The ceremony included wreath-laying, The Ode and a minute’s silence, The Last Post and a speech by Mayor Bilal El-Hayek, pictured left with Bankstown Sub Branch member Keith Menzies, Councillor George Zakhia, Bankstown MP Jihad Dib and Bankstown Sub Branch President Terry Corcoran. Attendees later gathered at Bankstown RSL for lunch.
A range of other ceremonies took place at RSL clubs, schools and local nursing homes including Abel Tasman Village in Chester Hill (above), where residents heard from Picnic Point’s John Shields who in 1967 in Vietnam, ran towards enemy fire to deliver first aid and even raced through minefields to rescue wounded soldiers during his turbulent time as a trained rifleman turned medic.
