Judy Jans fulfilled her pledge to return a symbolic red poppy which survived the flames on Black Friday to the Cenotaph where she found it on the Sunday morning following Black Saturday.By Kath Gannaway
MARYSVILLE resident Brigadier Nick Jans defined the Australian spirit as a combination of give-it-a-go, guts, compassion and mateship.
As members of the Marysville community, joined by friends and supporters, marched through their fire-ravaged main street on Anzac Day, they embodied that spirit.
More than 400 people attended the Anzac Day march and an estimated 120 people, including veterans, CFA, SES, police and residents, some returning to the town for the first time since Black Saturday, marched defiantly, some unable to hide their fragility, but there, nonetheless.
Brigadier Jans, a serving member of the Australian Defence Force and Vietnam veteran spoke to the troops as they mustered before the march.
“Many of you who have come to the village for the first time since Black Saturday would have been shocked,” he said.
“It is just like a war zone as these veterans before you would testify.”
He moved on from that sombre note encouraging them to uphold the Australian tradition of being a little irreverent, of bending the rules a little.
“It’s not necessary to keep in step, in fact, it’s almost compulsory to shuffle along. If you want to, wave to the people in the crowd. That’s fine too,” he said.
He spoke of the place Anzac Day holds in the Australian psyche.
“For many of us, Anzac Day is the de facto ‘Australia Day’, he said.
“It consistently affirms our sense of who we are as Australians.”
He said on 25 April 1915, Australian soldiers confirmed the Australian spirit defined by a combination of give-it-a-go, guts, compassion and mateship.
“On Black Saturday and in the weeks that followed, we saw here in this district many contemporary examples of the Anzac spirit, and many of the qualities that we like to think of as being ‘Australian’,” he said.
“Countless locals gave their all to the community on Black Saturday. Whether as CFA or SES volunteers or individual citizens, they performed like soldiers on a faraway battlefield with heroic deeds that are too numerous, indeed, are almost too routine, to have been noticed widely.”
He said those deeds and that spirit continued to be displayed by the many agencies that followed including police, Red Cross, the Army and others.
Veteran Frank East of Thornton-Marysville RSL Sub-Branch spoke also.
“I have often thought that perhaps the term ‘Anzac’ has been misunderstood. It is not a place, nor is it a campaign or a war. It is not a ceremony or a parade either,” he said.
“The term Anzac has transcended the physical meaning to become a spirit, an inspiration which embodies the qualities of courage, discipline, sacrifice, self-reliance and in Australian terms, that of mateship and a fair go.”
Local politicians, community groups and individuals marked the occasion with wreaths and the words “Lest We Forget”, written and spoken on the day took on special meaning.
The placing of a single poppy on the Marysville Cenotaph by Marysville resident Judy Jans also held special significance.
Mrs Jans discovered the poppy, still clinging to the cenotaph, untouched by the flames, on the day after the fires.
“I just looked at it and thought ‘that goes back on Anzac Day’ and I knew then and there we would have Anzac Day in Marysville,” she said.
