Veterans, their families, friends, school students, community organisations and emergency services were among the huge parade that made its way down the New England Highway on Thursday morning.
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Hundreds of people gathered around the East Maitland Cenotaph to pay their respects to all who served Australia in fields of conflict – from the Diggers of World War One through to the service men and women who make up the Australian Defence Force today.
Lieutenant Thomas Hartley, from the School of Infantry at Singleton, gave the Anzac Day address.
He spoke of the bravery of those involved in the Allied campaign of 1915.
“The cream of the Australian and New Zealand armies – volunteers and all – committed themselves with no hesitation about the nobility of their cause and fought with great courage, skill and audacity,” he said.
“In the eight months that followed their first landing, some 50,000 Anzacs were committed to the battlefront alongside British, French and Indian comrades. When the last of them were withdrawn, as the winter set in, about 11,000 Australians and New Zealanders lay dead. With them, many more Allied and Turkish soldiers.
“The achievements of the Anzacs can be measured in [ways] other than strategy, tactics and battles. Their true achievements were their courage, determination, mateship and sacrifice. These were the achievements that set standards that inspired their countrymen for generations to follow.”
Anzac Day commemorations elsewhere across the Lower Hunter also attracted healthy crowds at dawn and mid-morning services.
