By the time this edition reaches your inbox, the minute of silence will have passed.

But remembrance doesn’t have to fit neatly into one minute.

Here on Coochie, it’s woven into places many of us walk past: the foreshore near the ferry terminal, the open ground around the golf course, and the paths through the Emerald Fringe.

This morning’s island service was scheduled to begin at 10:45am at the cenotaph near the ferry terminal, ahead of the 11am silence. That simple sandstone memorial sits in the same foreshore space where residents gather for community events, a fitting reminder that remembering is part of island life.

The island was part of the wartime story

During the Second World War, Coochie was a training ground for the 42nd and 43rd Landing Craft Companies.

The men trained here from 1943, preparing for service in New Guinea and Bougainville. The camp stood in the melaleuca forest on the western side of the island, around where the golf course is now.

There are still traces of that chapter nearby. At Pioneer Park, a plaque marks the former headquarters of the 42nd Australian Landing Company. Further along the island, a Lone Pine planted in 1997 commemorates the landing craft companies, and a plaque marks the remains of the camp kitchen.

And the story is personal, too. Island pioneer Doug Morton served in the First World War, then enlisted again in 1942. His life is one of the threads connecting Coochie’s everyday landscape to the wider history of service.

Remembrance Day marks the moment the guns fell silent on the Western Front on 11 November 1918.

Today, it honours Australians who have served and sacrificed in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

If you’re walking near the foreshore or the golf course, take a moment to notice the memorials and markers tucked into the island around us.

They hold stories worth knowing, and worth passing on.

Lest we forget

Explore more: Coochiemudlo Island’s wartime history · The Emerald Fringe and its memorials · Queensland’s Remembrance Day information