Great Southern town pays tribute to the fallen at Remembrance Day Service

“We will remember them” were the words spoken in unison by the Katanning community on the 11th hour last Thursday to honour those who served our nation.

Katanning’s Remembrance Day Service, hosted at RSL Park, brought the community together in a minute’s silence to remember the bravery and sacrifice of Australians at war.

Shire of Katanning president Liz Guidera delivered the commemorative address, 103 years after the guns fell silent on the Western Front during World War I.

“From a population of just under five million, more than 400,000 Australians enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force,” she said. “More than 60,000 Australians lost their lives, a devastating toll for a small country. Around the world some 10 million military personnel died in what was then called the Great War.

“To forget, or to repeat the losses and wrongs of the past, is to do disservice to the memory of all who served and lived and died through the horrors of the Great War and in all conflicts since.”

Community members and representatives laid wreaths, and Shire deputy president John Goodheart recited the Ode.