HILLVILLE residents Rodney O'Regan OAM VA and Terry McMurrich recently attended the first Anzac Dawn Service and street parade in living memory in the small town of Thargomindah in the Bulloo Shire.
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The town consists of 250 people in the village and a total of 450 in the district. This is the largest shire in Queensland and one of the wealthiest with the gas and oil fields.
Rodney has been associated with this town for the past 52 years where he spent his teenage years from age 15 on a large cattle station called Bulloo Downs.
The Bulloo Shire is situated over 1000km west of Brisbane and is bounded by the NSW and SA border. It includes Coopers Creek where the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition perished, Santos Oil and Gas fields, and the Simpson and Strzelecki deserts. There are sand dunes, big lakes, wide open spaces, and the Napunyah Flats where organic cattle graze in the Channel Country. Thargomindah was the first place in Australia and the third in the world to produce hydro-electric power for street lighting between 1898 and 1951 using water pressure from the artesian basin.
On the Friday before Anzac Day Rodney attended the school on horseback and was involved with their school Anzac function. Both he and Terry had travelled out to Thargomindah to take part in their first Anzac Day parade and service on the centenary. They spent most of their time conditioning the five station horses for the parade in the main street then some spit and polish and drill for the three other riders and flag bearer on foot. In the parade there were also veterans, the local Thargomindah school, fire brigade, SES and Council, and the local polocrosse clubs of Nockatunga-Toompine and Thargomindah. There were also service personnel, a 22-piece brass band from Amberley in Queensland and two Scottish pipers and drummers.
The day's events were a gunfire breakfast at the Bulloo River Hotel, an Anzac Day dawn service followed by a free Anzac breakfast at the Thargomindah Town Hall, parade and Anzac day main service in the memorial park, followed by a community Anzac day barbecue and lunch and two-up at the Bulloo River Hotel.
The day was hailed as a huge success and quoted as one of the best days ever held in Thargomindah.
