Anzac Day dawn service goers will need to change tradition and go to the Pakenham Racecourse this year.
By Melissa Meehan
DAWN services remembering the fallen on Anzac Day this year will be held at the Pakenham Racecourse while the current site is being refurbished.
Pakenham RSL committee members voted to relocate the service for the next three years while works at the Pakenham Hall were being completed.
Newly re-elected president Ray Caldwell said two venues had been discussed and the racecourse was chosen as the most viable option.
“It will allow us to have the service in rain, hail or shine,” Mr Caldwell said.
“And while we don’t know whether it will take the full three years, it’s good to have the security of knowing we have somewhere to go.”
Mr Caldwell said the council had offered to make the move to the racecourse as easy as possible for the RSL.
“We have been working in partnership with the shire,” he said.
“And they have been really good.”
The cenotaph, located at the corner of John and Henry streets, will be refurbished and put in storage while the redevelopment of the Pakenham Hall site takes shape.
Mr Caldwell said the cenotaph would be returned to the site and hoped a larger memorial would also call the entrance to the hall home.
“At the moment the developers have offered to have a granite wall at the entrance of the hall,” he said. “Our members will decide what goes on it. Maybe something similar to what they have in Kooweerup, but it all depends on what our members want.”
