There to take in what will be an incredible event will be local men, Barry Harper and Clyde Poulton.

Mr Harper was among 50,000 Australians who applied for tickets to the centenary event.

Initially he missed out but was successful in the second round, gaining two tickets.

“I couldn’t believe it. When I was notified I just thought ‘Wow’,” he said.

“It took a couple of days to sink in. I didn’t tell my wife Carmen for about a week.

“She suffers from diabetes and wouldn’t be able to make the trip so I had a spare ticket.

“I have been working with Clyde on the Waratah March re-enactment and asked him if he would like to go.”

Mr Poulton, who is a Vietnam veteran, was “stunned” by the offer.

“It is going to be special,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe it when Barry offered me his spare ticket.

“I think the centenary anniversary will bring out a lot of emotion, possibly a lot more than ever before.

“To be there 100 years to the day after the original Gallipoli landing and picture what they must have gone through will be special.”

Visiting Gallipoli is something Mr Poulton has always wanted to do.

“I’ve always been interested in our war history, since I was a young schoolboy at the historic Coolangatta school house in the 1950s,” he said.

“We had a huge print on the wall of the landing at Gallipoli. It was dark, showed the soldiers coming ashore, the shell bursts, people lying injured or dying. It made a big impression on a young mind.

“A lot of the World War I veterans were still alive.”

Mr Poulton and Mr Harper both have military links.

Mr Poulton, a national serviceman, served in Vietnam for eight and half months, based at Vung Tau near the end of the war in 1971, while Mr Harper’s father Sergeant John Henry was in Papua New Guinea, his uncle Clarence Barwick saw service as did his father’s uncle, Andrew Harper, in France in World War I.

“My first real Anzac Day ceremony was when I was in Vietnam, aged 22,” Mr Poulton said.

“At dawn we marched into the ceremony as is the tradition. It was quiet, no music. It really hit home – the sacrifices of those from World War I and II and other conflicts. We probably didn’t realise at the time we were playing our part, we were in our own life conflict and forever would be part of that Anzac tradition.

“But it all goes back to the service and sacrifice of those first Anzacs in World War I.”

Mr Poulton’s trip will include a tour of the battlefields and the peninsula.

Such is the security for the centenary event, the local duo will go through their first checkpoint at 5pm on April 24, before spending the night at the commemorative area until the dawn service starts.

“At that time of the year in Turkey it can be extremely hot or cold, windy or wet, so we could face anything,” Mr Poulton said.

They will be among 8000 Australians who will take part in the commemorations, with a crowd of 50,000 expected for the dawn service.