Anzac Day commemorative activities in Karuah and Tea Gardens

SATURDAY is Anzac Day and there have been some changes to the calendar in NSW that may cause confusion.

Across the state, the historically important date of 25 April remains THE day for any and all Anzac Day commemorations and events, since that was the date of the first dawn landing by the ANZACs at Gallipoli in 1915.

Since 25 April lands on a Saturday in 2026, the NSW Government has voted to make the following Monday, 27 April, a statewide public holiday.

This is in line with Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, with the Public Holidays Act 2010 providing for “the following Monday to be the public holiday” if the actual date falls on a weekend.

Therefore, across the state, Anzac Day Dawn Services will be held as usual, at 6am on Saturday 25 April.

This includes the service at Anzac Park in Tea Gardens, and at Memorial Park on Memorial Drive in Karuah.

In Tea Gardens, the Dawn Service along the river will be followed by the traditional free “gunfire” breakfast, cooked by volunteer members of the Pindimar-Tea Gardens RFS at the Tea Gardens Country Club.

Later in the morning, Myall Coast residents may choose to watch, or join, the Anzac Day march along Marine Drive in Tea Gardens.

Gathering at 10:30am for an 11am start, it heads south to Anzac Park for the 11:30am service featuring an RAAF Williamtown catafalque guard, followed by lunch at the Country Club.

In Karuah, the daytime march returns this year.

The theme for Karuah RSL activities will be “Families and Community”, following a new format that has come at the behest of many community members.

Gathering outside Karuah Public School at 9am, marchers will continue down Bundabah Street to the family service outside the RSL at 9:30am.

RSL sub-Branch member Mr Lukas Woolley will be the keynote speaker and 335 Squadron Australian Air Force Cadets will be in support as the Catafalque Guard.

Both marches are expecting an RAAF flyover either en route or once gathered at their respective ceremonies.

RSL members and volunteers have already been hard at work selling this year’s array of pins and badges, each one in memory of a conflict, such as Korea, Malaysia/Borneo, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as WWI and WWII.

They also commemorate prisoners of war (POWs).

“We expected to be really busy given the school holidays, but… the whole town is feeling it is not as busy as usual,” Jenny Ross Henry, Vice President of Tea Gardens RSL-sub Branch, told NOTA ahead of the services.

2026 marks 75 years since the notorious reintroduction of National Service, which ran from 1951 until 1972.

The second part of that period was marked by the then-government introducing powers that could, and did, send many young Australian National Servicemen overseas, including to fight in the jungles of south-east Asia.

More information on National Service history can be found by searching “National Service Scheme 1951-1972″ on the Australian War Memorial’s website.

By Thomas O’KEEFE