Anzac Day 2020: COVID-19 can't quell the Anzac spirit

The World War Two veteran will wake in the darkness, dress in a suit and carefully attach his medals as he prepares for a dawn ceremony of remembrance.

It is what the 94-year-old has done for decades on April 25.

"It means a lot," Mr Carter said. "It brings back a lot of memories, good and bad.

"You think of your mates. You think of those who didn't come back, and you meet up with those who did."

Only this year, there will be no such meetings and reunions at an official service. Mr Carter won't be standing shoulder to shoulder with others before the local memorial, because Anzac Day public ceremonies around the nation have been cancelled as part of the COVID-19 restrictions.

"I was very disappointed that I wouldn't be able to meet and talk about old times," Jack Carter said.

But what remains unchanged, what no virus can stop, what age has not wearied, is the importance of Anzac Day to Jack Carter. So just before dawn, he will walk outside his home in Elermore Vale for a private ceremony on his driveway.

Jack Carter will not be alone.

In driveways and on balconies along this street, and in streets around the nation, Australians will gather, physically separated but, in spirit, together.

People are being encouraged to "light up the dawn", by standing in or outside their home at 6am, lighting a candle and observing a minute's silence, to honour the nation's servicemen and servicewomen, past and present.

For his driveway ceremony, Jack Carter has lined his fence with Australian flags, and he has painted three signs to display.

One sign acknowledges his local RSL sub-branch at Cardiff.

Another sign pays tribute to the Rathmines RAAF base.

Jack Carter, who enlisted in the air force in 1943, was stationed for a while during the war at the Lake Macquarie base, which was a home to the Catalina flying boats. He also served in Australia's Top End.

Mr Carter said the third sign he painted carried the words, "Anzac Day. Lest We Forget. We Will Remember Them".

Jack Carter will bring words as well as images to his driveway ceremony.

"I will say out loud the Ode," he said.

"Whoever hears it, that's good; if no one does, my mates will hear it."

Others will hear Jack Carter reciting the Ode. Standing by him, as she has done for their 74 years of marriage, will be Joyce Carter. Other family members will also attend, including granddaughters Samantha Howard and Stevie Carter.

It will be the first time Mrs Howard has attended an Anzac Day ceremony with her grandfather.

"It's really important to my Pop," she explained. "It's always good to hear his stories and about his experiences."

About 11 kilometres away from the Carter home, outside the Downie household at Eleebana, another private commemorative ceremony will be taking place.

Don Downie was an artillery gunner during World War Two, serving in New Guinea and Bougainville.

The 95-year-old usually marches each Anzac Day in the morning service held at Valentine, with his family watching on.

"I treasure what it's all about," Mr Downie said. "It means something."

But this year, Mr Downie and his wife of almost 70 years, Gweneth, intend to rise before the sun and stand on the driveway, holding a candle in their hands and a tradition in their hearts.

"The thoughts will be there," Mr Downie said. "Quite a few candles will be lit in driveways, I think."

A few days after his 103rd birthday, World War Two veteran Alf Carpenter expected to be at a wreath-laying ceremony then participating in the Anzac Day march in Sydney.

But Mr Carpenter, who served in the 2/4th Australian Infantry Battalion and saw action around the Mediterranean and New Guinea, will now be commemorating alone at his Newcastle home.

He has printed out an Anzac Day placard, which he is placing on his door.

"At least people will know that I'm acknowledging the day, for what it's worth," he said.

Inside his home, Mr Carpenter will put on his medals - "I've got them all out, ready" - and he will remember his mates. Not even coronavirus or the official restrictions imposed can corral those memories.

"I can't do very much about it," Mr Carpenter said of the cancellation of the Anzac Day official events.

"I can only look over my records and think of the people, and I've got a list of the people we lost during the war and those who have passed on since.

"I go through their names and think, 'Oh, I remember him'. That's how I'll put in Anzac Day. Remembering past comrades."

City of Newcastle RSL Sub-branch president Ken Fayle has been involved in organising local Anzac Day services for more than two decades. Mr Fayle recalled his reaction when he heard this year's services were cancelled as part of the coronavirus-related restrictions.

"I was gutted," he said. "It's the only word I can use to describe it. I walked around for four or five days, feeling terrible."

Attending the ANZAC Day dawn service, the third-generation ex-serviceman said, was "part of my DNA". Ken Fayle believes the event occupies an important place in many lives. He has been watching the Anzac Day crowds grow in Newcastle.

Since 2015, Ken Fayle said, the average number of people attending Newcastle's Dawn Service had been 53,000. He has recognised familiar faces, as people of all ages return each year to be part of the services.

"To think they can't do it, they must be feeling as gutted as I am, because they get out of bed early and attend for all the right reasons," My Fayle said.

Ken Fayle said he thought the driveway commemoration was a good idea, giving Australians an opportunity to still participate in Anzac Day.

"If you can't get out the door at this time, do something, even if it's sticking a piece of rosemary in your lapel button," he said. "You've got to do something in remembrance."

As for his own form of commemoration, Mr Fayle said, "I will make every attempt to do something that can be viewed as a public acknowledgement of those who served in the Australian Defence Force for the past 100 years or more".

Don Downie said he believed that once the restrictions were eased, Australians would return in big numbers to future Anzac Day services.

"It's not just something they think of today, and then it's forgotten," he said.

But for now, over at Elermore Vale, Jack Carter has been preparing for an Anzac Day like none before it. But at least a driveway ceremony allows him to honour those three words he has painted on his sign: Lest We Forget.

"It means Anzac Day is not lost altogether," Mr Carter said. "There's nothing to do to replace Anzac Day ceremonies, but this helps to get us out there.

"It shows we haven't disregarded the whole business."

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