■ 8.30am Yetholme service.

■ 8.30am Rockley Service.

■ 10.45am Commemoration Service – Carillon Bathurst

■ 11.50am Wreath laid at Boer War Memorial – Kings Parade.

■ 11.55am Eighth Division (Broken Blade) Commemoration Service – BMEC William Street.

■ 2pm Sofala and District Service – War Memorial Sofala.

■ 3.15pm Cairn Service at former WWII Army Camp Limekilns Rd.

■ 5.15pm Sunset War Graves Service – Bathurst Cemetery.

■ 6pm Retreat and Lowering of the Colours – War MemorialCarillon.

If you are attending Anzac Day events around the Bathurst region tomorrow share your thoughts and photos by posting them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and tagging them #AnzacDay and #MyBathurst or tagging @WesternAdvocate. You can also email acoomans@fairfaxmedia.com.au

This year veterans of the war in Afghanistan will lead Bathurst’s Anzac Day march for the first time.

In the past, the parade has always been led by the World War II veterans.

President of the Bathurst RSL sub branch David Mills said the move is a way of recognising the service of post-1975 veterans, and encouraging their involvement in the Anzac commemoration.

He is expecting between 10 and 12 veterans of the Afghanistan conflict to lead the parade.

Mr Mills said Bathurst will follow Sydney in breaking with tradition by allowing the veterans of recent conflicts to lead the parade. 

Despite Anzac Day falling in the school holidays, Bathurst’s schools will be represented in the march, along with The Scots School Pipe Band. 

There will also be a place for children who wish to march wearing their fathers or grandfathers’ medals. 

Mr Mills said the sub branch has made a concerted effort in recent times to encourage greater involvement by veterans of not only Afghanistan and the Gulf wars, but East Timor, Rwanda, Somalia and the Solomon Islands.

He said because these veterans return home as individuals and slip back into civilian life, sometimes their service is not commemorated by their community. 

“Often they come home but we don’t give them, or their families, the acknowledgement they deserve,” Mr Mills said.

“The baton is being passed on in the same way the World War II veterans passed the baton on to the Vietnam veterans.”

Mr Mills said the sub branch recently hosted a welcome home dinner for servicemen and women from the Vietnam War onwards as a way encouraging the younger veterans to become involved.

Tomorrow’s Anzac services will begin with the Dawn Service at 4.30am at the Carillon.

“For those who haven’t experienced the Dawn Service before, I can say it is rather special,” Mr Mills said. “It is also when most of the wreaths are laid.”

Mr Mills said numbers at the Dawn Service have been growing each year.

The Commemoration Service is also enjoying a similar trend. 

Mr Mills said this increase in popularity is in keeping with the national trend.

Anzac Day will be very full for Mr Mills, a veteran of the Vietnam War. His day will start with the Dawn Service and end with the Lowering of the Colours at 6pm.

There will be Anzac commemorative services taking place across the region – at Yetholme, Rockley and Sofala – as well as the former WWII Army Camp, the Carillon, the Boer War Memorial, the Broken Blade and Bathurst Cemetery.