It was on a still spring night a century ago that the ships carrying the Anzacs slipped into waters around the Gallipoli peninsula. The first boat landed shortly after 4am.
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One who came ashore at Anzac Cove that day was Private Charles Buckeridge, a 22-year-old carpenter from Wollongong.
He landed at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915 and was wounded the same day. He recuperated on a hospital ship and returned to Gallipoli less than a month later.
In July, he wrote his parents a letter that was published in the Illawarra Mercury. He ended it with: "We are all looking forward to the day we enter dear old Sydney heads. It will be a great day, and we hope not very far away".
Private Buckeridge was killed a month later during the battle for Lone Pine on August 7.
More than 750 Australians were killed on that first day. By the time of the evacuation, in December 1915, more than 8700 Australians had died. Today we honour the values the Anzacs embodied in the most trying of circumstances. We acknowledge that the worst of times brought out the best in them - courage, perseverance and selflessness - the same qualities found in the medics, stretcher bearers, cooks, chaplains and nurses who worked on hospital ships. And they were found in abundance in the Anzacs who went on to serve in the Middle East and on the Western Front.
From an Australian population of just under 5 million, 417,000 enlisted - 164,000 hailed from New South Wales - 332,000 served overseas, 152,000 were wounded and more than 61,000 never came home. The names of all those Australians who died in the Great War are engraved on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, along with the names of more than 40,000 Australians who have made the ultimate sacrifice since. In a century of service, we have lost more than 102,000 of our nation's finest.
Our armed forces are on duty in the Middle East and elsewhere, risking their lives to defend our freedom. Today we honour those who founded the Anzac legend and all who have followed in their path. We are the custodians of their legacy.
Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister