Not forgotten: Mudgee Remembrance Day public commemoration goes ahead

In his commemoration address, Mudgee RSL Sub-Branch president Geoff Robinson said "today takes place in the shadow of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic" and drew a historic parallel.

"At the 1920 service, while those attending commemorated the sacrifice of thousands of Anzacs, sailors, and airmen in the Great War, they would also have been remembering those who perished in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1919, many of whom were returned service men and women," he said.

"100 years later, the circumstances for our service today are eerily similar."

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Mr Robinson went on to say that while the pandemic prevented an Anzac Day service - and current rules still required some restrictions - they were still able to acknowledge the end of a conflict that took so much from so many. An numerous wars and operations since.

"Unlike Anzac Day, we do get to conduct a Remembrance Day service, so at the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month, we pause to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice on the battlefields of the Middle East, Gallipoli, in the trenches of the Western Front, and in sky above and in the depths of the oceans from the Pacific to the Atlantic," he said.

"62,000 Australians died during WWI and 155,000 were wounded, a further 8,000 would later die of war related wounds. It is therefore not surprising that Australia followed the lead of South Africa and Great Britain in remembering this sacrifice on what would be called Armistice Day.

"It was later changed to Remembrance Day, to honour the dead of WWII, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and peacekeeping operations throughout the world. It is to all those, we pay tribute to, and remember today."

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