After two more years of fighting and death on an unprecedented scale, the war finally came to an end with the cost of 60,000 Australian soldiers killed and another 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

In contrast to the freezing and thigh-deep mud conditions at the Somme as that nearly five-month Allied offensive was coming to an end in November, 1916, about 300 people gathered in warm and sunny weather around the Wagga Cenotaph on Friday morning to mark the 98th anniversary of the armistice that finally brought WWI to an end.

In her keynote address to the commemorative service, the musical director of the RSL Rural Commemorative Youth Choir, OJ Rushton, echoed the words of Australian War Memorial Director Dr Brendan Nelson in trying to keep the sacrifices of 100 years ago relevant in today’s society.

“This is not just about our past, it is about our future,” Dr Nelson said in an Anzac Day speech in Canberra in 2013.

“As Australians, whether by birth or by choice, this has everything about who we are and who we want to become.

“We owe it those brave men and women, to their descendants and ourselves to not ever allow the past to become a distant stranger and to never forget that those sacrifices for peace and freedom were made in our name.”

Ms Rushton said she believed that without understanding the values for which our descendants fought, our young people were in danger of embracing other values.

“The Centenary of Anzac is an unprecedented opportunity to teach our children the ideals enshrined in these men and women more than a century ago,” Ms Rushton said.

“We stand here today in reverent silence to remember the past, without apology or regret, recognising both what has been lost to us and what has been gained, and by renewing the promise to remember, not only our dead but also our veterans with us here today and those of you who are still serving, having made a pledge to serve and protect us.”

(READ THE SPEECH IN FULL BELOW)

After wreaths were laid on the Cenotaph, the bells of nearby St John’s Anglican Church began to peel as the clock ticked over to 11am, the hour guns fell silent on the Western Front on November 11, 1918.

The bells could be heard in the background as the Last Post was sounded and the Ode of Remembrance was read by Korean War veteran Harry Edmonds.

Many artificial poppies and other merchandise were sold after the service to raise money for RSL sub-branch welfare projects.

OJ RUSHTON’S SPEECH

I stand before you humbled by the opportunity to speak on this important day in our calendar.

One hundred years ago, Australia was known as a nation of singers. It was a time when music and poetry formed a vital part of Australian family and community life. Even through the dark days of the Great War, our soldiers were known for their music and singing and it became an important part of the recruitment process to keep morale high.

In fact, CJ Dennis in his poem “Singin’ Soldiers” reckons you could tell an Aussie soldier cause he was singing in the trenches.

On this day at 11am 98 years ago, after more than four years of bloody conflict and countless casualties the guns of World War 1 finally fell silent and the war ended.

It should be no surprise to us that Australians embraced their tradition of singing to celebrate the end of the war. Cities and towns around Australia celebrated - as only Aussies can!

According to Sir Evelyn Wrench’s account even in London, Aussies made their mark with dancing and song:

“In Victoria Street, (London) a group of Australian 'boys' accompanied by a band and their girls decorated in red, white and blue, were swinging down towards Whitehall to the huge delight of all spectators... We danced on the buses, we danced on the lorries, we danced on the pavement, we shouted, we sang... we cheered and cheered again and again, while the Church bells rang out a peal of jubilation..."

But for many Australians, the celebration of peace in November 1918 was short lived. With the loss of over 60,000 Australians and the fate of 23,000 missing soldiers still unknown, it was a dark time for our nation, with loss and grief touching the lives of every family and community.

Memorials such as this one here in Wagga were erected in nearly every city to give families and communities, unable to visit the actual graves of their fallen, a place to visit and honour their dead. Honour Rolls listing those who served and died were also erected in schools and halls with memorial drives and avenues of honour also built across the country.

Official attempts to address collective mourning on a national scale took the form of public commemoration.

The first Armistice Day ceremony held in 1919 was not one of celebration, but rather a solemn commemoration as the nation started coming to terms with its grief and loss.

In 1921, the Flanders poppy became the accepted flower of remembrance to be worn on Armistice Day as 'Soldiers folklore’ believed poppies were vivid red from having been nurtured in ground drenched with the blood of their comrades.

Year after year on the anniversary of Armistice Day, Australia along with many other World War 1 Allies gathered to remember their fallen. At the end of the Second World War the name was changed to Remembrance Day as Armistice Day was no longer an appropriate title for a day which would now commemorate all war dead.

As the years passed, and memories faded, so did the significance of Remembrance Day and the tradition was in danger of being lost. That was until its 75th anniversary in1993 when the remains of an unknown Australian soldier, were entombed in the Australian War Memorial's Hall of Memory. It was on this day, Australia’s Remembrance Day gained new significance as local ceremonies and a two minute silence were conducted simultaneously all over the country at the moment of burial at 11 am.

