AUSTRALIAN flags have been placed on the graves of servicemen and women in Ballarat cemeteries a little earlier ahead of Anzac Day this year.
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Ballarat Cemeteries chief executive officer Annie De Jong said the move was made to allow people extra time, particularly this weekend, to enjoy, explore, reflect and honour those who have served.
About 2600 flags have been distributed across Ballarat New Cemetery.
This comes one year after 19 World War I soldiers were honoured with small Australian flags for the first time, having lain in barren, unmarked graves until a project to restore their identities and legacies. Of these 19 men, 15 are in Ballarat New Cemetery.
Buninyong Returned and Services League has also been carrying out an extensive search to ensure all service men and women were identified in the town's cemetery.
More than 100 people who had served were discovered in the cemetery in marked graves but without the recognition on their headstones to indicate they had served this country.
Cemeteries across the region remain a key place to pay respects on Anzac Day. Clunes hosts a cemetery service at 8.30am, after the town's dawn service and before a march to the RSL.
Works remain underway to restore Ballarat's Avenue of Honour, which has 3801 trees planted to honour the individual men and women from this city who enlisted in World War I.
City of Ballarat has been replacing 70 trees along the Avenue of Honour - 68 poplars and two English elms - each deemed to be at the end of their life, in decline or to have structural issues.
The section in focus is between Bo Peep Road and Lake Burrumbeet Caravan Park in Burrumbeet.
These works follow a ceremony in October to mark the replanting of more than 50 trees after storm damage in late 2021 in the Weatherboard section of the avenue, north of the Western Highway.
Ballarat mayor Des Hudson has said these were important works to preserve the cultural and historically significant site for future generations.
Anzac Day commemorations this year will also feature a special recognition of 100 years of Legacy, an organisation to help veterans' families after the death or injury of a loved one.
Ballarat RSL president Alan Douglass has encouraged people to reflect on Legacy's work in helping veterans' families after the death or injury of a loved one who had served.
"They work quietly in the background and do so much with veterans' families," Mr Douglass said.
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