Australia falls silent for the fallen

The sacrifices made by over 100,000 Australian troops who died in battle have been remembered today as the country stopped to pay tribute to those who lost their lives or suffered in conflict.

Australians observe a one-minute silence at 11am, marking 95 years since the armistice which ended the First World War.

This year’s Remembrance Day also marks 20 years since the Unknown Australian Soldier was interred in the Hall of Memory at the Memorial.

A formal wreathlaying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra began at 10.15am before the Remembrance Day Commemorative Address was delivered by former Prime Minister Paul Keating.

There was also a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the reinterment of the Unknown Australian Soldier in the Hall of Memory.

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Keating reflects on First World War

Former prime minister Paul Keating has described the First World War as a war devoid of virtue that arose from the quagmire of European tribalism, at the national Remembrance Day ceremony.

This year is the 95th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the 20th anniversary of a famous eulogy delivered by Mr Keating for the re-interment of the unknown Australian soldier.

Mr Keating returned to Canberra on Monday at the special invitation of the War Memorial Council to deliver this year's commemorative address at the national Remembrance Day ceremony.

"Nine months from now, 100 years ago, the horror of all ages came together to open the curtain on mankind's greatest century of violence - the twentieth century," Mr Keating told the service.

"What distinguished the First World War... was the massive power of the antagonist, modern weaponry, mass conscription and indefatigable valour produced a cauldron of destruction the world had never seen."

He spoke of the "deadly crevice" heroic, young obedient populations were fed into.

"The First World War was a war devoid of any virtue. It arose from the quagmire of European tribalism," he said.

"A complex interplay of nation-state destinies overlaid by notions of cultural superiority peppered with racism."

Mr Keating said the war not only destroyed European civilisation and the empires at its heart, but its aftermath led to the Second World War, which divided the continent until the end of the century.

"But at the end of the century, from the shadows, a new light emerged," he said.

"Europe turned its back on the nation state to favour a greater European construct."

He said it is difficult to imagine young Europeans going into combat for the European Commission or the European Parliament.

"The virulent European disease of cultural nationalism and ethnic atavism not only destroyed Europe, it destroyed the equilibrium of the world, he said."

Australia did not need to reaffirm its European heritage by joining the war, Mr Keating said.

"We had escaped that mire, both sociologically and geographically. But out of loyalty to imperial Britain, we returned to Europe's killing fields to decide the status of Germany, a question which should earlier have been settled by foresight and statecraft," he said.

Mr Keating said the bloody battles in Flanders, on the Western Front and at Gallipoli demonstrated what Australians were made of.

"Our embrace of a new sense of human values and relationships through these events, gave substance to what is now the Anzac tradition," he said.

"For whatever claims Britain and its empire had on those who served and died on the Western Front and at Gallipoli, the primary claim remained Australia's."

He said those who fought and died did so for the new world - the one they belonged to and hoped to return to.

"This is why Australia was never in need of any redemption at Gallipoli, any more than it was in need of one at Kokoda thirty years later," he said.

"What the Anzac legend did do, by the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, was reinforce our own cultural notions of independence, mateship and ingenuity. Of resilience and courage in adversity."

Mr Keating said the sacrifices of the two world wars were not about "redeeming" Australia through "the baptism of a European cataclysm", but reinforcing the notions of independence, mateship, ingenuity, resilience and courage in adversity.

"Despite the fact that the military campaigns were shockingly flawed and incompetently executed, those ordinary people distinguished themselves by their latent nobility."

He said the unknown Australian soldier interred at the Australian War Memorial reminded the nation of these lessons as much as he reminded people of the 100,000 Australians lost at war.

Mr Keating said his uncle Bill Keating had died in 1945 on the death march from Sandakan to Ranau and speechwriter Don Watson's grandfather was twice wounded in Flanders during WWI after being infected with Spanish flu.

"By his interment, I thought it important to say that this unknown Australian soldier would serve his country yet again," he said of his 1993 speech.

"That his presence would give us a deeper understanding of what it means to be Australian as well as serving to remind us of the sacrifice of the more than 100,000 men and women who never came home."

The former prime minister said he was heartened that so many young Australians found a sense of identity and purpose from the Anzac legend.

"But the true commemoration of their lives, service and sacrifice is to understand that the essence of their motivation was their belief in all we had created here and our responsibility in continuing to improve it."

He said the youth of today were "too wise" to repeat the mistakes of the past in which their ancestors were "dragooned en masse into military enterprises of the former imperial variety on the whim of so-called statesmen".

Remembrance Day should make the world wary of the kind of "grand ambitions and grand alliances" that darkened the 20th century, he said.

The Last Post Ceremony, was marked by Ben Roberts-Smith VC reading the eulogy delivered by then-leader-of-the-country Paul Keating 20 years ago, which included the poignant and powerful phrase ‘he is all of them, and he is one of us’.

Twenty years ago, after decades of debate and discussion, the body of an unknown Australian soldier was recovered near Villers-Bretonneux in France and transported to Australia.

After lying in King’s Hall in Old Parliament House, the Unknown Australian Soldier was interred to the Hall of Memory to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

He was buried with a bayonet and sprig of wattle, intended to represent all Australians who have been killed in war.

Abbott joins veterans

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Abbott joined war veterans in Melbourne to mark Remembrance Day.

The service at the Shrine of Remembrance featured a formal military parade and a minute's silence at 11am.

Victoria's Governor Alex Chernov led the wreath-laying ceremony.

War veteran Pete Symes, 54, served for seven months in Afghanistan and his three brothers served in Vietnam.

He says Remembrance Day isn't about glorifying war.

"It's about remembering people who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice," Mr Symes said.

Hundreds mark Sydney Remembrance service

Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke and England skipper Alastair Cook were among the hundreds of people who attended the Remembrance Day ceremony in Sydney despite appalling conditions.

NSW RSL president Don Rowe says he was "surprised" and "extremely pleased" by the size of the crowd remembering the end of World War One 95 years ago.

"It indicates to us that people are aware of what Remembrance Day means and the significance of it particularly as we are now marching on towards the centenary of Anzac," he said.

Senior figures from the defence forces, RSL, emergency services, charities, religious groups and politics stepped from the shelter of a large marquee to lay wreaths in the steady rain falling on Martin Place.

About 400 people gathered around the Cenotaph while the Last Post played, standing motionless with heads bowed during the minute's silence, honouring the soldiers injured or killed in World War I and other conflicts.

A chorus and a band from the Navy were due to play, but were unable to perform in the bad conditions.

More than nine million people, including 60,000 Australians and six million civilians, died in the war which lasted from July 1914 until November 1918.

About 416,000 Australians volunteered for service.

"On this day we reflect on those Australians who made the supreme sacrifice not only in World War One but in all conflicts," Rear Admiral Raydon Gates said.

"We will remember them."

And overseas the British royals led thousands in Remembrance Sunday services in London.