Anzac day 2021: Kalbarri residents to gather for Anzac Day following Cyclone Seroja disaster

Two weeks after cyclone Seroja ripped through the town, parts of the little Mid West community of Kalbarri are unrecognisable.

But some things do not change — like they have done for so many years before, locals will gather to mark Anzac Day.

And today they will be surrounded by emergency services and army personnel who are assisting with the town’s recovery.

RSL WA chief executive John McCourt said months of work was put in by volunteers in preparation of Anzac Day, so it was frustrating it had been cancelled for the Perth and Peel regions.

“The timing couldn’t be worse, but that’s life,” he said. “The only baddie in the room is the virus.”

But for Kalbarri, the presence of serving Australian Defence Force members would make the dawn and morning services “even more powerful”, the town’s RSL secretary and veteran Alex Hack said.

“The reservists who are here are coming, the State Emergency Service are downing tools and coming, the ambulances are coming, and the police are coming,” he said.

“We’ll all be there together, coming together to remember the Anzacs, those brave boys who died for our freedom. We can use a bit of that Anzac spirit right now, that’s for sure.”

This morning , the Last Post will ring out from amid the wreckage of a decimated town.

Yet despite the difficult conditions, Mr Hack expected “hundreds” at the dawn service — likely one of the biggest in the State, after a snap lockdown cancelled services in Perth and Peel.

Local veteran David Barton will be among the crowd.

“I haven’t missed an Anzac day since 1952, back when we marched with the World War I generation,” he said.

“So, yeah, I won’t be missing this one.”