Huge Vic crowds make veteran, 90, proud WITH thousands gathered in Melbourne to remember Australia's fallen, it was veteran Ray Chamberlain who won their hearts. From the sombre silence of the dawn service came a trickle of applause, and then a roar as they cheered the 90-year-old through his final few steps of the parade. "It's the best thing I've ever heard," the long-retired shearer said afterwards, catching his breath near the Shrine of Remembrance, but still smiling after his long, hard march. There's so many people. It makes you feel so proud. Mr Chamberlain, who served six years in the navy during World War II, has outlived many of his fellow veterans. Honouring the Anzac spirit has now fallen to a mixture of generations, who watched Thursday's three-hour procession of marching bands and serving and ex-serving military - and youth groups - to mark the 98th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. The crowd was briefly disrupted by a minor anti-war protest, with a maimed dummy in camouflage and bandages placed along the parade route. Vietnam veteran Gerry Bruin wasn't impressed. "Leave the protest for another day," he said. Others, like Chris O'Connor, hoped to teach his grandchildren about how past conflicts have shaped modern lives. "It's the essence of what we are now," he said of Anzac Day, as granddaughter Mackinlie Leeman, 7, waved a big Australian flag. It's not so much the actual fighting but it's what brought people together as one. Melbourne's Flinders Street Station became a celebrated meeting place for many veterans ahead of the march. WWII veteran Harry Page said he was surprised but delighted to see so many people, especially the estimated 40,000 who attended the dawn service at the Shrine. "It's only once a year you get to meet, unless you go to a reunion," Mr Page said of his fellow veterans. The dawn service also drew many young people, some from afar, to hear a mix of speakers. Matt Smith flew from Canada to pay his respects to his late grandfather, whose medals he proudly wore while standing beside his grandmother, both of them draped in an Australian flag. "He came back to us," he said. A lot of people haven't.