Residents brave the rain

Several hundred residents and visitors were at Woy Woy for a very wet Anzac Day on Monday, April 26.

Driving rain fell as marchers and participants took their places at the Woy Woy Cenotaph for the 10.30am commemoration service.

Woy Woy Ettalong Hardys Bay RSL Sub-Branch secretary Mr Jack Carney led the service, which included speeches by Brisbane Water Secondary College students Maani Trui and Ashley Knight on what Anzac Day meant to them.

Prayers were led by Eighth Brigade chaplain, the Reverend Mark Watt, who is the minister for the Uniting Church's Ettalong and Umina congregations.

The rain lifted by the time it came to lay wreaths.

When the service was over a number of participants retreated to the cover of the Woy Woy Hotel.

About 20 people pushed on to the Vietnam Vets Memorial at Ettalong for another wreath-laying ceremony, led by the Vets' Gosford City Sub-Branch president Mr Richard Gray.

At both Woy Woy and Ettalong, there was a strong presence from local veterans.

TPI Association NSW president Mr Patrick Bright was one of several laying wreathes on behalf of totally and permanently incapacitated ex-servicemen and women.

For those who had been going since dawn, the Ettalong Beach War Memorial Club offered its traditional Anzac Day Smoko as an opportunity to dry out and catch up with old comrades.

Media Release, 28 Apr 2011 Matt Pulford, Office of Deborah O'Neill MP