Despite services being cancelled this year, Mr Watson has shared what would have been his latest address, remembering servicemen and women he has personally known, and interviewed.

I knew a hero once.

Don was in his 90s when he died some years ago. He had spent a long time at war, from 1939 until the end of the war in the Pacific in 1945.

He served not only in North Africa, at Tobruk and - as said - El Alamein, but was recalled to Australia to undergo further training and then off to the Pacific to fight the Japanese.

Don was not much more than a boy when he left his parents in the Tasmanian Midlands. He experienced many things and saw many terrible sights.

Twenty years ago I did a documentary Tasmanians at War with the ABC, and Don was interviewed during the course of filming.

In one scene, that I will never forget, Don was recalling his war service. It came to the point when he was returning home.

He had arrived in Hobart and caught the train back to his country house. He walked in the door only to see his mother and father waiting for him.

But Don had been away for nearly six years and the boy had become a man, having done and seen things that only war can show.

There was no embracing, it was as though a stranger had returned.

And in the words of Don, "They did not know me."

And that man who was indeed a man in every sense, in front of the cameras, broke down in tears after all those years.

He had returned a different person than the one who went away. It was a moving piece and it shows that time does not dim the memory or the sense of experience.

I have interviewed many servicemen over the last 51 years of my career.

I can recall interviewing a number of ex-Prisoner's of War and have been amazed how their experiences under a brutal master still plays on their mind and having to endure nightmares 60 or more years on.

War effects the psyche and it is with the veteran for the rest of his life, no matter how long he lives.

On Anzac Day we honour those who died in their service of their country and their community, as we should.

Many of those who served returned wounded, at times with horrific injuries with which they had to live the rest of their lives and often that life was cut short because of it.

But we tend to not recognise the psychological scars.

I am often saddened to learn of the many that spent their time, in what was then termed "asylums", because of their war experiences.

These poor souls are not counted as casualties, but nonetheless, they were casualties just the same as those who died.

Those who were sent to such institutions began with The Anglo-Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902) and increased dramatically after World War One.

Then through to World War II and beyond.

Many of these men experienced "shell shock", later to be known as "battle fatigue".

And it well worth noting that those who have taken their own lives after returning from Afghanistan, is eight times higher than the actual fatality rate from that war.

GALLERY: Anzac Day in Northern Tasmania through the years

Another late friend of mine, Kay, served in Korea, that forgotten war.

He said to me that when he returned to Australia and back to Tasmania it was just like leaving work for the day.

There was no marching in the streets, no fanfare, nothing.

Like Don, he caught the train home, endeavoured to catch up where he left off and live life as though it had not happened.

That of course was impossible. He once shared with me statistics which he had kept, of those Korean Returned Servicemen who had died from cancer of various forms, much higher than the civilian population and tragically, from taking their own lives.

And we have seen much the same of the Vietnam War.

I can recall when our soldiers returned from war they were attacked from members of the public when they marched in the streets of Sydney and there has never been any apology from those leading politicians and academics who led the protesters.

Australians have been involved in many wars, even before federation.

Post-Vietnam has seen participation in many theatres and we are still involved in Afghanistan where we have won two Victoria Crosses and prior to Vietnam, Malaya and Borneo, these latter two now regulated to the pages of forgotten history books.

Of many who served we have learnt of their service to their comrades, friends and country.

These selfless people, who decided to serve others before themselves should be appreciated, but not idolised, as that is exactly what they do not want to happen.

And it has only been in recent years that those men of the Merchant Navy have been recognised and what of our brave nurses who firstly went to South Africa in the Boer War at their own expense? They with compassion wanted to serve.

And those who stayed behind in the various services giving support to those overseas.

And what of the coastwatchers in the Pacific during World War II, many of who lost their lives as written on the memorial to them at Madgang in New Guinea - "They watched and warned and died that we might live".

I knew a Battle of Britain pilot, who made his home in Tasmania - Reg Llewellyn. Sadly he has died, but he made an important comment.

He said repeatedly that without the ground crew he and the others could to have done his job.

Let us not forget those whose support allowed the success of those on the actual battlefield.

And let us not forget our own Stuart Walch RAF, the only Tasmanian who died fighting in the Battle of Britain.

The cost of war is far above those who died, high and tragic as it is.

Anzac Day means to remember and to appreciate those sacrifices made on our behalf.

Many men died while serving Australia, over 102,000. Many men and women suffered terribly while a Prisoner of War under the Japanese.

We should not forget the sacrifice of our military and nurses and all the other auxiliary forces that served so bravely and selflessly.

Our soldiers went to war for their country and in an effort to protect their families and a way of life they wanted to keep.

Anzac Day means to me, not to forget.

Our fathers fought in the frozen wastes of Northern Russia, post-Wold War I, in the heat of Turkey, in the muddy bogs of Western Europe, in Greece and Crete, in the deserts of North Africa at Tobruk and El Alamein, on the plains of South Africa, in the jungles of New Guinea, over the skies of Germany, on the Ocean seas and later, through the cold hard winters of Korea and the stinking infested swamps of Vietnam.

Our troops are today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The tradition continues.

Our freedom was won for us, and today we must be eternally vigilant.

In Australia at the moment we are under threat of losing our freedom of movement, our freedom of expression, even our freedom to how we wish to think.

Let us learn from our previous generations who knew what it was to love freedom.