About 100 people gathered in the city and 40 in Mosgiel to mark the 91st anniversary of the official ceasefire at the end of World War 1 at 11am on November 11, 1918.
The blank round was followed by a second - scheduled - boom on the last chime of the town hall clock at 11am.
The second cannon shot was accompanied by a two-round gun salute from 105mm pack-howitzers at Queen's Gardens and Unity Park in Mornington, which set numerous car alarms ringing.
Two minutes' silence to remember the war dead followed. As bugler Ralph Miller played the Last Post, a P51-D Mustang, a 1944 fighter plane owned and flown by Robert Borrius-Broek, of Wanaka, made a flyover of the city, ending the two minutes' silence.
Among the crowd gathered for the Armistice Day service at the cenotaph were representatives of the army, air force, navy, police and a handful of veterans.
Norm McElwee laid a wreath on the behalf of the Otago Mounted Rifles.
"I think I'm the only one [from the OMR] here.
"I'm 86. This . . . is getting all a bit too much for most of us," he said.
Dunedin RSA president Jenepher Glover said she was pleased with the turnout.
"Lots of the old people can't make it here now, but they see this in the paper and it gladdens their hearts to see the people of Dunedin are supporting them and their brothers and sisters who served."
A detective with the Dunedin police, and a veteran of police service in East Timor, Ms Glover said the 15-strong representation of officers at the Queens Gardens service reflected the increasing role police were taking in serving overseas alongside the military.
