Thousands gathered in Sydney's CBD for this year's Anzac Day parade which, for the first time, was led by hundreds of female veterans.
Rain has not deterred crowds from lining Elizabeth Street to watch more than 16,000 servicemen and women march to commemorate 103 years since troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.
Among those at the head of the parade was 100-year-old Molly Cummings, who is honouring her many family members who have served for Australia.
Suzanne and Paul Smith, who for decades took their now-adult son Matthew to dawn services this year brought their 5-year-old grandson Xavier for the first time.
Suzanne Smith, whose own father was a serviceman, agreed that it was important that future generations appreciate the sacrifices of those who came before them.
"They're growing up in a different world now, so it makes a big difference," she told AAP.
QUEENSLAND
In drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD, brothers Finn and Rhys McNeil, aged 9 and 7, remembered their great, great uncle at Anzac Square.
Patrick Joseph Delacour went to France with the 41st battalion in WWI, aged 25, but never returned.
"We wanted to show respect to the soldiers, the men and women, the nurses that served in WWI and WWII to keep us safe," the boys' mother Tracey said.
A beachside service was also held at Currumbin on the Gold Coast.
ACT
An estimated 38,000 people braved the cold in Canberra, as Colonel Susan Neuhaus reflected on a century of severed limbs and broken bodies.
The veteran surgeon, who returned from active service in Afghanistan, said she - like many Australians - had no faded photographs of men or women in uniform at home or relatives who served on the beaches of Gallipoli, muddy fields of Somme or the jungles of South East Asia.
"And yet like all of us I benefit from what they have done," she said as dawn broke over the Australian War Memorial.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Ian Smith, chair of the RSL SA's Anzac Day committee, told the thousands who gathered for Adelaide's early morning ceremony that women who served in the armed forces needed greater recognition.
Women were restricted to nursing roles prior to the WWII, when all three services introduced women's branches, he said.
VICTORIA
Contemporary veterans are for the first time leading Melbourne's traditional Anzac Day march, with thousands of people taking part.
"It reflects the changing face of our veteran community," Victoria's RSL President Robert Webster said. "It's right that we honour them (contemporary veterans).
"Some of them have been through some pretty rough times ... some of them have done six and seven rotations through Afghanistan and various places."
Previously led by the descendants of World War I veterans, the march began at Flinders Street station, working its way down St Kilda Road to the Shrine of Remembrance. Up to 12,000 people took part in the 2018 march.
TASMANIA
The mood at Hobart's Anzac Day dawn service was sombre, but the message was optimistic.
Vietnam veteran Bill Counsell was one of the thousands who rugged up on a chilly but clear morning at the city's Cenotaph, overlooking the CBD and River Derwent.
"It's good to see the people. And that they haven't forgotten us, shall we say," Counsell, vice-president of the RSL Hobart sub-branch, told AAP. "People can quite easily forget what's gone on in the past and get on with their lives."
The veteran was there with his grandson - one of many of the younger generations who huddled together with parents and grandparents.
"The lesson is to learn from our past and try to not make the same mistakes - which as humans, we find it very difficult to do," Counsell said.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Cath Burton has been coming to the Anzac Day dawn service at Perth's Kings Park with her husband for about 40 years.
This year, they were joined by their son and grandchildren.
Both of Ms Burton's uncles, aged 21 and 25, were killed in World War II - one by a sniper in New Guinea while the other was shot down over the English channel.
"Imagine being in those trenches, up to your knees in mud," Burton said. "So we don't complain about getting up early."
Crowd numbers were down slightly this year at the Kings Park State War Memorial service, with about 30,000 people in attendance.
After the dawn service, there was an Aboriginal corroboree and Maori haka performance. It was the first time such a tribute was held involving both cultures.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
Among the thousands of people at Darwin's Anzac Day dawn service was World War II veteran and former prisoner of war Charlie Parrott, who is 98-years-old and still going strong.
He was captured in Crete and survived four years in a German POW camp in Poland, where the often bitter cold and snow nearly killed him, and feels lucky to have lived.
"It was pretty tough going, I hope we never have to go through it again," he said, while laughing. "I did not serve my country as much as I'd like to because I was taken prisoner of war.
"I don't like looking back, but I've had a very lucky life."
Thousands of people attending the Dawn Service were told how Anzac Day holds a particular resonance for the city, given it's history of being attacked during World War II.
- AAP
