Australians and New Zealanders commemorate war dead on Anzac Day

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Australia and New Zealand on Friday for dawn services and street marches to commemorate their war dead on Anzac Day. At least two Australian services were disrupted by protests.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton took a day off campaigning ahead of general elections on May 3 as a mark of respect.

April 25 is the date in 1915 when the newly formed Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, in northwest Turkey, in an ill-fated campaign that was the soldiers’ first combat of World War I.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon traveled to Gallipoli to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the landing day.

He told a dawn service at Anzac Cove that New Zealand’s contribution of 16,000 soldiers to the Gallipoli campaign was disproportionately large from a national population that was then only 1 million people.

“What happened here scarred generations of New Zealanders. While we remain proud of those who serve, we do not glorify what happened here. We know too much to do that," Luxon said.

“Instead, we acknowledge the courage and tenacity of the Anzacs and we respect the valor of the Ottoman Turks who resisted them,” he added.

The service was also attended King Charles III 's sister Princess Anne, who represented the British royal family, and the king's representative in Australia, Governor-General Sam Mostyn.

Charles, who is the head of state of New Zealand, sent a message thanking that country's World War II veterans for their service as the 80th anniversary of the end of that conflict nears. The New Zealand goverment was aware of 81 surviving veterans in that country, the news website Stuff said.

Albanese attended a dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in the national capital Canberra.

“Each year, we renew our vow to keep the flame of memory burning so brightly that its glow touches the next generation and the generation after that,” Albanese told a gathering of 25,000 people.

Dutton laid a wreath at a dawn service in his hometown Brisbane.

A small group of hecklers disrupted a dawn service attended by 50,000 people at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne with boos and jeers.

The booing began when a local Indigenous man Mark Brown started the service with a so-called Welcome to Country — a ceremony in which Indigenous Australians welcome visitors to their traditional land.

The interruptions continued at any mention of Indigenous soldiers.

Hecklers yelled “this is our country” and “we don’t have to be welcomed,” echoing a slogan of the minor party Trumpet of Patriots. The party's extensive advertising is funded by mining magnate Clive Palmer and is inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies.

The hecklers were drowned out by the applause of others who urged Brown to continue.

Veteran Affairs Minister Matt Keogh said the “booing was led by someone who’s a known neo-Nazi.”

“We’re commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology and so it was completely disrespectful and it's not something that is welcome at Anzac Day commemorations ever,” Keogh said.

Police said a 26-year-old man had been directed to leave the service.

The man had been interviewed over an allegation of offensive behavior and would be issued a summons to appear in court, a police statement said.

A heckler also disrupted the Welcome to Country at the main dawn service in the Western Australia state capital Perth.

Western Australia Premier Roger Cook condemned the interruption as “totally disrespectful” and “disgusting.”

“This is a solemn occasion. It's one where we should come together as a community and for someone to use it to make a political point and in that disrespectful way is really quite unacceptable,” Cook said.

Officers in the honor guard are reflected in the cenotaph during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Children react as veterans march during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Veterans march during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Veterans salute during the Anzac Day commemorations to honor their war dead in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A honor guard officer salutes during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A father holds his child as during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A woman reacts during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A veteran reacts during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Veterans reacts during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A veteran prepares to lay a wreath during the Anzac Day commemorations in Nelson Bay, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

New Zealand participants march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Participants march as thousands of people line the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Cadets carrying Australian flags march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A pipe band marches past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Sage Smith, 5, left, and her six-year-old sister Hazel, peer through a gate while waiting for participants to march by as thousands of people line the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Cadets carrying Australian flags march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A band marches by as thousands of people line the street to pay tribute to their war dead on Anzac Day in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Veterans ride in the back of an army truck past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Participants are assisted as they march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A participant is assisted as they march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A veteran, center, is assisted as they march past thousands of people lining the street to pay tribute to their war dead during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)