Australia and New Zealand honour their war dead with dawn services on Anzac Day

Crowds attend the Anzac Day dawn service at Coogee Beach in Sydney (Mark Baker/AP)

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered under a full moon across Australia and New Zealand for dawn services on Thursday to commemorate their war dead on Anzac Day.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon attended a service in his country’s largest city Auckland, while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saw the sun rise at a Second World War memorial in the wilds of Australia’s nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea.