April 29, 2026
A few light showers could not disrupt Kingaroy’s Anzac Day commemorations on Saturday morning.
The morning began at 4:28am – the time the original Anzacs landed at Gallipoli – with a Dawn Service in Memorial Park led by former South Burnett mayor Keith Campbell OAM.
Sub-Branch members then travelled to the Taabinga Cemetery for a small ceremony at the official war graves (see below).
A highlight of Kingaroy’s Anzac Day is always the morning march, which proceeds down Kingaroy Street into Haly Street and Memorial Park.
The rain held off as hundreds of marchers, including veterans, school students, members of community associations and local residents, pounded the pavement.
Guest speaker, Wing Commander Chris McInnes, took the parade salute from the official dais in Haly Street accompanied by local MP Attorney-General Deb Frecklington and South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff.
Three high school students, Charlie Sparks (Kingaroy State High School), Cornelius Curtain (St Mary’s Catholic College) and Grace Bjelke-Petersen (St John’s Lutheran School), carried the flags at the head of the march.
After the marchers found their seats in the park, the morning service began at the rotunda with prayers, hymns, the Last Post and wreath laying.
Music was supplied by the Kingaroy State High School symphonic band and a choir, led by Sue Dowideit-Reiger.
Students Matilda Dyee (St Mary’s), Indianna Bannon (Kingaroy SHS) and Kayleigh Johannesen (St John’s) read the Resolutions which echoed those approved for Queensland’s first Anzac Day commemoration in 1916.
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Guest Speaker
The guest speaker at Kingaroy’s morning service was Wing Commander Chris McInnes who graduated from Kingaroy State High School in 1998.
After being commissioned in the RAAF, Wing Commander McInnes undertook specialist training as an air intelligence officer. He has completed multiple operational tours in the Middle East with Australian and Coalition air forces and is currently a full-time reservist at the Air and Space Power Centre in Canberra.
Many people commented afterwards that this was the best Anzac Day speech they had heard, so southburnett.com.au has decided to share it here for our readers (with apologies for the quality, as this was not the original intention for the recording.)
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Photo Gallery
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Taabinga War Cemetery
Members of the Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch conducted their annual Anzac Day pilgrimage to the war graves at Kingaroy’s Taabinga Cemetery on Saturday morning after the Dawn Service.
Poppies were placed on 22 graves during a ceremony which also involved members of the 135 Army Cadet Unit at Wondai and the Kingaroy Scouts.
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