To this ancient land the passing of 85 years must seem but an instant in time. A mere moment in its journey towards forever. But to us it is the distance of human life. Thus we come to this place at this hour on this day to observe not only a dawn but a dusk. For dusk has all but fallen on that great hearted generation of Australians who fought here. The shadows gather on a time and a world in which our nation’s spirit was born. Soon the story of ANZAC which forever joins the people of Australia and New Zealand will pass gently from memory into history. Soon the fire struck here will be ours to tend. Soon its record once written on pages wet with tears will be ours alone to guard, ours to cherish, ours to live.
It is a remarkable legacy. Only now from the sheltered safety of our time can we comprehend what was dared and done here. Only now from the vantage point secured for us by others lives can we see the scale and the scope of their achievement. For those young Australians as wild and free as the land they loved, left us a creed to which we can all aspire in the gentle years of peace as surely as in the hard and hungry years of war.
The inheritance we claim today is not a fallen sword, nor have we come to extol a warrior’s code. The respect of gallant foes and the high regard of comrades is the praise that soldiers seek. It is not for us to give. Let them rest, far from thoughts of battle. Instead we come to claim from them, a heritage of personal courage and initiative. Of daring and determination in the face of overwhelming odds. A heritage that requires of each of us a conscious decision to do what is right regardless of the resistance we meet or the fears we hold.
We come to seek the inspiration of stories of compassion and comfort given to others in their time of need. Knowing that there are opportunities in our own lives to ease the burden of those suffering adversity and hardship. We come to draw upon their stirring example of unity and common purpose. To believe that whatever our differing circumstances, we are all companions with each of our countrymen and women, and together we travel a single path. We come to join with those that rest here in a shared love of our nation, bathed in sunlight and so blessed with bounty. We come to stand on soil rich with the lives of our kin and vow that what they began, we will finish.
For they fought to build a nation which would stand proud and respected amongst the free people of the world. A nation where ordinary men and women would live long lives of happiness and fulfilment. A country where children would grow nourished by the land’s harvest, and by the love of their parents. A country where prosperity and opportunity are derived not by birth, but by endeavour. A people made independent united and free for all time. And in the attainment of these ideals, in the keeping of a decent and responsible Australia, in every year of peace between the nations of the world, we will build for all those who have served and suffered in war, a monument upon which evening will never fall.