officer in the military.”
McPherson said at the time, he had been told he would have to serve for two years, and that promises had been made that afterwards, “you’ll come back to where you were, and everything will be hunky-dory”.
“But when you go in the army, someone else has got to take your place, and you can’t just come back after two years and expect them to piss off while you get back to your old job,” he said.
“It disrupted a lot of lives and the friendship circles that you had changed totally. A lot of people lost girlfriends and marriages broke up and different things.”
McPherson also recalls a less than warm welcome on his return home from Vietnam.
“There was anti-Vietnam demonstrations … they treated us abysmally when we came back,” he said.
“But me being in a small unit, I was lucky that I came back as an individual, not as a group because they targeted the groups coming back.
“It’s like the imbeciles who are throwing red paint on commemorative statues around the place now, they’ve got no idea what people have gone through on their behalf.”
Later in his career, whilst he was serving in the Middle East, McPherson leaned on his journalism roots, writing stories about those serving alongside him, and taking photos of them in their work environment to send back home.
“Say there was a kid from Ballarat who was working on a truck. We’d send that story and his photo back to the Ballarat Courier. They’d run it on page three,” he said.
McPherson said the camaraderie shown by the WA community at the dawn service had been “terrific” to witness.
“It’s one of the couple of days of the year were all the people who have shared the experiences that I’ve had, have a chance to get together,” he said.
“It’s really nice, the thousands of people who turn up for the dawn service does credit to the younger generation who are showing respect to not just Vietnam vets, but WWII vets and everyone who’s gone before.”
WA Premier Roger Cook said the dawn service was an opportunity for everyone in the community to show their respect and to acknowledge those who have served the country “not only in the Great War, but in all subsequent wars.”
“This is an important opportunity for everyone to come together in an act of peace and an act of respect and an act of tolerance, and to continue to give thanks for former and current serving men and women in our defence forces,” he said.
RSL WA state president Duncan Anderson said Anzac Day held meaning for many in the community.
“It’s always very humbling to commemorate those who have served and those who are going to serve, and to be joined by so many fellow Australians,” he said.
“Anzac Day means different things to different people. A veteran here yesterday, 103 years old, he’s been to a lot of services, and he was still very emotional so I think it’s a really special day.”
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Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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