A series of emotional dawn services and celebrations will feature across the region on Anzac Day to honour Australian soldiers who gave their lives for their country.
While the ranks of surviving war veterans continue to thin, organisers expect a record crowd of more than 8000 people to attend Torquay’s Dawn Service at Point Danger, the largest Anzac Day celebration outside Melbourne. A free park-and-ride service will ferry participants between Spring Creek Reserve and the service.
Hundreds of residents are also set to commemorate the day at other traditional Anzac service centres in the region, including Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Norlane and central Geelong.
Geelong Otway Tourism executive director Roger Grant said the Torquay service would also pay tribute to the Great Ocean Road.
Returned soldiers built the road in honour of their comrades who died in war.
“That makes it the biggest war memorial in the world, something that was highlighted back in 2007 during the 75th anniversary of the road,” Mr Grant said.
Mr Grant said a sculpture erected further down the road at Eastern View during the 75th anniversary would also be a focal point of Anzac Day this year.
The sculpture in bronze depicts two diggers at work on the Great Ocean Road.
“The sculpture commemorates the wonderful mateship of the people who built the road, often in treacherous conditions,” Mr Grant said.