Thousands rallied for Anzacs in Bendigo. Did we get a picture of you?

But with hundreds of thousands of people turning out to the dawn and morning services, Bendigo RSL president Glenn Ludeman said there was a huge outpouring of respect and appreciation.

The services honoured those who have served, those currently serving, and the 103,021 people from Bendigo made the ultimate sacrifice in service.

"Every one of those individuals has a story to be told," Mr Ludeman said.

"This is just an example of a huge outpouring of people's respect and appreciation for everyone who served and that means a lot to veterans."

One of those was Bendigo resident Bevan Trimble, who died when he was 21 serving in Vietnam.

His brother, Murray Trimble, marched in his honour.

"He was killed on the first day of the Battle of Coral-Balmoral on 13 May 1968, he was the first one that was killed in that battle," Mr Trimble said.

"It made a big difference in our lives, mainly my parents, it really changed their lives.

"It really did affect us and it still does every now and again. It's sad."

Mr Trimble said he felt proud to keep his brother's memory alive.

The theme of the Anzac Day services across the country this year was 'Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and Peacebuilding'.

Former Army member Carl Chirgwin, born in Elmore, delivered the main speech at the Bendigo service.

Mr Chirgwin, a third generation serviceman, spent 21 years in the army from 1979, and served with the United Nationals Mine Clearance Training Team in Mozambique.

"I come from a generation of servicepeople that served in that 25 to 30 year period at the end of Vietnam in which there were very few deployments," he said.

If you knew somebody and they were going on a two week exercise to New Zealand, it was big news, so you could imagine what a big deal it was if you were selected to go to a peacekeeping deployment."

Peacekeeping operations ranged from projecting force to stop fighting, to observing and patrolling to prevent the resumption of fighting, or giving support to local people so they could resume their normal lives, he said.

More than 37,500 Australians had been involved in peace operations, and 17 had died.

"Peace operations are not all rainbows and unicorns... whilst its not war fighting, families still have the stress and uncertainty of knowing their loved one is serving in what is currently not a very nice part of ther world," Mr Chirgwin said.

There were 44 people on current peacekeeping operations in Australia, removing landmines and booby traps in war-affected countries.

"Given the current increasing tensions of the world, let's sincerely hope that these are the only types of deployments that Australians need to make," Mr Chirgwin said.