He was attending a tree planting ceremony at St Augustine’s Church on Tuesday when a young primary school pupil expressed his thanks to the navy veteran. 

“We did the tree planting, all the kids were walking around, then one little boy came up and asked me about my medals,” Mr Morris said.

“He said ‘what are they for?’, so I told him for my service in Vietnam and other wars. Then he said, ‘so you went to war?’ I said yes. He stood there, held his hand out and said thank you very much.”

“That really got to me. That is what Anzac Day is all about – keeping the message alive for them.”

Hundreds of people gathered in Creswick to watch returned servicemen and women march with school children, family members and the Light Horse Troop, before attending a moving service at the cenotaph. 

Flags at half mast danced in the light breeze while sunshine highlighted almost 900 names of servicemen and women in the field of crosses to the right of the service.

Watch the march and service here 

Phil Greenbank, keeper of the field of crosses, said the display was to remember the 897 people from the Creswick district who served in war, including 160 who never came home. 

“That’s one in six soldiers who never came home and 13 nurses in this number. That made a big impact on a lot of the small towns. In some cases there are brothers and cousins who never returned,” he said. 

Creswick is one of the longest serving RSLs to have a field of crosses. They were first displayed on Anzac Day in 1965.  

Pupils from Creswick, North Creswick, St Augustine’s and Newlyn Primary Schools read poems from war, before the performance of the Australian and New Zealand national anthems and the laying of wreaths. 

The bugle used to play the Last Post at the service had a war story of its own.

The instrument is around 132 years old, stamped with the year 1886. It belonged to Creswick resident and RSL secretary Michael Clark’s grandfather.

The bugle was returned to Australia from France after Mr Clark’s grandfather died at war.

It hadn’t been played for about 90 years until Mr Clark met a bugle player in the Creswick Light Horse Troop. 

“It was pretty emotional to hear it played. It reminds me of my grandfather I never knew, and in some ways my father I never knew,” Mr Clark said. 

“My father was brought up without a father figure. He served in World War II and came back from war a different person. He was distant. I never really knew him as a man.”

Anzac Day commemorations were also held in Kingston, Bungaree, Clunes, Daylesford, Beaufort and Skipton to honour returned servicemen and women and pass on the stories of Anzac to the younger generation. 

Dawn services were held at Creswick, Clunes, Daylesford, and Beaufort.