Anzac Day 2024 as it happened: Dawn services, two-up across the nation as Australia remembers its Diggers

And that wraps up our coverage of Anzac Day for 2024.

About 85,000 people attended dawn services and marches in Australia’s capital cities this morning, to honour those who have served in Australia’s armed forces. Thousands more also joined commemorative services in France and Turkey.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended a dawn service in Papua New Guinea and said that Anzac Day did not ask Australians to exalt war, but to hold on to the names and deeds of those who had served, and protect them from the erosion of time.

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At the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli in Turkey, Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has recounted the stories of Australian families who lost entire generations in the First World War.

Almost 9,000 Australians lost their lives here at Gallipoli, 60,000 across the entirety of World War I, more than 150,000 were injured.

And that’s why you cannot visit a town in our country with more than a couple of hundred people without finding in it a monument to those who served and died in the First World War.

These remembrances are ageing. But they are still there. Look at the names. Look at how many names in such small places.”

About 1800 people were expected to attend the service at Gallipoli, where the Anzac legend was forged on April 25, 1915.

At dawn that day, 16,000 Australian soldiers landed on the Gallipoli peninsula alongside troops from Britain, France and India. Their goal was to help a naval effort to seize control of the Dardanelles and to draw Turkish troops away from Russian soldiers on the Caucasus front.

But the Anzacs met fierce resistance from Turkish forces and 2000 Australians were killed or wounded on the first day of fighting. The allied troops eventually withdrew from the peninsula before Christmas that year.

Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh has acknowledged the burdens many veterans carry from their time in the armed forces, while visiting a key World War I battlefield in France to mark Anzac Day.

Keogh also reflected on the legacy of the original Anzacs during an address in Villers-Bretonneux, a town in northern France that Australian soldiers helped recapture from the German army on Anzac Day in 1918.

The Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux, FranceCredit: Alamy Stock Photo

More than 295,000 Australians served on the Western Front during World War I and about 46,000 were killed. Another 18,000 remain missing.

“The original Anzacs helped shape who we are as Australians,” Keogh said.

“The values they displayed on the battlefields – courage, selflessness, endurance, loyalty and mateship – have been passed down to generation after generation of Australian service personnel; values displayed in more recent times in Afghanistan, Iraq, Timor-Leste, and in peacekeeping operations under way right now.

“The impact of service is significant. And for many the war within continues long after someone hangs up their uniform for the last time.

“This is not just a burden for our veterans, but for their families too. Today, on Anzac Day, we pay tribute to more than 2 million Australians who have served our nation and its allies in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.”

As the Anzac Day marches across the eastern states conclude, take a look back at the day with our picture gallery:

Ben Roberts-Smith was spotted sitting among dignitaries at Western Australia’s flagship Anzac Day dawn service at Kings Park.

It’s the first Anzac Day since the Victoria Cross recipient was found by a Federal Court judge to have carried out or been complicit in the murders of four unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan.

The government has previously said the civil defamation finding was not enough to strip Roberts-Smith of his military decorations, which he wore today.

Last year, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra installed an 84-word plaque next to the display for the Perth-born former soldier, acknowledging the court’s finding that he was a war criminal.

Roberts-Smith is currently appealing his defamation loss.

The PM is back on Australian soil just in time for a game of two-up at the Townsville RSL in Queensland.

He was joined by some of Canberra’s more eccentric politicians, including independents Bob Katter and Jacqui Lambie.

He’s in Townsville on his way home from a two-day journey along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, which concluded with the dawn service at the Isurava war memorial.

As the march drew to a close in Melbourne, the massed pipe bands concluded the procession at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Daryll Topp, president of the Defence Force Welfare Association of Victoria, gave an address at the commemoration ceremony. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1975 and served overseas several times. His first deployment was in 1983 to the Australian Contingent Multinational Force Observers Sinai.

Spectators show their respects during the ANZAC Day march in Melbourne.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Topp told the crowd conditions in the Sinai were difficult.

“The conditions of service for members posted to the Sinai were very different to the current conditions for service for peacekeeping missions,” he said.

RSL Victoria president Dr Robert Webster gave the closing remarks.

He said that while the commemoration of Anzac Day was deeply personal, everyone was touched by the Anzac spirit.

“Our dedication to honouring the Anzac spirit to future generations and fostering the belief that we should always remember must continue to be a priority to us all,” he said.

“Our military history is part of Australia’s identity, and collectively we must always ensure that our nation’s past is included in our future.”

Members of the public placed wreaths at the Shrine to end the ceremony.

If you’re reading this on your way to the pub, consider this your two-up crash course.

First, for a quick history, two-up is thought to have originated in the early 19th century on the Australian goldfields. The game had its heyday with the Diggers stationed in Flanders in World War I. It remained popular with Australian troops during World War II and is an institution in pubs and clubs on Anzac Day.

Punters play two-up at the Australian Hotel at The Rocks in Sydney in 2023.Credit: Wolter Peeters

It is usually played with two coins, but can also be played with three. The piece of wood the coins are thrown on is called the kip, and the person running the game is called the boxer or the ringer.

A nob is what you call a double-headed coin.

When the boxer says “come in spinner”, that’s the cue for the coins to be tossed.

The object of the game is to spin a pair of heads. The spinner must throw heads three times in a row before they can collect the winnings.

In the Diggers’ version of the game, punters can bet with as many people as they like.

Betty Quee, 87, held a picture of her late husband, Brian Quee, as she joined her first-ever Anzac Day procession, in Melbourne.

Quee’s husband served in the Australian Defence Force for 27 years, having signed up fresh off the boat from England as a young man.

Quee said honouring her husband of more than 50 years had been emotional.

“It was more than what I expected. The crowd cheered and waved – it was something extraordinary,” she said.

Betty Quee’s husband, Brian, was one of the first soldiers to arrive in Vietnam in 1962.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Son James Quee brought his mum down from NSW to push her in the march.

“Dad turned 18 on the boat, and as soon as he got out here he joined the army,” James said. “He was in the occupying force in Japan and then had a career right through to the ’70s.”

James said his mum had three kids under three when her husband was first sent to Vietnam.

“She didn’t even know where Vietnam was or what was it because it was all hush-hush. She wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that he’d gone to special jungle training.”

Brian Quee battled post-traumatic stress and died 11 years ago.

“Anzac Day is a huge emotional day for us,” said James. “I still get very choked up when I’m talking about dad. I’m so proud of his achievements and what he accomplished in the army.”

James made the decision to travel from NSW so that his mother could experience the atmosphere of the Melbourne march.

“You’re seeing the appreciation that other people have, the clapping and cheering,” he said.

“I thought, ‘She deserves this.’ She did it pretty tough.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Kokoda pilgrimage has come to an end.

A helicopter picked up the PM and PNG Prime Minister James Marape this morning.

Albanese has already returned to Australia, where he is expected to appear at an Anzac Day event at the Townsville RSL.

Read more about the trip from foreign affairs correspondent Matthew Knott.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaves after the Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Isurava memorial.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

PNG Prime Minister James Marape waves as he and Albanese leave the Kokoda Track.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer