The essence of Anzac Day services across the country, the haunting tune of The Last Post, has seen Peter Poole bugling at commemorative services in Moruya and Batemans Bay for more than a decade.
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Mr Poole was a brassy kid.
“I started playing the cornet when I was seven,” Mr Poole said.
It was the army life which started him with the bugle.
“I was in the army for over 20 years and in the army reserve as a musician. I did a couple of years in Townsville with 1st battalion royal Australian regiment,” Mr Poole said.
“I started with the bugle when I was 24. I have played at the Australian War Memorial many times and, being in the army, bugled in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, as well as the ACT,” he said.
Mr Poole moved to the Eurobodalla in 1993, performing at commemorative services, mostly in Batemans Bay, before heading back to central NSW. He returned to the Eurobodalla in 2003.
“I have been the bandmaster of the Moruya’s town band and the conductor of Moruya and Batemans Bay Sing Australia.
“I have been bugling here since 2003; in Batemans Bay for about six years or so, and then here in Moruya for another six years,” Mr Poole said.
As well as performing The Last Post and Reveille at the Moruya Dawn Service, Mr Poole addressed the Anzac Day service at Tomakin.
“I am associated with the RSL at Tomakin,” Mr Poole said.
“Anzac Day is an acknowledgment of ordinary people putting their lives on the line for their friends, for the community, for freedom in the world.
“A lot of people were prisoners of war, have been killed, have lost limbs. They are hardships we should never forget,” Mr Poole said.
The sentiments were echoed by Kevin Setter from the Moruya RSL Sub-Branch in his commemorative address at the Anzac Day dawn service. He said the country owed service personnel a great debt.
“We must remember it is 75 years since the bombing of Darwin, the fall of Singapore and the attack on the Duarenbee off the coast here at Moruya … some of the crew are buried here in Moruya,” Mr Setter said.
“Today is that day in which the country remember their service.”