It's taken three decades but in her final year serving in the Australian military Major Kelliegh Jackson will this week lead Sydney's Anzac Day march alongside hundreds of other female veterans.
Maj Jackson will leave the army in 2018 year after joining in 1987 when she was just 18.
She hopes by leading Wednesday's march alongside other women she'll change people's traditional view of the Australian military.
"So many women won't put their uniform on and won't wear their medals because of the perception this is a warlike culture," Maj Jackson told AAP.
"But this isn't about war. We are a much bigger machine."
The 49-year-old will be marching alongside up to 500 female veterans on Wednesday to mark 103 years since Anzac troops landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.
"It doesn't matter who marches at the front or the back - we're all there as a team," she said.
Other NSW marches outside Sydney will follow suit with female leads to mark the final year of the centenary of WWI.
RSL NSW president James Brown says the decision to have women at the front is about addressing a "real problem".
"For 100 years the image of a veteran has been an older man and we've had an issue in recent years with a lot of female veterans being challenged about wearing their own medals on the wrong side," Mr Brown told AAP.
Veterans wear their medals on the left breast while relatives - if they choose to wear a loved one's medals - do so on the right.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to start Anzac Day at the Cenotaph in Martin Place for the 4.15am dawn service.
The 9am march will then proceed along Elizabeth Street - instead of the usual George Street route - finishing at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park for the 12.30pm commemoration service.
A final sunset service will be held at 5pm at the Cenotaph again.
Extra buses and trains will run across Sydney from the morning with motorists advised road closures will be in place from 2am.
