Following the march, a crowd gathered at the War Memorial for the 11am service, with Lieutenant Colonel Maree Derrick serving as this year's special guest speaker.

Lt Col Derrick enlisted in 1980 and spent 15 years in the 1st/19th battalion of the Royal NSW Regiment as a storeman driver.

She commenced officer training in 1996 and was commissioned as a supply officer in 1998.

Lt Col Derrick spent the next few years in logistic and leadership training roles until she was selected as part of the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) new civil military cooperation capability in 2006.

She was deployed three times in this capacity, to Timor Leste in 2007/08, the Solomon Islands in 2013 and to the South West Pacific and South East Asia with the US Navy in 2019.

Lt Col Derrick has recently been reposted to Army Headquarters in Canberra where she supports the capability development work headed by the Chief and Deputy Chief of Army.

To begin her address, Lt Col Derrick asked the audience to take note of people aged between 17 and 40.

"Now try to imagine the effect on your community if all these young men and women left the district suddenly to go and fight for our nation in foreign places. How it will be for you not to see them for years?" she said.

"What if you never saw one in four of them ever again?

Think about the others who will come home eventually, aged beyond their years, deeply and permanently affected by war.

"This happened. It happened here just over a century ago. Young men from Boorowa and surrounding districts, many from families who still live here, enlisted to defend our nation.

"One quarter of them never returned."

Lt Col Derrick said it was important to remember the sacrifice made by those who served, both past and present.

"To Australians and New Zealanders, Anzac Day is a tradition, a tradition paid for in blood and celebrated by our freedom," she said.

"It is a day in which we salute those original Anzacs as well as our Navy, Army and Air Force veterans from other conflicts and operations over the last century.

"Not only do we salute them but, in paying tribute to them, we also take the opportunity to reflect on the importance of service and of sacrifice."

She said Anzac Day was an opportunity to reflect on all conflicts involving Australian servicemen and women.

"We remember the many who served in the second world war and in other conflicts and campaigns where Australian lives were lost in the pursuit of a better world," she said.

"On Anzac Day we simply remember that individual, ordinary Australian men and women were, and still are, prepared to make sacrifices above and beyond those asked of most Australians to ensure the freedom and the quality of life we enjoy today.

"So we remember. We remember with gratitude. We remember with pride. We remember with respect."