Dawn Service, Gallipoli, Turkey

The soil on which we stand today has extraordinary significance for our people and our nation.

It is a place of terrible loss, solemn memory, and now immense national pride.

Ninety-four years ago, more than 130,000 young men from around the globe courageously gave their lives in circumstances so desperate one cannot begin to imagine the fear they had to confront, and the courage needed to overcome it.

Hundreds of thousands were also wounded. Of those who survived, many more went to fight and die on other battlefields of the Great War.

Those who stand here today know they are the fortunate ones.

We greet one another not as foes, but as representatives of nations at peace, of peoples united in a common cause to build a better world.

Today, the Turkish nation, built upon a generation's sacrifice, welcomes all of us here at Gallipoli, as it does every year to join in shared reflection.

Every year, we come here to remember, to honour and to extend the hand of friendship and respect.

We know that the Gallipoli Campaign marked a defining moment in both our nations' histories.

Australians gather each year on these hills to reflect upon the significance of young soldiers, fighting for the first time as Australians, showing endurance, ingenuity, courage and unflinching loyalty to each other in a campaign doomed from the start.

Short moments on the beach and long months in the trenches, in conditions of the greatest adversity, have taken on profound significance over time. They now say something about our characteristics as a people, and the spirit of our nation.

Every year now, as Australians throughout the world gather to commemorate Anzac Day and remember lives lost, we also celebrate our national characteristics, our values and our virtues: the great Australian notion of a fair go, of looking out for one's mates, of a sense of humour in adversity and the sure and certain knowledge that however bad our circumstances might be, there is always someone else worse off who needs a helping hand.

In the eight months of painful fighting, from trench to bitter trench, an unshakeable bond was also forged between Australian and New Zealand soldiers serving in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the Anzacs.

That bond and the Anzac legend endures to this day through the deep friendship Australians share with our neighbours across the Tasman.

The Anzacs had as comrades soldiers and sailors from all corners of the earth: from Britain, France and Ireland; from Canada and Russia; from Nepal and the Punjab.

Here, on this peninsula, it is also impossible not to see that Gallipoli was a defining moment for the Turkish people and the Turkish nation as well.

Over the years, Australians have come to learn much of the courage and sacrifice of the Turkish soldiers, often less well equipped than our own, who died defending their homeland.

We have learned of the remarkable respect that grew between the soldiers who faced each other in battle across a line of trenches. We have seen that respect grow into a wider respect between our nations.

We remember the indomitable leadership of Mustafa Kemal, who as Ataturk, the father of a nation, put aside the conflict and any enmity, and laid the foundation for a warm friendship that this day unites our nations.

It is impossible not to be moved by Ataturk's words, recorded nearby, that Australians who died here are now "lying in the soil of a friendly country".

The graciousness displayed in this message to the mothers of lost sons is evident today in the abundance of warmth, friendship and respect between our two peoples.

That friendship and that respect best honour those young soldiers who lost their lives on this rugged peninsula.

And so today, we keep alight the flame of their memory and uplift the spirit of our nation.

Lest We Forget.

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