More than 8000 people set their bedside alarms on Saturday morning to attend the city’s dawn service and pay tribute to our ex-servicemen and the region’s war dead.

A further 3000 people either showed up or returned for the mid-morning service with an impressive parade down Liebig Street. 

Smaller towns also paid tribute to their veterans with hundreds attending services at Ellerslie, Noorat, Mortlake, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe, Cobden, Panmure, Derrinallum, Penshurst and Terang among many other communities.

The huge attendance numbers in these locations was a fitting tribute to our surviving World War II veterans with the few that are left aged either in the late 80s or 90s.

This year marks seven decades since the end of the Second World War following the surrender of Germany in May 1945 and Japan some months later.

It is a fitting time to reflect on their service defending Australia from the closest our nation has ever come to invasion. 

While the Gallipoli story is important, we should also remember the sacrifice of those who battled in the jungles of Papua-New Guinea, British North Borneo, Singapore and elsewhere through south-east Asia.

Organisers and war veterans alike have commented on the number of young people who attended the Anzac Day commemorations. 

This is in part due to the growing emphasis on Gallipoli within the classroom as much as it is through film, television and other popular culture. 

It is reassuring to note the involvement of children and teenagers in the weekend ceremonies as they are the ones who will be left to carry on the Anzac legacy into its second century.

The interest in the Anzac story has been largely organic. 

Australians from all walks of life have shown a genuine regard for our military legacy and those who fought and died to protect our way of life.