November 11, 2026
The names engraved on war memorials across the South Burnett record the enormous sacrifices local families made during World War I.
The figures are astounding … more than 57,000 Queenslanders served in the Great War, and more than 10,000 died.
Nationally, almost 417,000 Australians enlisted and about 60,000 died from war-related causes.
Local history buff Noel Selway has identified 291 men who enlisted from Wondai, out of a population of about 1600 adults.
Cherbourg Council has found at least 47 Aboriginal men connected with the Barambah mission who enlisted.
Then there’s Nanango, Kumbia, Murgon and all the areas in between … a total across the South Burnett believed to be about 1200 people.
This is why Remembrance Day – formerly known as Armistice Day – is still such an important day on the South Burnett calendar.
It records the moment – at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month – that this horrendous war finally ended and soldiers could return from the bloody battlefields overseas.
Commemorations to mark Remembrance Day were held in most South Burnett towns on Wednesday morning.
These days, November 11 also remembers the sacrifices made by Australian Defence Force personnel in all the conflicts since 1918 … including World War II, Korea, the Malayan Emergency, Vietnam, the two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan as well as numerous peacekeeping operations.
In Kingaroy, a crowd gathered in Memorial Park to watch veterans, and the relatives of veterans, march from the park entrance to the Memorial Rotunda, accompanied by local schoolchildren.
(South Burnett Regional Council staff worked hard over the past few days to repair the rotunda in time for Remembrance Day after vandals damaged it; the work finished just hours before the commemoration started.)
Wreaths were laid, prayers were said and Kingaroy State High School’s Matt Phillips played the Last Post and Reveille.
A choral group from the school also sang Amazing Grace and the Australian National Anthem (in English and Wakka Wakka).
In Nanango, a large crowd gathered at the Memorial on the corner of Henry and Drayton streets for speeches and a wreath-laying ceremony, accompanied by a lone piper.
Ceremonies were also held in Kumbia, Wondai, Yarraman, Blackbutt, Murgon, Wondai and Goomeri.
- External link: The South Burnett’s Anzac Heroes (SBRC database – is your relative listed?)
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