WODONGA RSL's sub-branch president can add public singer to his CV after a no-show saw him lead his city's dawn service rendition of Advance Australia Fair.
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Jamie Wolf was hosting the ritual and introduced the performer booked to sing the national anthem and its Anzac counterpart God Defend New Zealand.
However, the singer failed to emerge from the half-light and Mr Wolf remarked "we'll be doing it ourselves this morning".
He then guided a crowd estimated at more than 2000 through Advance Australia Fair, with God Defend New Zealand omitted.
Mr Wolf told The Border Mail afterwards he had expected the singer to appear and suspected her alarm may not have sounded.
Two of his military mates were on hand to reassure Mr Wolf, telling him "you adapted and overcome".
The slip-up came at the end of a solemn ceremony which saw onlookers spill out from Woodland Grove to surrounding streets as they watched on in three degree weather.
Mr Wolf reflected on it being the 109th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing on April 25th, 1915, and told of how 2000 diggers were injured and killed by the next morning.
"General Sir Ian Hamilton would refuse advice to withdraw, he would simply say 'you've got through the difficult business, now you dig, dig, dig, until you're safe'," Mr Wolf said.
"The Anzacs held the enemy on that crucial first day and night, from this day we remember (them) with their pride, their courage, their compassion and their comradeship."
Army Logistic Training Centre commandant Colonel Matthew Freeman gave the commemorative address.
"We gather here as always, not to glorify war but to remind ourselves that we value who we are and the freedoms we possess and to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of those who contributed to shaping the identity of our nation," Colonel Freeman said.
He paid particular tribute to the "dwindling" World War II legions of service personnel.
"Known as the greatest generation, they joined with our allies to defeat hate, cruelty and greed in Europe and across the Indo-Pacific," Colonel Freeman said.
"These veterans, both women and men, who returned tempered by war, took on the task of rebuilding Australia.
"We remain squarely in their debt and I pay my profound respects to those who are still with us today."
Colonel Freeman later laid a wreath at the Woodland Grove cenotaph, as did Wodonga RSL sub-branch vice president Shaun Donohue and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.
