Braving the dawn chill, about 400 came to the Kingsway cenotaph in Glen Waverley - at least twice as many as last year's service at St Stephen's and St Mary's church in Mt Waverley.

Veterans with medals and younger generations wearing the medals of their forefathers banded together in darkness for the time-honoured ritual of verses, song and the laying of the wreath followed by the Last Post.

Then a minute's silence - time for minds to scan history or to think more personally on past sacrifices.

For medal-wearing Margot Bell of Wantirna, it was a time to remember her father, who fought on the Kokoda Trail in World War II.

"He didn't talk much about the war ... When I was a kid I used to ask him if he shot anyone, questions like that.

"He said there wasn't any time to know. You'd hear a noise in the bushes, open fire and move on."

At Clayton, more than 180 people came to the dawn service and gunfire breakfast.

Clayton RSL president Ray Scott said young people were driving the event's growing popularity.

"The mix is changing and that's what we're trying to do.

"It's the younger generations that are going to carry it on."