Anzac Day 2025: HMAS Toowoomba visits Albany for 110th anniversary of Gallipoli landing

HMAS Toowoomba and its 190 officers and sailors paid Albany a visit for the 2025 Anzac Day services and commemoration of the 110th anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli.

April 25, 1915, saw 16,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers land on the shores of Gallipoli in modern-day Turkey during World War I after the Royal Australian Navy’s HMA Submarine AE2’s efforts to navigate through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara.

Former Albany resident weapons electrical engineer officer Darcy Cook returned aboard the Royal Australian Navy frigate.

He said he first joined the navy through an apprenticeship in 1991 after his high school, St Joseph’s College, was visited by a navy recruiting team, thinking it was a “really good idea”.

“It’s a huge privilege to have the opportunity to come back to my home town and to meet all my old friends my family, but also to show the town off in all its glory to my shipmates on HMAS Toowoomba,” he said.

HMAS Toowoomba’s crew joined thousands who turned out for the dawn service, the trooping down York Street, and the commemorative service to acknowledge and remember past servicemen and women.

HMAS Toowoomba commanding officer Cmdr Barton Harrington said the visit to Albany was his fourth with the navy, and “each and every time” he received a “warm welcome”.

“The dawn service is particularly significant in the town of Albany as it’s the last place that many of the first Anzacs saw of Australia before they went off to the war,” he said.

“Conducting the dawn service here really allows us to reflect on the sacrifice they made, and so many other servicemen and women have made over the years.

“It’s so important to be down in Albany whenever we can . . . it’s the last place many of the Anzacs saw of Australia, but it’s also great to get out to the regional town and show the people the navy is out there and contributing to the security of the country each and every day, and build that connection with the community.”