More than 100 people gathered in the War Memorial Grove at Civic Park in Newcastle for this year’s Anzac Eve Sunset Service.
As dusk fell, candles were placed among the plaques commemorating those who died in war.
The Ode was read, a prayer was offered for the fallen and the bugler sounded The Last Post.
A special feature this year was honouring the sculptor of the central figure in the grove, Mr Don McHattie. It is an Australian wedgetail eagle with folded wings. It commemorates the dead of the RAAF for whom the grove was originally founded. It has since been expanded to include a memorial to war dead as recently as the Vietnam War.
Mr McHattie, not only conceived the idea of the sculpture, but also carved it from a single block of local sandstone in the backyard of his home at Bar Beach in Newcastle, where he still lives. It took him a year to complete in his spare time.
Don is a veteran of the Second World War and also won the nations’ highest award for bravery in peacetime when he was awarded the George Cross for his rescue efforts when an amphibious Army vehicle sank in the Stockton Bight in 1956.
