Anzac Day is a day that is more important to many Australians than our other national days.
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Almost one hundred years have passed since the end of the First World War.
That was when Anzac Day began to honour the soldiers lost at Gallipoli, then elsewhere in Europe over more than four years.
Seventy-five years ago, we saw the dark days of the Second World War when Darwin was bombed.
Fifty years ago our soldiers when in the jungles of Vietnam.
In between those years, and more recently, there have been other conflicts.
This is our last edition before Anzac Day, and as we look ahead to that day, the pages of this edition look at the service of our soldiers.
Corporal Adam Dowling from Uralla shows us the face of the modern Australian soldier, currently serving in Iraq to assist that nation in its fight against a terrorist group.
“When you're in the army you have a job to do, and Anzac Day is a reminder that you're part of something bigger,” Corporal Dowling said.
That past is remembered in our pages, where we reflect on the 75th anniversary of the sinking of HMAS Armidale off the coast of East Timor in December 1941.
The reason, so many Australians find a deeper connection with Anzac Day, than with other national days, is because we understand what we are recognising on Anzac Day. As we go along to dawn services, or later on in the day see our veterans or their family members march, it is right there in front of us.
And it’s also not there. It’s the soldiers who went to war and did not come home and march on Anzac Day.
The sacrifice of young lives is not something that has been relegated to our history books either.
Over the last decade there have been Australian soldiers killed while serving the armed forces in conflicts abroad.
Those soldiers join the long list of fallen from previous wars and Anzac Day is all about showing respect for that sacrifice.
That’s why our city’s shops are closed in the morning.
That’s why we attend the Anzac Day march.
That’s why we remember.
And that is why Anzac Day holds so much significance to most Australians, more than any other national day on our calendar.