The local community gathered across the South Coast for a moment of silence to honour the returned service personnel who paid the ultimate sacrifice for Australia.

At Kiama’s Memorial Arch in Hindmarsh Park on Terralong Street, the strongest crowd in recent years of more than 100 people gathered to listen and reflect on the lived experiences shared during the service.

Kiama Rotary Club chair Phil Whyte said he found the most moving part of the service was during the moment of silence at the 11th hour when The Last Post rang out across the town.

“I must admit that it was quite eerie hearing three or four different bugle calls all around town,” Whyte said.

“That’s what happens in the big army camps, you have echoes of the Reveille [the call that breaks the silence after the Last Post] to get us up in the morning.

“And it was always because of the distance of that the others were out of tune.”

The ceremony at Kiama.

Kiama Rotary’s Tonia Barnes said that seeing her uncle’s plaque among the others on the wall parallel to Terralong Street donned with poppies “really gave me a shake down my spine”.

“The whole connection brings us back to our roots of our community and that’s what is important,” Barnes said.

“This will be quite important for our community in Kiama and not only seeing the Kiama -Jamberoo RSL Sub-Branch in play but also Rotary, the Country Women’s Association and the Men's Shed [who all laid formal tributes].”

Kiama Mayor Cameron McDonald, who was joined by Kiama Council CEO Jane Stroud, said the Remembrance Service was a pause for reflection after the many conflicts Australia has fought in.

“It’s a real honour to attend the service today as the Mayor of Kiama and be able to read out the opening prayer,” Cr McDonald said.

“I think Remembrance Day - 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month - has always been special, and even more so that people are continuing to further reflect on this day.

“And that is the ethos of giving in our community, which is really humbling actually.”

Lieutenant Colonel Gary McKay MC OAM (Ret’d), president of the Kiama-Jamberoo RSL Sub-Branch, told the service about his family connection with the Australian military and the camaraderie shared among service personnel.

“For my own family, my mum and dad served in the Second World War,” McKay said.

“Dad was sent out to western NSW to guard a water reservoir and Dad gave his guys the afternoon off to go to the pub at the same time as the agent who came around and did an inspection.

“So, the old man went to jail and was busted back to digger, back to private.

“And my mother was a telegraphist, a morse code operator and Mum did very well at that.

"She finished the war as a full corporal, a fact that she never let my father forget.”

More than 100 community members gathered at the Memorial Headland Flag Pole for the Gerringong RSL Sub-Branch’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Sub-Branch president Michael O’Leary spoke about the sacrifices made by 64 local men who went off to World War I with only 50 of them returning home safely.

Michael O'Leary, Kiama Deputy Mayor with Gerringong Public School students Hamish Burke, Ivy Payne and Isaac Winchester.

A stirring part of the ceremony was when Gerringong Public School students Hamish Burke, Ivy Payne and Isaac Winchester told the tales of four locals who made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefields of Europe.

John William Donovan, a dairy farmer, was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915 at the age of 23, railway fireman Joseph Bernard Harding was just 17 when he died in France a year later and Foxground brothers Albert and Lindsay Parrish were 28 and 21 respectively when they selflessly gave up their lives “for King and Country”.

“We were talking about having something different this year so we asked the school to see if some kids who could talk about the people who were on the memorial wall,” O’Leary said.

The Remembrance Day service at Gerringong. Photo: The Bugle

“They chose three kids from their leadership group and I thought their speeches went very well.”

O’Leary quoted a famous speech by war-time Australian Prime Minister John Curtin in which he said “we only want them to learn about the history so they can keep the respect for the people from those wars - they don’t want medals or thanks, they just want remembrance.”

Remembrance Day services were also held at Albion Park RSL Club, the Wollongong Cenotaph and the Sussex Inlet RSL War Memorial.