Grafton News
Remembrance Day back to its best
Remembrance Day back to its best
By Tim Howard
Grafton’s Memorial Park was back to its beautiful if slightly remodelled best to commemorate Remembrance Day on Saturday.
The annual service on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month honours the hour hostilities ceased on the Western Front in 1918, ending the four years of carnage that was World War 1.
For more than two years, the park had been a construction site for the Grafton Waterfront Precinct, which opened in July.
The Grafton Show party lay their wreath on the Grafton Cenotaph during the Remembrance Day service in Memorial Park on Saturday.
While the park and cenotaph remained as the venue for the annual Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services, construction restricted the space for people to gather.
On Saturday the park was back to its best, with recent rain greening the grass and the sun shining.
Marquees had been erected to shelter people from the sun and a good crowd attended for the Remembrance Day service and the service soon after to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the construction and opening of the cenotaph.
Student leaders from Clarence Valley Anglican School carry a wreath to the Grafton Cenotaph during Saturday’s Remembrance Day Service.
Grafton RSL Sub-Branch secretary Denis Benfield, said it was good to have the park back at its best.
“The council did a great job for us during the construction stage,” he said.
“They were always able to get it ready for us for Anzac Days, Remembrance or Vietnam Veterans services, even when it didn’t look like it could be possible.
The contingent of veterans marches proudly from the parade ground at the conclusion of the 2023 Grafton Remembrance Day Service in Memorial Park on Saturday.
Mr Benfield said thank Grafton Midday Rotary for their generosity in providing marquees for the people who attended.
“With the sun coming out today it was good to have somewhere for people to be under cover because we had the two services today, one after the other,” he said.
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