World War II veteran Jack Woolaston in Anzac march in Tamworth

In 1942, he was sent into battle where he was stationed as a signalman, responsible for military communications, during the vicious Kokoda Campaign.

But memory has a keen way of protecting a former soldier from the most horrific of events.

What happened that day when Mr Woolaston was told to dig a hole in the hill at 3 pm and stay in it, we'll never know.

So he reverts to the moment he and his fellow servicemen arrived at Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the midst of World War II, giving his attentive audience of two a rare and candid insight into Australian larrikinism about 80 years ago.

"We were coming down the gangplank and I fell arse over head," Mr Woolaston said, sitting outside the Anzac Park gates on an Autumn afternoon in Tamworth.

"There was a big American transporter there and they had to go out and go up this rise.

"And this fella said; 'let's all fart together and give it jet propulsions'!"

Mr Woolaston laughs, the smile rising to his blue eyes beneath a chequered flat chap; a hint of the once bold 17-year-old teenager who lied about his age so he could enlist in the Australian Defence Force.

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He was sent to the PNG capital Port Moresby where he worked as part of the 1st Australian Radio Maintenance Section after months of intense training throughout various parts of Australia.

It was there during the seven-month Kokoda Campaign that 625 Australians lost their lives and at least 1600 were wounded in a successful attempt to stop the Japanese advance across the Pacific towards Australia.

A total of 102,414 Australians have died in the 29 wars since World War I, including the bloodiest of all conflicts in WWII with 39,656 lives taken, and 523 during the Vietnam War of 1962 to 1975.

The statistics belie the true toll of conflicts on the health and livelihoods of those who served and their families who endured unimaginable feats of strength while their loved ones sacrificed in service to protect the nation and fight for the freedoms we often take for granted today.

Though Anzac Day itself, an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, was established in 1916, a year after the landing on Gallipoli, the day is marked to remember all who serve for Australia.

Jack Woolaston is a local legend and a "true icon" for what he's done for the Tamworth community, said RSL's Tamworth president David Howells.

In 1985, Jack Woolaston Oval, home to the North Tamworth Bears, was named after him, and in 2021, he was awarded the NSW Rugby League's Volunteer of the Year.

"But we're losing our WWII veterans very quickly," Mr Howells said.

Of the one million Australians who fought during World War II from September 1939 to 1945, only 12,000 remained in the year 2020, and the numbers have dwindled.

On April 25, Mr Woolaston will be riding in an open-air military jeep during the Anzac Day march which leaves from Railway Station at 10 am to head left down Bourke Street and left at Peel Street towards the town hall.

It will be one of more than 600 commemorative events being held in communities across NSW, including nearby Nundle, Kootingal, Gunnedah, Attunga, Barraba and Quirindi.

On the short drive back from Anzac Park to his home in North Tamworth, only a few days from April 25, Mr Woolaston quietly says; "On Anzac Day, if I can make it, and I can have my grandchildren there; that's all I want."

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