Women finally take the lead at Anzac Day marches
A massive crowd has gathered in Sydney's CBD for this year's Anzac Day parade which, for the first time, is being 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 will be 100-year-old Molly Cummings, who is honouring her many family members who have served for Australia.
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Thousands of female veterans are leading Anzac Day parades around Australia to honour those who have served and to raise the profile of women in the military (pictured is a former servicewoman waving during the parade in Sydney)
This year, for the first time, women's service groups will march consecutively as part of the By The Left campaign
Women are seen marching through Brisbane as part of the By the Left group during commemorations
A girl looks round as she watches the Anzac Day march in Sydney on Wednesday
Musicians from the Hills District Pipe Band march during the Anzac Day march in Sydney
Two little girls can be seen holding Australian flags as they watch the parade
Tens of thousands rose early on Wednesday to attend dawn services - big and small - across the country, including many children.
This year, for the first time, women's service groups will march consecutively as part of the By The Left campaign, which aims to raise the profile of female veterans.
Australian military Major Kelliegh Jackson led this year's march in Sydney, alongside 500 female veterans to mark 103 years since Anzac troops landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, and the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
She said on Tuesday she hopes by doing so she'll change people's traditional view of the Australian military.
'So many women won't put their uniform on and won't wear their medals because of the perception this is a warlike culture,' Maj Jackson said.
'But this isn't about war. We are a much bigger machine.
'It doesn't matter who marches at the front or the back - we're all there as a team,' she said.
Karyn Hinder, who spent 25 years in the Australian Defence Force, has opened up about how female veterans have long avoided commemorative events because they are pressured to prove they earned their medals.
Women dressed as WWI nurses take part in the parade in Brisbane
A woman carries a framed photograph of what is assumed to be a family member
Men dressed as WWI soldiers take part in the parade in Brisbane
A couple hold hands as they march in the Sydney parade on Wednesday
War veteran Robert Walker gives a big wave to the roaring crowd in Brisbane
Rain has not deterred crowds from lining Elizabeth Street to watch more than 16,000 servicemen and women march
HMAS Waterhen is a Royal Australian Navy base located in Waverton on Sydney's lower north shore
Musicians from the Hills District Pipe Band march during the parade
Ex-servicemen and women march with current military personnel through Elizabeth street
People stand in the rain as they watch the parade. A woman can be seen holding a spotted umbrella
A veteran is escorted by another serviceman and a woman in Sydney
A group of sailors are seen marching through Elizabeth street during Anzac day
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Sydney's inner city for commemorations
'I just didn't think I deserved to march, and that's just because of a feeling I had when people are sort of questioning your medals,' Ms Hinder, who lives in Perth, told ABC.
WA Women's Royal Australian Army Corp Association president Judy Welch said female veterans are often 'asked "why are you wearing those medals, you should be wearing them on the right hand side because they'll be your husband's or somebody else's".
'And, no, they belong to them and rightly so.'
Women make up 15 per cent of the armed forces in 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.
'Women were fully integrated during the 1970s and 80s, and since then have continued to make their mark with a full range of responsibilities across all three services,' he told the crowd.
Members of the Albert Battery shoot a volley of fire at Anzac Day dawn service on Wednesday in Currumbin, Queensland
Anzac Day dawn services have begun in the county's capital cities, marking 103 years since the Gallipoli landings (pictured are children at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne)
Anzac day is a national holiday in Australia, marked by a dawn service held during the time of the original Gallipoli landing and commemorated with ceremonies and parades throughout the day
A member of the Australian Air Force salutes during dawn service in Sydney (pictured)
Bugler CPL Aaron Madden is seen during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane
Air Vice-Marshal Steven Roberton told the large crowd at Sydney's Martin Place that 'Anzac day is not about glorifying war, but about celebrating the Australian spirit.'
'Anzac signifies strength and quality of character, attitude and action that transcends time.'
The challenge, he said, was to make sure the spirit of Anzac was passed on to Australia's children and to honour the fallen and their sacrifice.
Suzanne and Paul Smith, who for decades took their now-adult son Matthew to dawn services this year brought their five-year-old grandson Xavier for the first time.
Ms 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 said.
Crowds are seen ahead of the dawn service at the National War Memorial in Canberra
People attend the dawn service marking Anzac Day in Gallipoli
A girl can be seen waiting for the sunrise in Gallipoli on Wednesday
Armed forces past and present are being commemorated around the country for their service (pictured is the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne)
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, NSW Governor David Hurley were among the thousands gathered for the service in Sydney on Wednesday morning (pictured is the dawn service in Sydney)
Later on Wednesday, female veterans will lead the march in Sydney for the first time to mark 103 years since Anzac troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915
In drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD, brothers Finn and Rhys McNeil, aged nine and seven, 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 told AAP.
A beachside service was also held at Currumbin on the Gold Coast.
An estimated 38,000 people braved the cold in Canberra, as Colonel Susan Neuhaus reflected on a century of severed limbs and broken bodies.
Australian TV veteran, most recently known for his stint on I'm A Celebrity, Jay Laga'aia, proudly sang the Australian and New Zealand National anthems to a 10,000-strong audience at Dee Why Beach
Massive crowds began gathering in Sydney around 5am for the dawn service and following march
Thousands of people have started gathering in drizzling rain in Brisbane's CBD for the dawn service (pictured)
A framed photograph tribute sits on the cenotaph during the Anzac Day Dawn service in Sydney
Members of the Mudgeeraba light horse troop take part in the dawn service in Currumbin
A young member of the Mudgeeraba light horse troop takes part in the dawn service in Currumbin
The words Lest We Forget are projected onto a building during the Anzac Day Dawn service at Martin Place in Sydney
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.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in France to attend the Anzac Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial just outside Villiers-Bretonneux.
Both he and French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe will give commemorative addresses, while Prince Charles will deliver a reading.
Eight year-old Henry Case and his grandfather Michael Case attend Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane
Members of the armed forces are seen during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane
A soldier stands guard at the cenotaph during Anzac Day commemorations in Brisbane
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks with with 95 year old Wal Scott - Smith, who retires after being Custodian of the Cenotaph for the past 78 years, after the Anzac Day Dawn service
A burial at sea is seen as part of the Anzac day dawn service at Elephant Rock in Currumbin