When Kelly Horne was handed a small, brightly wrapped chocolate bar, she knew her work had meaning.
The Australian Army regional support chaplain was caring for Ukrainian recruits during a 2023 visit to the United Kingdom.
In just a week, they would be soldiers on the front line against the highly trained Russian military.
Four of them, speaking broken English, gave Horne the chocolate as a thank you for her work.
"That small but significant gift was something they could give. It meant the world to me," she told a crowd of about 2,000 people at the Australian War Memorial's Remembrance Day ceremony.
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"It was at that point that I realised it mattered that I had turned up.
"I wasn't training them in weapon handling or tactical combat skills. What I had given was kindness and hope."
That sentiment — often considered an embodiment of the Anzac spirit — was alive in ceremonies across the country on Wednesday.
The date marked 108 years since the armistice that ended four years of continuous warfare on Europe's Western Front, the main battleground of World War One, where more than 60,000 Australians died.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn laid a scarlet poppy wreath, first used in 1934 at the memorial's construction site, which symbolised the continuity of Australian service.
Many of those in attendance at the memorial had brought with them children and older parents, ready to lay poppies on the names of relatives in the Hall of Remembrance after the event.
Others wore their relatives' medals, pausing quietly at times as they thought of the sacrifices their loved ones had made.
To the left of the main ceremony area, a little girl in a blue sunhat was told by her mum about the sacrifice her Poppy had made, "for your future and your children's future", as a guard of honour marched onto the parade ground.
Soon after, the warble of a didgeridoo marked the sacrifice Indigenous soldiers had made, many of whom fought before they were considered citizens .
Defence Force Chief Admiral Mark Hammond and other decorated servicemen laid wreaths.
For many of today's soldiers, following in family footsteps by joining the military was something they felt called to do, despite the sacrifices they had witnessed.
That was the case for veteran Brad Copelin, who told the Australian Associated Press news agency he followed his father and grandfather.
Having served nearly 25 years in the Australian Army, including deployments to Afghanistan and Solomon Islands, the 56-year-old believes the spirit of Remembrance Day should extend beyond an annual pause.
"Remembrance Day brings up a lot of memories," Copelin said.
"As much as we have some really great memories from our service, and some really great people that we worked with ... there's also the negative memories of our service that we will carry with us all the time."
Copelin had no intention of doing anything other than continue the family legacy and received his parents' permission to enlist at age 17.
His father had been in the Navy on HMAS Melbourne when it crashed with the USS Frank E Evans, cutting it in two.
It was not until after Copelin enlisted that his grandfather, a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma railway, began telling his grandson of his experience.
"He never spoke about the war to anyone," said the veteran.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Australia's soldiers while in Singapore, using a stopover on his journey to the United Nations climate talks to mark the occasion.
He laid a wreath at the Changi Chapel and Museum early on Wednesday, joined by Australia's Singapore high commissioner Robyn Mudie.
