Sign of respect: Cade Kindness and Cameron Lovering, vice president and president of Rochester RSL sub-branch, lay a wreath on behalf of the host of Friday’s ceremony.
Rochester Salvation Army Lieutenant Cameron Lovering used Friday’s Remembrance Day ceremony to encourage people to look forward, while also recognising those who had gone before them.
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Lieutenant Lovering, also president of the Rochester RSL sub-branch, stopped short of comparing war to the flood event which had passed, but said there were slight comparisons between the two.
"As we gather here today, we cannot escape the fact that we ourselves have been through a battle of sorts, not one of flesh, metal and blood, but one of nature, mud and water,’’ he said.
"Our armistice came at the announcement the flood had peaked and begun to recede.
"What would be soon revealed for us was the devastating toll the flood would leave in its wake.
“Much like a flood, war leaves behind untold damage, some visible in an instant, other wounds slowly fester as time progresses.
“Each of us left with a pile of mess to clean up. Everyone affected in some way.
“We have asked you to take a moment out of your own struggles, to pause and take stock of what has occurred in our nation’s past.”
Members of almost a dozen community organisations laid wreaths at the ceremony before Senior Constable John Roberts, of Rochester police, read In Flanders Fields.
Immediate sub-branch past president Greg Walkley, sub-branch vice president Cade Kindness, Anglican church’s John Glover and Staff Sergeant Ivan Solomano were other speakers.
Staff Sergeant Solomano, from the Army Reserve unit at Shepparton (part of the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment), was guest speaker at the ceremony.
“I have a personal connection now with Rochester as my daughter and her husband, with their daughter, moved to Rochester from Echuca several months ago. So I have had more visits to Rochester in the last two months that I had in the 10 years prior to that,” he explained.
Staff Sergeant Solomano, while working in England in 2007, was part of an Australian Defence Force parade at Villers Bretonneux, France, on Anzac Day 2007. This date coincided with the anniversary of the final liberation of Villers Bretonneux by Australian forces on 25 April 1918.
Two of his father’s uncles, Frank and Albert, enlisted in the AIF in World War I and fought in Europe. Frank was killed in Ypres, Belgium, in September 1917 and Albert returned to Australia following the Armistice.
In 2007 he visited the Tyne Cot cemetery and saw his great-uncle’s grave.
Minute’s silence: Returned serviceman Peter Langford (left) and Bendigo’s Roger King with army reservists Staff Sergeant Ivan Solomano and Corporal Nick Otten at the ceremony. Mr King’s mother was born in Rochester’s Mackie St and he attended school at Ballendella Primary School.
Rochester Rotary: Bryan Griffiths laid a wreath on behalf of the service club.
Disaster Relief Australia: Kate Tierney was among several emergency services and disaster relief personnel, based in Rochester, to attend the 11th of the 11th, at 11am, event.
CWA and St Joseph’s: A wreath of poppies was laid by Rebekah Hocking on behalf of Rochester CWA. She also represented St Joseph’s Primary School at the cenotaph, on the lawns of the Rochester RSL sub-branch.
Rochester Probus: Thelma Walles took her turn, amid several groups, to commemorate the 104th anniversary with a wreath laying.
Rochester CFA: Third Lieutenant of the Rochester brigade Kyle Williams plays his part on Friday.
Campaspe shire: Councillor Daniel Mackrell lays a wreath at the Rochester remembrance day ceremony.
