About 2000 people gathered at the cenotaph for the dawn service at 6.30am on Saturday and commemorated 111 years since the Anzac landings at Gallipoli in 1915.
They crowded around the memorial to remember the fallen and pay their respects to the servicemen and women who have returned from various conflicts.
The chaplain leading the prayer and blessing was Leah Chrisman.
"To memorialise calls us to remember, and it also invites us to consider the present and the future in light of the past.
"We remember and honour the sacrifices of thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders during times of war as well as times of peace. Through Gallipoli and many conflicts over history, our people have known the trauma and tragedy of war and its aftermath."
Trinity Catholic College head students Leah Olsen and Jack Waterhouse, both 17, each gave a reading.
Leah told the story of Janet Wyse Mackie Williamson, who served as a nurse during the Boer War in South Africa, and who was New Zealand’s first recipient of the Royal Red Cross award.
In 1899 she was one of nine New Zealand nurses selected to serve in the Boer War, where she was appointed as sister-in-charge of the contingent.
Leah said she was stationed at No 10 General Hospital, Bloemfontein, for 17 months.
In 1914 she was invited to meet the Minister of Defence, James Allen. She did so, and requested that the government establish a nursing service for overseas duty.
She died in Dunedin in 1936, Leah said.
The Ode was read in te reo Māori by retired major Crispin Garden-Webster and in English by Dunedin RSA president Gerry Costello (warrant officer first class retired).
Roads surrounding Queens Gardens were closed to traffic for the service, and emergency services, along with the Red Cross, were there to help the day run smoothly.
The Montecillo Veterans Home & Hospital Anzac service drew about 150 people; Green Island’s about 200; Green Park Cemetery’s had about 200 people attend; and Brighton’s service had about 350 people turn up for the parade, and 250 stayed for the service.
