Instead, they are remembered as young people forever inscribed in bronze on a roll of honour, the Royal Australian Navy's Paul Scott has told crowds gathering in Bendigo for Anzac Day commemoration services.

But it is our privilege and duty to remember and honour those men and women who died in service to their country, Captain Scott said.

A large crowd gathered to watch ex-servicemen and women march from Town Hall to the Soldiers Memorial Institute for the second of two services.

More: Anzac Day 2019 in Bendigo and central Victoria - follow it live

For ex-navy servicemen Paul Ferrari and Adam Lovriha it was a chance to honour those still serving and remembering those who had come before them.

They both served in the Middle East during the Iraq War and had travelled extensively through South East Asia and now lived in Bendigo.

Others were visiting from further afield.

Ken Dowling served with New Zealand armed forces in Vietnam and now lived in Wheatsheaf, near Daylsford.

He and his partner travelled to a different Anzac Day ceremony every year.

"I wasn't in the Australian military but I served for a period with it, so services are sometimes an opportunity to catch up with some of those I was with," Mr Dowling said.

"Usually we talk about the people we served with, more than anything. Sometimes operations we were on come up."

Those conversations were also sometimes a chance to talk about how people had coped since the end of the war. Mr Dowling said that scars had run deep for many veterans.

It was a theme picked up by Captain Scott in his address.

For most of the 20^th century many servicemen and their families struggled in silence with post traumatic stress, including those who served in World War One, he said.

"When the marches were over and the bands had gone men went home to their families, who tried to understand their greatly changed brother, son or husband," Captain Scott said.

"The horror and trauma of the war continued to seriously affect many who survived. It also profoundly affected the women soldiers married and the children they raised."

It was an issue that society was getting better at dealing with, at a time when the Australian Defence Force was operating at a high tempo around the world, Captain Scott said.

"Undoubtedly, there is always more to be done to bring veterans home and provide them with the opportunity and means to resettle as civilians," he said.

The trauma that some had brought back from Afghanistan was particularly pertinent, Captain Scott said.

"Forty-one Australian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan and 261 were wounded. Tragically this death toll from Afghanistan and other operations, through PTSD, continues (to climb) every year," he said.

"The generosity of employers and respect for veterans in their service matters and can be the difference between life and death."

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