A SURGE in popularity, growing awareness, and visitors to Euroa saw last Friday's ANZAC Day ceremonies and celebrations return to pre-pandemic attendance numbers for the day's main events.
The dawn service was held at 5:45am, with numbers swelling to over 300 for the march and second service.
Euroa RSL President and Vietnam veteran Phil Munt said the crowd along the march route was the biggest he had seen for some time.
"Friday was certainly getting back to what it used to be numbers-wise," Mr Munt said.
"It made the day that bit more enjoyable; the street had three times as many people lining it than in the last two years."
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The service's catafalque (shrine guard-of-honour) came from the Army's School of Transport at Puckapunyal, with Victoria Police, SES, CFA, and school and community groups also represented in wreath laying ceremonies and speeches.
Guest speakers for the day were Sergeant Chris Busic from the Australian Army and Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland.
Ms Cleeland used the occasion to honour the region's three Victoria Cross recipients, Leslie Maygar, Frederick Tubb, and Alex Burton.
"ANZAC Day is a time to reflect not only on the great battles fought far from our shores," Ms Cleeland said.
"But also on the incredible individuals who came from places just like this - who were born in our streets, raised in our schools, and who carried our community’s values into some of the most challenging places on earth."
"Their stories remind us that the ANZAC spirit wasn’t forged just on the battlefield - it was nurtured here, in country towns, in families like yours and mine."
Ms Cleeland said the community needed to continue to carry with it the stories of the fallen and those who returned and have served.
"Their lives remind us that heroism doesn’t require fame or fortune; it requires principle; and heart."
Lieutenant Maygar won his Victoria Cross rescuing a comrade under heavy fire during the Boer (South Africa) War in 1901.
After the war, he worked as a grazier at Ruffy while continuing to serve in the 8th Light Horse Victorian Mounted Rifles and was promoted to captain in 1905 and then to Major in 1915 while at Gallipolli, where he commanded a party of 40 men crucial to the evacuation of ANZAC Cove.
He later saw action at the Sinai, Palestine, and Gaza conflicts until he was mortally wounded by a German plane at the Battle of Beersheba.
Major Frederick Tubb (then Lieutenant ) and Corporal Alexander Burton won their Victoria Crosses at the Battle for Lone Pine at Gallipoli in August 1915, repelling a Turkish counter-attack in which Burton was killed.
Tubb died in Belgium two years later, and his story was taken up on Friday in Longwood by his grandson Allan Tubb who had on display the medals of Fred, his brother Frank, and Allan's father Fred Jr.
"Silly bugger," Mr Tubb said.
"He came back to Australia after being sick and then went back to England again.
"He always said he wanted to get back to see the boys, which he did.
"But there was a lady there as well."
Over 100 people attended the Longwood ceremony after a fifty-strong contingent of veterans, community groups, and relatives marched down from the local primary school led by a donkey called 'Donkey', in honour of Gallipoli legend John Simpson Kirkpatrick.
Nagambie locals were treated to an RAF flyover at 10:33am to begin the service in High Street after a packed Mechanics Institute Hall commemoration made its way down behind the official march, swelling the crowd to over 500.
Military descendants of the Australian Light Horse made up the catafalque at Avenel where 150 locals paid their respects to the fallen.
Guarding the shrine with traditional lances, the Light Horse regiment is now incorporated into the Royal Australian Armed Corps.
After the service and flag-raising at Violet Town, veterans and RSL members lunched at the Ellen Frances Hotel while a lively game of two-up was held outside.
RSL life member Frauline Knippel said she had decided to wear her badges this year to 'stir the pot'.
Mrs Knippel took time to reflect on both her late husband, who served in the Army, and late partner, who was in National Service.
She is also a life member of the 'Nashos'.
On referring to her late husband's field experiences, Mrs Knippel was poignant.
"It was a long time between my husband's age and my age," she said.
"So I am not quite sure about his history - he didn't say."
