Community & Business
12 November, 2025
10 years on: 2015 Coo-ee March Re-enactment
The 2015 Coo-ee March Re-enactment finished in Sydney on Remembrance Day
A decade ago, on November 11, 2015, members of the Coo-ee March Re-enactment were the guests of honour at the Sydney Remembrance Day Service.
That service marked the end of 26 days of marching from Gilgandra to Sydney in the centenary re-enactment of the 1915 Coo-ee March.
The Coo-ees were also joined by other ‘Snowball March’ re-enactments that had also taken place for the centenary of World War One, including Tooraweenah’s Kookaburras, the Men from Snowy River, and the Boomerangs.
The then Governor-General, the Honourable David Hurley AC CVO DSC and Mrs Linda Hurley, along with premier Mike Baird, and deputy-premier Troy Grant (pictured above), were among the dignitaries present at the very rainy event in Martin Place.
Many friends and family of the Coo-ee contingent along with local school captains travelled to see the Coo-ees march triumphantly into Martin Place at the conclusion of their re-enactment.
It was an emotional day for the Coo-ees and their support crew (myself among them), who had left Gilgandra on an extremely hot October 17, 2015 day, to arrive in Sydney at the end of their epic journey to rain and cold.
The last day of the march was one of full of stop-starts; with the column of marchers having to navigate the morning traffic in Sydney and the infamous Parramatta Road. It was 9.3 kilometres to Martin Place, a short day on the march - leaving Ashfield at 6am. There were stops at Redfern War Memorial, and a passing of Hyde Park’s ANZAC Memorial on the way to the finish.
Leading the column was the late march captain Bryan Bywater OAM - with 21 of the 35 marchers having completed the full journey on foot (some 665kms).
In October 2025, members of the Coo-ee March Re-enactments (1987/2015) gathered as part of the Goin’ to Gil Festival to commemorate the anniversary.
