While crowd numbers fell this year amid tightened security for Anzac Day commemorations around Australia, organisers have said the story of the Anzacs is one that is still relevant to modern Australians and is “embedded in our national life”.

Events around the country saw fewer people turn out than in previous years, with some pointing to the federal government’s warning of a potential attack in Gallipoli as a reason for smaller local crowds.

About 10,000 people turned out at the ceremony in Gallipoli.

Organisers said while there was no specific intelligence indicating an attack in Australia, the warnings had been taken seriously and security measures were increased.

At Elephant Rock, in Currumbin on the Gold Coast, former prime minister Tony Abbott was among the 10,000 people at the dawn service, a figure well below last year’s crowd of 35,000.

In Sydney, 100 people climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a unique dawn service, while thousands of others gathered in the city’s Martin Place to pay their respects.

Crowd numbers were still significantly smaller than the record levels seen for the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli landing.

New South Wales Veterans’ Affairs Minister David Elliot had encouraged people to ignore fears and attend the planned events in the Sydney CBD.

“If you don’t turn up to a public event like Anzac Day because of the threat of terrorism, you are already a victim of terrorism,” Mr Elliot said.

At Melbourne’s largest service, numbers were also down, with 30,000 people attending, about 15,000 fewer than last year.

However Shrine of Remembrance chief executive Dean Lee said the smaller attendance could be blamed on persistent rain throughout the ceremony.

But forecast rain did not deter the more than 5000 that attended Adelaide’s Anzac Day commemorations.

In Western Australia, more than 40,000 gathered at the Kings Park war memorial.

Anzac spirit lives on: Roberts-Smith

Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith was among those at the Melbourne service and told those gathered the Anzac sprit was alive and well.

“Anzac remains embedded in our national life,” he said.

“Every year Anzac asks us to look to the future too, the good story.”

It was a sentiment echoed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who marked Anzac Day with Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“At every level, you’re helping the forces of Iraq defend themselves and liberate their country from Daesh,” he said, using another name for Islamic State.

“We are fighting with the same allies we fought with 100 years ago, but in a different fight … and I want to thank you on the eve of Anzac Day for your service.”

‘Each stone stands for a son, a brother’

Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, who was in Papua New Guinea marking the 75 years since the Japanese invasion during World War II, urged Australians to this year reflect on battles in PNG, highlighting the sacrifice they made to protect Australia.

“This conflict was not in some faraway land, but on our very doorstep — those who fought and died here did so for Australia above all else,” he said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who was also in Port Moresby, acknowledged their sacrifice.

“As we stand in this place we are surrounded by the realities of war, we see its cost in human life and suffering,” Mr Shorten said.

“As the sun rises on these white stones we remind ourselves that each one stands for a son, a brother, someone who loved, who was loved and who never came home again.”



During the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, a soldier delivered a moving address, recounting his own loss in service for his nation.

Sapper Curtis McGrath lost both his legs during an explosion in Afghanistan in 2012.

He said many wounds were not just physical and returned soldiers often came home to a silent and private suffering.

“War hasn’t always returned us well,” he said.

But he said Australia was learning to care for returned servicemen and women.

That message was applauded by Commander of Darwin’s 1st Brigade, Brigadier Ben James, who addressed the city’s main dawn service, attended by some 10,000 people.

“You need look no further for an example of courage, of tenacity, of resilience,” he said.

Australians urged to recognise female veterans

A key message at Anzac Day ceremonies this year was for Australians to look beyond the typical image of a soldier and recognise all men and women who served.

Chris May, co-founder of support group Young Veterans, said female veterans were still sidelined by the greater community.

“We’ve got women who have served in conflicts since Gallipoli, we had nurses over there and we still have an issue where women are being questioned about their medals as if they are their grandfather’s or their father’s.”

At a service in Hobart, the first female Governor of Tasmania received a mixed response from the crowd when she declared Anzac Day had predominately been a “male story”.

“It is the case that Anzac Day has been primarily a male story, and the women’s contributions have been inadvertently marginalised, and that is a situation which historians, commentators film and television producers are now beginning to address,” she said.

But at the Wollongong dawn service, former Defence nurse Robyn Henkel spoke about the gender balance in the ADF improving.

“The numbers are getting [more even] compared to when I joined in 1988, there’s more opportunities and greater chance for deployment and helping Australians and helping people overseas,” she said.