What was planned as a valiant strike against the Ottoman Turkish defenders eight months earlier had quickly become a stalemate.

More than 8000 soldiers gave their lives in the war efforts.

Scattering silver wattle seed through the cemeteries that lined the peninsula, Australian Imperial Force chaplain Padre Walter Dexter said, “If we have to leave here, I intend that a bit of Australia shall still be here.”

When the war began in 1914, the Australian government had yet to establish a reputation for itself among the other nations.

Britain had declared war against Germany and Australia was placed on the side of the Commonwealth.

Sent to capture the Gallipoli peninsula with New Zealand soldiers, the objective was to open the Dardanelles - a narrow, natural straight in northwestern Turkey. Once the allied navies had access to the waters, it was assumed it would help to capture the capital of the Ottoman Empire - now known as Istanbul, an ally of Germany.

The mission was largely considered a failure and, on December 8, the British War Cabinet ended the campaign.

Australian and New Zealand soldiers began their retreat in silence, broken only by the sounds of irregular artillery fire to give the Turks the impression it was business as usual.

War equipment was taken away under cover of nightfall until the last of the remaining party made their way to the piers.

Twelve years later, back in Australia, a contingent of returned soldiers coming home at dawn discovered an older woman laying flowers at the then unfinished Sydney Cenotaph.

The men joined her and planned a dawn service the following year.

More than 100 people gathered at the Cenotaph in 1928 for two minutes of silence. This is considered the beginning of organised dawn services.

Every year since, Australians gather at dawn services to remember the sacrifice of those soldiers.