Soldiers in defensive positions were woken in the dark before dawn, so by the time first light crept across the battlefield, they were awake, alert, and handling their weapons; this is still known as the "stand-to".

After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they had felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn.

A dawn vigil became the basis for commemoration in several places after the war. It is difficult to say when the first dawn services were held.

A dawn requiem mass was held at Albany as early as 1918, and a wreath-laying and commemoration took place at dawn in Toowoomba the following year.

In 1927 a group of returned men, returning at dawn from an Anzac Day function held the night before, came upon an elderly woman laying flowers at the as yet unfinished Sydney Cenotaph.

Joining her in this private remembrance, the men later resolved to institute a dawn service the following year.

Some 150 people gathered at the Cenotaph in 1928 for a wreath-laying and two minutes' silence.

This is generally regarded as the beginning of organised dawn services. Over the years, the ceremonies have developed into their modern forms, with family members welcome, and they have seen an increased association with the dawn landings of April 25, 1915.

From the archives of the Australian War Memorial.

Sometimes called 'dog biscuits', it was often on the dinner table as a 'common issue ration' for Australian troops in the First World War. These biscuits were famous for being so hard that they could break teeth.

The biscuit pictured here was so tough its owner turned it into a postcard and sent it from Egypt to his family in Australia.

It took a while to arrive, with no envelope and the address on the back, but what a great note to find in the letterbox.

Flat, unbreakable, beaut writing 'paper' and a good size for a letter, who would have thought to turn them into such a neat idea?

People at home in Australia wanted to send what they thought of as much better and healthier biscuits, so they made their own out of oats, sugar, flour, coconut, butter and golden syrup and sent them in parcels to their men at Gallipoli.

While they were nifty little gifts, Anzac biscuits had to be hard and tough because they had to survive the long journey to the troops.

Sometimes they were eaten instead of bread (which went stale quickly), while others at the front crushed them, mixed them with water and ate them like porridge.