Despite serving in Iraq and East Timor, Darren Carr doesn't see Anzac Day as for him.
He was one of 25,000 people at Thursday's Anzac dawn service at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, 104 years after the Gallipoli landing.
Corporal Carr's grandfathers fought in Gallipoli and Borneo but despite his own service, the veteran says he doesn't feel Anzac Day is about him.
Each year in the pre-dawn dark, he thinks about "some of the guys that I was with that didn't come home".
"(It's) not about what I sacrificed, (it's) about what people sacrificed before me," Corporal Carr said.
Attendance at this year's dawn service was down from about 35,000 people last year.
But Shrine of Remembrance chief executive Dean Lee put the lower numbers down to Anzac Day falling right after the Easter long weekend and more people attending local services.
Addressing the pre-dawn crowd, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged them to care for "the next generation of Anzac".
"How can we possibly thank so many for giving so much?" he asked.
"Stand here at this hour in this still dark, sacred place and remember them, remember that they came from every corner of Victoria and Australia, every walk of life, every background."
Damien McGee, 30, served in Afghanistan and comes each year to remember "the small things that we have here in Australia that we generally take for granted".
Margaret Carnovale came to the dawn service to honour her father, Les Rodda, who served in New Guinea.
"I used to come every year here with my dad but he passed away. He was in World War Two," she said.
About 65,000 people were expected to take part in Anzac Day commemorations in central Melbourne, including the march from Federation Square to the Shrine of Remembrance.
Australian Associated Press
