Anzac 100: Bugler Andrew Barnett playing at Gallipoli

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This was published 8 years ago

Anzac 100: Bugler Andrew Barnett playing at Gallipoli

By Daisy Dumas
Updated

It is the haunting sound of distant theatres of war and solemnly bowed heads; a tune of loss, of remembrance and of hope.

If a moment is able to sum up the poignancy of 60,000 fallen soldiers, their shattered families, the nurtured memories and the atrocities of battle, it is perhaps the Last Post.

For Corporal Andrew Barnett, the bugle call is also the centrepiece of nearly 20 years of practice. As the Anzac Centenary dawn service bugler at Gallipoli, he will play the 80-second summons, ushering in two minutes of silence 100 years on from the Anzac landings.

"I still can't believe it, I'm pinching myself," the 38-year-old said of being chosen for the honour.

Getting ready: Andrew Barnett, who will play the bugle at the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli.

Getting ready: Andrew Barnett, who will play the bugle at the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli. Credit: Joe Armao

"I think I was just very fortunate, perhaps it was just my time."

It was a dawn service 30 years ago that inspired a young Andrew to take up the trumpet. He added bugling to his skills after joining the army, where all trumpet players are required to master the simple instrument, which has no keys or valves and changes pitch based on the player's lip movements. Its emotive call has taken the Canberra-based corporal around the world, from Villers-Bretonneux and Paris for 90th commemorations of Western Front battles to Bouganville in Papua New Guinea.

By now, he says playing the symbolic tune is almost as natural as tying his shoelaces, but as well-rehearsed as he may be, emotions still play a part in the proceedings.

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"I wouldn't be human if I wasn't nervous," he said during a break from final practices at Victoria Barracks' Australian Army Band headquarters in Paddington.

Twenty members of the band will be joined by their New Zealand counterparts for the centenary commemorations. They will play at both the dawn service and Lone Pine ceremonies.

A crowd of 10,500 is expected at the site, with some 8000 Australian visitors, many of whom are descendants of Diggers, chosen by ballot.

"Every time I do it it's important, but particularly this time where there are great uncles and grandfathers that have fought," Corporal Barnett said.

"It's really very, very personal for a lot of people, so I try to imagine what it's like for them and for the people who have passed away."

Focusing on the drill that surrounds the call, Corporal Barnett will raise his instrument when soldiers around him present arms, lifting their weapons. When his final note ebbs, he will slowly, purposefully, lower his arm, as many have done at many battle sites before.

"It's not just this war, it's other theatres of war that Australian services have been involved in. It's about the sacrifice," he said. "It's staggering."

As a humble Corporal Barnett made his way towards a last, rousing practice before playing on hallowed Turkish ground, he has a final moment of introspection.

"It is where the battle happened. This is history."

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