SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: More than 12 months out from the ANZAC centenary, Australia is gearing up for an enormous celebration to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. 8,000 Australians will flock to ANZAC Cove for the event and over $325 million is to be outlaid on First World War commemorations, more than double the amount Britain plans to spend.

The ANZAC legend has generated an enormous industry and now one Army veteran is asking whether our ANZAC obsession has gone too far. Former officer James Brown commanded troops in Iraq and was attached to the Special Forces in Afghanistan. He says ANZAC Day has become a lavish festival of the dead and argues the money would be better spent supporting returning soldiers who are struggling to deal with the physical and psychological legacy of war. And some other veterans agree with him. Matt Peacock has this report.

MATT PEACOCK, REPORTER: The Last Post last night at Australia's War Memorial. Each year increasing numbers of Australians are flocking to ANZAC commemorations of the Great War far away, 100 years ago.

But on the eve of Australia's ANZAC centenary, some veterans from the most recent wars believe it's all going too far.

JAMES BROWN, FORMER CAPT. & AUTHOR, ANZAC'S LONG SHADOW: The injunction at most war memorials is, "Let silent contemplation be your offering". But instead we're about to embark on a four-year festival for the dead which in some cases looks like a military Halloween.

KEN DOOLAN, RSLE NATIONAL PRESIDENT: Of course he has a point, but whether that point is a point that - with which the vast bulk of Australians will agree remains to be seen.

PETER LEAHY, FORMER CHIEF OF ARMY, 2002-2008: Some people won't like this, but let's talk about it and let's make sure that ANZAC is relevant to the Australian public, but to this new generation of soldiers, because they've got to learn, they've got to learn that they are the new heroes.

MATT PEACOCK: Commemorating Australia's war dead has become big business and it's about to get bigger.

BOB HAWKE, THEN PRIME MINISTER: ... Because these hills rang with their voices and ran with their blood.

JOHN HOWARD, THEN PRIME MINISTER: ... Australia, a lasting sense of national identity.

JULIA GILLARD, THEN PRIME MINISTER: ... but here, in 1915, its spirit and ethos were sealed.

MATT PEACOCK: Successive prime ministers have paid homage to the ANZAC tradition. There's now even a federal minister dedicated to supervising the centenary celebrations of World War I starting this year.

JAMES BROWN: It tells us something about the importance of ANZAC in Australia that we're spending 200 per cent more on commemorating the anniversary of the First World War than Britain is. Australia, a country that's trying to cut back spending in almost every other area of government policy, is spending money on an ANZAC arms race, looking for bigger and better ways to commemorate the service of our war dead.

MATT PEACOCK: James Brown served in Iraq and Afghanistan and military involvement runs in his family history. But his book questions the priorities of the coming commemorations.

JAMES BROWN: There's merchandising, there are tours, there are cruises, there are surfboat races, there are stonemasons who are whipping together memorials all across the country and actively selling their product to sub branches of RSLs and other community groups. So, there's a lot of money in this. I mean, just managing the events in Turkey over the next couple of years will cost the Government $27 million, which is going to a company in Melbourne. So people are making money and living off the ANZAC industry.

KEN DOOLAN: It's not a national obsession, it is part of our makeup, it is part of what makes us Australia. It's part of our - the richness of our society, the fact that we do honour those - those and not only those who fought and died, but those who fought and return, those who stood up at home.

MATT PEACOCK: The RSL's national president, Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, is chair of the War Museum and helped to design the centenary activities.

KEN DOOLAN: The Australian public are remarkably adroit at making up their own minds about that. If they want - if they think things are over the top and if they think things are being - too much is being spent, they have no hesitation in saying so.

JAMES BROWN: We're commissioning new histories about the soldiers at Gallipoli when we haven't even begun writing the history of soldiers at East Timor, in Iraq or in Afghanistan. We're spending three times as much money on ANZAC Day ceremonies over the next four years as we are on the problem of mental health for those soldiers coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder. And for me, I can't understand it. If we really believe what we say about ANZAC, then why aren't we spending that money looking after the soldiers right here and now?

JOHN BALE, FORMER CAPT. & CEO, SOLDIER ON: James really has stuck his neck out in this instance, but I think it's important and it's a conversation that is long overdue. We need to make sure that we do support those veterans who have fought and those ones who have come home quite recently so we don't have the same issues of the past, especially the issues that happened around the Vietnam War.

MATT PEACOCK: Fellow veteran John Bale set up the privately-funded Soldier On after losing his best friend in Afghanistan. He says three others wounded in the same incident had to fend for themselves on their return.

JOHN BALE: The level of recognition they got was negligible and support was similar and one of them couldn't even remember his child's name when he came back to Australia and I thought that was wrong and that was really the genesis for the charity.

MATT PEACOCK: Another veteran, Garth Calennder, was severely injured in this explosion in Iraq. He recovered and returned for tours of duty in Afghanistan before coming home three years ago.

GARTH CALLENDAR, RETIRED MAJOR: I think it's real shame that the glorification of the ANZAC, the idea in society of the digger is the bronzed Aussie battler making it up the beaches in Gallipoli. Yes, definitely that's part of it, but I would like to think that it should be the image of the young corporal lieutenant, bombardier, you know, patrolling the poppy fields in Uruzgan Province would be a better image for people to have, definitely a more relevant image for people to have.

MATT PEACOCK: He might catch up with his mates for the ANZAC commemorations, but he's not planning to join in.

GARTH CALLENDAR: And I've got to admit it's not necessarily going to be focused on getting up early and going to the Dawn Service because, to me, I don't feel 100 per cent connected to what they're doing at the service.

KEN DOOLAN: If nothing else comes out of it after four years than the fact that the vast bulk of Australians understand that we must preserve our great democracy and its freedoms and keep strong and if needs be send our forces in harm's way to ensure that, that will have been a remarkable achievement.

PETER LEAHY: And I'd say that James has started a very important national conversation.

MATT PEACOCK: For former Army chief Peter Leahy, it's a debate we need to have.

PETER LEAHY: To my mind, the legacy of ANZAC, the spirit of ANZAC should be to be able to say to the guys whose names are on that wall in there, "Hey, we're looking after this lot better than we did you."

MATT PEACOCK: And with any future wars likely to be closer to home, believes James Brown, it's important to shed our fixation on a glamorised past.

JAMES BROWN: The chance of conflict between major powers is not impossible. There's a lot of competition happening between the US and China, there's a lot of uncertainty in the region and a lot of increasing nationalism, so the chance that we might go to war again is there and it will be very different. It will be more at sea than on land, Australia will take more of an immediate role than just sending a small contribution over to the Middle East. So we need to get our heads around what's happening there too rather than simply reinforcing the simple myths of Simpson and his donkey for another four years.