ONE of Ballarat's oldest surviving diggers William Tregenna says most people attending Anzac Day services will never fully realise what his generation experienced.
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But Mr Tregenna, better known as Bill, said it was always nice and meant a lot to see people come along to services and marches to pay their respects to all who have served. He takes part each year to honour his own father, too.
The 102-year-old will take part in commemorations at Sebastopol once more this Anzac Day.
While Mr Tregenna is able to walk independently - and at a fair pace - he said marching was a bit beyond him now. The Sebastopol Returned and Services League had Mr Tregenna in an army vehicle for the procession last year.
Most of Mr Tregenna's war service was in army vehicles as a truck driver, first serving in Western Australia then driving a three-tonne Ford truck in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
I did what I was told to do.
- Bill Tregenna
"I did what I was told to do," Mr Tregenna said when The Courier visited on Monday.
Joining Australia's war effort was important to Mr Tregenna, whose father had served as a stretcher bearer in France during World War I.
His father had a gun-shot wound in his lower back but "lived as well as he could" after the war, running a farm in Enfield on the Colac Road.
"I think Anzac Day brings back memories of war. It's important to me because my father served in World War I ... Part of my life I served in the armed forces, too. I follow his footsteps," Mr Tregenna said. "I'm proud to be able to [represent servicemen] on Anzac Day."
Mr Tregenna told The Courier last year that riding in a jeep for the Sebastopol Anzac march evoked memories of driving about Melbourne.
A "dear old lady" stopped him on the street one day in the state capital and asked whether he was an Australian or American.
Mr Tregenna this year said there were some amusing memories from his service in New Guinea. A lot of his work was transporting people.
He clearly remembers one "big man" standing up in the back yelling "more power" on the hills: "but I had the old truck going as flat out as I could".
Mr Tregenna also harboured no hard feelings towards those who had been the enemy in war.
"I found the Japanese very good. They just wanted to get home same as I would," he said.
"The war was over when I was dealing with them. They just wanted to go home."
Upon returning from war, Mr Tregenna became a truck driver for a short time for the Shire of Buninyong before transitioning back to farming, with his wife Elsie, in Enfield. The couple raised three daughters.
One of Mr Tregenna's daughters will pick him up early on Tuesday from his Creswick aged care home to take him to the Anzac service in Sebastopol. The march starts at 8.45am.
Mr Tregenna's family have created a tradition of eating breakfast out together after the cenotaph service.
City of Ballarat is expecting large crowds across Anzac Day commemorations.
Following Sebastopol, there is also the Sturt Street march from Lyons Street at 10.30am.
Hepburn Shire also features a series of morning marches in Clunes, Creswick, Kingston, Daylesford and Trentham. Other marches in the region include Beaufort and Ballan.
The weather is looking fine, partly cloudy, with a maximum of 22C on Tuesday. Bureau of Meteorology also forecasts a top of 10C in Ballarat for dawn services.
Anzac Day commemorations this year will also feature a special recognition of 100 years of Legacy, an organisation to help veterans' families after the death or injury of a loved one.
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