Victoria will embrace the changing face of Anzac Day with contemporary veterans due to lead the city's traditional march.
Tens of thousands of people are expected at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance dawn service on Wednesday to mark the last centenary year of World War I.
For the first time, the 9am march will be led by contemporary veterans, the state's RSL president said.
"The face of Anzac Day is changing because we have a lot more younger veterans now," Robert Webster told AAP.
"There are now more people who served in Afghanistan and in Iraq than in Vietnam."
Overall, Dr Webster said Anzac Day 2018 has particular significance.
It will be 100 years since Australian troops and their allies recaptured the French town of Villers-Bretonneux from the Germans, marking a key turning point in WWI.
"The battle started at one o'clock at night and it was dark, and a lot of Germans escaped," he said.
"Villers-Bretonneux was important because ... it was significantly higher than the surrounding countryside and it gave artillery spotters the ability to see where they were firing."
The Allied forces had won the town weeks earlier but the Germans re-captured it, and between those two battles Australia suffered about 2500 casualties.
"This significance (of 2018) is that it's the last Anzac Day of the Great War, and it's essentially a bookend of the invasion or landing at Gallipoli," Dr Webster said.
He fears Metro Tunnel Works around St Kilda Road could deter some people from attending the dawn service, but hopes to see at least 30,000 brave the cold and dark.
For some Australians the Anzac Day AFL clash between Collingwood and Essendon is the main event of April 25.
In 2017 a crowd of more than 87,600 people flocked to the MCG for one of the season's most popular contests, which is traditionally preceded by an Anzac Day service and recognition of Australian war veterans.
