VETERANS around the region are preparing for an Anzac Day like none before.
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Where thousands normally gather at dawn to mark the sacrifices of service people, this year gatherings are forbidden.
A lone figure will instead stoop to lay a wreath at most central Victorian cenotaphs.
Gunfire breakfasts, marches, and wreath-laying normally bring thousands, crowding to watch.
Simpler ceremonies in small towns bring the whole community.
None of that will happen during Anzac Day 2020.
But central Victorian Returned Soldiers Leagues are encouraging the community to remember Anzac Day in a different way.
Castlemaine RSL sub-branch president John Whiddon, he couldn't just let it go. He had to do something to remember the fallen soldiers.
Mr Whiddon will conduct a short Dawn Service with the sub-branch secretary to help. It will be just the Ode of Remembrance, the Last Post and the Reveille, national anthems and a wreath-laying. The service will play over the PA system.
Mr Whiddon has told the police his plans. He has warned people not to congregate at the RSL, but said people could sit in their cars to listen.
He said the RSL also encouraged Castlemaine residents to light a candle from their front porch or driveway.
It's a contrast to previous years. Normally the RSL would hold a Dawn Service, a march, and a morning service with guest speakers.
But Mr Whiddon still needed to remember the fallen.
"You just can't let it go, you've got to do something to remember them," Mr Whiddon said.
"We can't give a full service to the public. We'll do what we can, and give them the basics.
"The public in Castlemaine's been very generous to us. We'd like to give something back to them in these hard times."
Bendigo and District RSL sub-branch president Peter Swandale said he was sad to be unable to conduct a proper memorial for service men and women.
Mr Swandale will lay a wreath alone on Bendigo's cenotaph in the morning.
He will then go home to video-chat mates, to let them know he was thinking of them.
It's a far cry from the normal dawn service, an Eaglehawk service, a march, a morning service and time at the RSL.
"For the veterans I hope that they acknowledge that the community's still behind them. That the community understands and appreciates the sacrifice of that service," Mr Swandale said.
"Even though they're not marching, the whole community would like to say thank you."
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