Geoff Maynes was the keynote speaker at the event, which also featured song, music, wreath-laying and a display of a soldier's dugout and a sulky.

Mr Maynes said he thought it was important to talk about wartime experiences with youngsters because "it just gives them an idea of what their forefathers went through".

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He spoke of learning he'd been called up, after the numbered marble with his birth date was drawn out in the national service ballot.

He was at the Bedourie Races, on a day off from jackaroo work on a western Queensland cattle station.

"The manager turned up and said: 'I have a letter from the government for you' - and I opened it up and it said my marble had come out and I had to report for a medical down in Brisbane."

Mr Maynes described his "battle inoculation" training, which aimed to desensitise soldiers to the conditions of combat.

Private Maynes went to Vietnam as a reinforcement and spent about 10 months of 1968-69 with the 1RAR there, including a month as a scout and about six months as a machine gunner.

By the time his tour of duty ended, he was acting sergeant - but says that was only due to a lack of numbers due to fallen comrades.

The Anzac assembly was led by school leader Josie Francis, Katie Sheppard and Nahum Cale-Layson, with a welcome to country in Kamilaroi by Bowen Strong, songs by Ruby Curnow-Grieve and accompaniment on the trumpet by event organiser, deputy principal Charlie Jones.

Josie said such events "provide us with the opportunity to remember all people involved in any war - we will remember them. Lest we forget."