The laughter of children playing in the background mixed with the haunting melody of the Last Post in otherwise perfect silence at ANZAC Park in Port Douglas today. 

Those children were free to play in a country that was and is kept safe by the courage and sacrifice of countless men and women now and in the past, whose lives were commemorated by the public for ANZAC Day 2015. 

Over 200 people packed out ANZAC Park in Port Douglas to watch sailors from HMAS Diamantina, veterans from the Mossman RSL and many other community organisations march down Macrossan Street. 

Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu gave an address detailing the lives of some of the 175 young men from Douglas Shire that fought in World War I, with information obtained by the Douglas Historical Society for their Douglas Diggers project.

One such young man was Andrew Howard Jack, who was orphaned at age 16 and enlisted at age 21, joining Machine Gun Company 11 and gaining promotion to Lance Corporal. 

He was killed in action on October 12, 1917 during the Battle for Passchendaele, along with 38,000 other Australians. 

His body was never recovered. 

Two brothers, Norman and Charles Baird, came from the Kuku Yalanji community at China Camp, who served alongside between 500 and 800 other Indigenous personnel in World War I.

Norman was wounded on the Western Front and re-enlisted for World War II at the age of 55.

Charles served in Egypt in World War I and then in Palestine with the 11th Light Horse. 

Lieutenant Commander Alan Parton from HMAS also spoke to the assembled crowd of how the events at Gallipoli forged the recently-federated Australian states into a nation,  describing the ANZAC legend as the ‘spirit of Australia’.

“There was a determination, a zest, and a drive which swept up from the beaches on the Gallipoli Peninsula as the ANZACs thrust forward with their torch of freedom,” Lt Cmdr Parton said. 

“As they fell, they threw to those following this torch of freedom so their quest would maintain its momentum. 

“That torch of freedom has been continually thrown from falling hands, always to be caught by those that serve and it has fired in the catchers’ souls a zeal and desire for both our individual liberty and our country’s liberty. 

“That desire handed down with the memory of those first ANZACs burns as brightly today as the flame which first kindled it, 100 years ago.”

By the end of the ceremony, the ANZAC memorial was covered colour - handmade poppies set down by Mossman State High School students and wreaths laid by various organisations including the crew of HMAS Diamantina, Mossman RSL, officers from the Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, the State Emergency Service, the Port Douglas Crocs AFL team, the Country Women’s Association, the Douglas Shire Historical Society and many others.

Musical services at the ceremony were provided by the Mossman State High School Band, in addition to buglers Kaela Trewick and Nathan Double and singer Zoe Trewick.   

See Newsport's gallery of photographs below.