Geraldton’s Anzac Day dawn service speaker Warrant Officer Class Two Rebecca Murphy reflects on April 25

This Anzac Day, thousands of people are expected to gather in the heart of Geraldton for the dawn service to commemorate the sacrifices and contributions of all Australian and New Zealand service personnel. This year’s service will feature Warrant Officer Class Two Rebecca Murphy, who has been asked to deliver the main address at the dawn service. WO2 Murphy joined the Australian Army on August 13, 2001, as an operator of electronic warfare and since then has been deployed to East Timor and Afghanistan. She is currently working remotely from the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station located at Kojarena, but her posting unit is the Seventh Signal Regiment. Having grown up in Geraldton, WO2 Murphy was at a crossroads, “wanting a bit more and to travel” when a friend convinced her to apply for the Army. “I obviously was successful, and I joined, and it’s been almost 24 years in August,” she said. During her 24 years of service, WO2 Murphy has taken on multiple different roles within the Army and said no two days were the same. “With a lot of jobs, you’re on the tools and learning a lot in those first stages of your career, and then as I’ve promoted, I’ve gone into more of an administrative role and a human resource management role,” she said. “So I’m not on the tools as much anymore, but I’m looking after the training and also the well being of all the junior soldiers that are coming through.” Having never played a leading role in a Geraldton Anzac Day Service, WO2 Murphy says she is “excited” and “humbled” to attend Friday’s dawn service. When asked what Anzac Day means to her she said: “It’s not only thinking about the past and what the military did in the past to make our lives so much better now, it’s also thinking about people that we’ve lost in current conflicts, and also to think about those who are still serving, not only the serving members, but the families who give up so much as well.”