Ms Robb travelled up from her Batemans Bay home to pay her respects to a number of family members at the Port Kembla march and service.

There was a strong significance behind the trip north.

‘‘I came here every year as a child and marched with my dad wearing my grandmother’s medals and he would wear his father’s and grandfather’s,’’ Ms Robb said.

This Anzac Day, she was wearing those medals because her father, an Australian war historian, passed away last year.

‘‘He would normally be in Turkey now because he was a battlefield guide,’’ she said.

‘‘He did it for the last 12 years of his life. I’ll be taking his ashes to Turkey in July this year as he wanted them to be placed at Anzac Cove.’’

Ms Robb said Anzac Day was significant for her and her father - whose birthday fell on the following day.

‘‘It means everything for me because it meant everything for my father – he was passionate about Australian war history,’’ Ms Robb said.

She was one of more than 500 people who turned out to see servicemen and women and their relatives march down Wentworth Street to the memorial outside the Port Kembla RSL Club.

Alice Heffernan was there with her son Eamon to watch the march.

She said she had been involved in the march on Anzac Day since she was in the Girl Guides as a child. Friday was the fourth Anzac Day dawn she had spent at Port Kembla.

‘‘It is our local march and it’s a lovely way of paying respect,’’ Mrs Heffernan said.

‘‘It’s a day of memory, a day of respect. We always have the TV on at home for the Sydney march. I went up for the Sydney march a couple of years ago. That was an amazing experience.’’

Michael Atkin from Shellharbour was there with his children Stuart and Karen. Mr Atkin had been coming to the march since the 1960s and can remember driving his father, World War II navy veteran Norman Atkin, to the Port Kembla RSL when he first got his licence.

Stuart said it was a day to remember their grandfather, whose name was on a plaque at the memorial outside the Port Kembla RSL.

With the closure of the RSL club, Stuart feared that this year’s Anzac Day march could be the last at Port Kembla.

Karen said they liked to spend some time at Port Kembla with their grandfather on Anzac Day.

‘‘It was his old stomping ground,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s an important place for granddad. It’s where we can come to have a drink with him.’’