Moruya's first dusk service to observe Anzac Day

A scaled down version of Sydney's Martin Place cenotaph, made out of granite sourced from Moruya, will be placed at the relic World War II RAAF bunkers near Moruya airport.

Moruya Remembers Committee organised the Anzac dusk service and volunteer coordinator Gary Traynor said they wanted to commemorate 11 men who were killed in the area in separate incidents during the war.

"You can imagine this place was a bustling air force base from 1942 to '44 and it seemed such a shame that eight airmen and three merchant sailors who were killed near here or in Moruya waters weren't commemorated," Mr Traynor said.

"Six of the airmen and all three merchant sailors are buried in the Moruya cemetery, but they're not recorded anywhere in Moruya and no one knows about them."

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To create Moruya's newest memorial, a rock was chosen from the Moruya quarry and sent to Tumut to be cut and dressed with the same inscriptions found on the cenotaph at Martin Place: "To our glorious dead" and "Lest we forget".

Mr Traynor worked closely with Moruya resident Norman Moore and said he was instrumental in making the memorial happen.

"The community and council have been enormously supportive of this and I'm so grateful," Mr Traynor said.

"We had one business owner donate nearly $3000 to have the stone cut and dressed, and generosity like that after COVID and the bushfires when business have been doing it tough is above and beyond the call of duty."

The cement and labor to create the memorial area was also donated by businesses in the area.

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The dusk service will take place on Anzac Day from 5.15pm at the RAAF bunkers near Moruya airport where the Thelmore Pistol Club now operate.

A bugler will play the Last Post and army cadets will dress in historical military uniforms to take part in a catafalque party.

"The Ode we say on Anzac Day comes from 'For the Fallen', a poem written by Laurence Binyon during World War I when he heard about the first British casualties," Mr Traynor said.

"There is a line that says 'at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them' and I can't help but be proud to have the first dusk service here in Moruya, it's an amazing thing."

More information about the dusk service can be found on the When War Came to Moruya Facebook page.