This ceremony touched a chord across Australia, re-establishing Remembrance Day as a significant day of commemoration and starting the Australian tradition of placing a red poppy on a roll of honour for a loved one.

This was followed by a declaration in 1997 by Governor-General Sir William Deane that the 11^th of November was to be officially known as Remembrance Day, urging all Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11 am on 11 November each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts.

In the words of The Honourable John Howard, “These were Australians whose lives were lived in deeds, not years, in sacrifice, not heartbeats, in service, not the turned pages of a calendar.

These men and women have given us a legacy from the past on which to build our future.”

However, as the Great War sinks further and further into history and all the WW1 Diggers gone, it is a constant challenge to find ways to keep this generation, heirs of our Anzac legacy, engaged so they embrace it with respect and dignity.

In 2013, I was appointed Education and Music Director of the Kangaroo March. I was tasked with engaging school aged young people in the Kangaroo March project and Centenary of Anzac. This proved to be quite a challenge!

I knew as an educator that just bringing kids out on one day to wave people who march through their town or watch a commemorative ceremony without a deeper understanding of why was not going to engage them at a deep enough level that they would pass it on to their children.

My answer came on Anzac Day 2013 when Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial, gave the official Anzac Day address in Canberra.

“Australians all let us rejoice – for we are young and free...”

As I listened to Dr Nelson’s powerful words, a new sense of pride and understanding came over me. As I continued to hang off every word of his speech, the weight of the sacrifice that has been made for our freedom hit me at a new level and emotion welled inside till I couldn’t hold back the tears. These were words for the next generation. They had to be passed on.

Drawing from the singing tradition of our soldiers of 100 years ago and from the “Songline” tradition of Indigenous Australians, who use singing as a as a type of guide or map to pass on important information, I set out to embody Dr Nelson’s message in song with the hope that it would become a kind of GPS for our young people during the Centenary of Anzac and beyond and so the song, “Young and Free”, was born.

The RSL Rural Commemorative Youth Choir is an extension of that vision giving a growing number of young people across NSW an opportunity to engage with this important legacy.

I should at this point take a moment to acknowledge the tremendous support of the Wagga RSL Sub-branch who are helping make this possible.

Once again Dr Nelson says it so eloquently, “This is not just about our past, it is about our future.

As Australians whether by birth or by choice, this has everything to do with who we are and who we want to become...We owe it to those brave men and women, to their descendants, and ourselves to not ever allow the past to become a distant stranger and to never forget that those sacrifices for peace and freedom were made in our name.”

Without understanding the values for which they fought, I believe our young people are in danger of embracing other values. The Centenary of Anzac is an unprecedented opportunity to teach our children the ideals enshrined in these men and women more than a century ago.

It is the sum total of of your story and theirs that make us uniquely Australian - It is a common language that creates shared meaning even today.

I am finding with my on-going work in rural and regional communities, our almost forgotten Aussie traditions of poetry, storytelling and song are proving a powerful way to engage our young people with those stories.

Remembrance Day, nearly 100 years on, is a unique coming together of commemoration for the fallen and celebration of peace and freedom.

Both silence and singing are powerful ways a nation can collectively remember. A day such as this is a powerful drawing together, of many faiths, and of none, unifying us in remembrance by the actions of extraordinary strangers who fought for their country; their mates; and their lives.

According to memory researcher, Siobhan Kattago, the activity of remembrance through silence is a pilgrimage to the past and according to music and memory studies conducted at The John Hopkins University of Education, Singing is an even more powerful way of deepening that remembrance.

We stand here today in reverent silence, without apology or regret, to retreat into ourselves recognising both what has been lost to us and what has been gained, and by renewing our pledge to remember, not only our dead, but those of you with us today who have served and who are still serving, having made a pledge to serve and protect us. I believe today is also a time to dedicate ourselves as Australians to finding more effective ways of serving you.

We’re gathered together with ordinary strangers,

Lest we forget those who died and have served

But what about those Extraordinary strangers

Still living and giving so our freedom’s preserved

Though I won't find your name in the hall of remembrance

Your sacrifice and service mean everything to me

Right here and right now I honour your presence

And the price that you've paid so that I can be free

After a time of silent remembering, we will be unified together in song, our National anthem compelling us to learn from the past and to Advance Australia Fair.

Let us sing the words today with a renewed thankfulness for the sacrifices that have been made to keep us “young and free”.

So, to the fallen we say,

“We will remember you”

To those who are with us today who have served and to those who are still serving, it is with a grateful heart, we say, “Thank you”

Lest we forget.