Robbery victim joins Anzac Day parade

One 96-year-old veteran will be making his Anzac Day debut on Sunday but former
British soldier Reg Dickinson would rather it came about in different circumstances.
After being knocked off his motorised scooter and robbed of his pokies winnings on
Wednesday, Mr Dickinson was invited by Victorian Premier John Brumby to join the
march on Sunday.
The Rat of Tobruk has lived in Australia for 29 years but has never been in the
Anzac Day march and, while he says he won't be able to actually march, he's taken up
the offer to join in.
"It would make a complete change, I've never been in the parades here," he told AAP.
"I would like to go."
Mr Dickinson, who drove trucks in Italy, France and Egypt during World War II,
managed to fight off his attackers outside his nursing home in Hoppers Crossing.
A teenage girl and 29-year-old man have been charged and appeared in court on Friday.
Among the hundreds of Anzac ceremonies in towns across Victoria, the service in
bushfire ravaged Marysville will culminate with a Lone Pine sapling being planted in
the town's restored Reflective Garden.
The sapling from the iconic pine that stood on the hills above Anzac Cove on the
Gallipoli Peninsula was donated to the people of Marysville by Turkish Rotary club
members who visited earlier this year.
Members of Melbourne's Turkish community will march with veterans and citizens in
Marysville.
Organisers of the Dawn Service at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance are hoping for a
record crowd of more than 40,000 people.
While the number of veterans dwindles each year, public interest in Anzac Day has
risen in the past 15 years.
Although showers are forecast, the Anzac Day Commemoration Council is confident of a
big crowd.
For the first time, fewer than 100,000 World War II veterans are still alive in
Australia, with about 1200 of them expected to march in Melbourne on Sunday, says
Chris Handley from the council.



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