The crowd which lined the streets crossed many generations, as did those who marched from the Adelaide Hotel to the RSL Memorial Hall on a  glorious autumn day.

As the march was about to commence, the crowd was treated to a spectacular flyover by two Royal Australian Navy helicopters.

In his commemoration address, Moruya Sub-Branch president and World War II veteran Harold Barkley described the Gallipoli campaign as one of the most stupid in history.

“People ask why celebrate such a campaign?” he said.

“The answer is that it forged the spirit of Anzac.

“We are not remembering a defeat, we are celebrating the birth of the Anzac spirit, and may it remain for ever more.”

Singer Corey Miles added a New Zealand element to the commemoration by singing that country’s national anthem in both Maori and English.

A contingent of South Vietnamese army veterans from Sydney and the Eurobodalla, who fled their homeland for Australia after the Vietnam war, joined many of their former allies at the march, and there was also a group representing Nepal. 

For former South Vietnamese soldier Quana Thinh Vu, Anzac Day is a sacred occasion.

“We are here to remember those Australians and who sacrificed their lives for our country,” he said. 

“We will never forget them.”

There were also veterans from World War II, Korea, Malaya and other more recent operations.

Moruya’s Stephen Smith saw action in the Korean, Malaya and Vietnam wars, and fellow Moruya resident Maree Knight was there to remember her grandfather Trevor Knight, who served in the Australian Army’s 39^th Battalion in New Guinea in World War 2.

“I have been marching since I was a kid,” she said.

“It is a special day to remember him.”

John Wallace was there with his family to remember his father who served in World War II and his grandfather, who served with the 7^th Light Horsemen in World War I and was a military policeman in World War II.