AS A light breeze cut through a crowd of 3100 people commemorating the end of the war to end all wars yesterday, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said this century should be one of peace.

No one should have to believe in the inevitability of war, Mr Rudd said at a Remembrance Day service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to mark 90 years since the end of World War I.

"Is war our permanent condition? Must every generation go through war to be reminded why there should be no war?" he asked. "Or can we dare to do something different?"

He urged all who had endured the bloody century past to commit anew to peace but be wary of tyranny. "Tyrants must always be confronted when all other options are exhausted," he said. "That means that the price of peace remains eternal vigilance."

Among those remembering the 102,000 Australians who have lost their lives in war were the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Alan Griffin, and representatives of the Returned Services League. Assisting in the wreath-laying were school- children wearing red poppies, war widows and men and women serving in defence forces today.

Mr Rudd said their fallen comrades had been heroes, whose loss changed the nation forever.

"Behind every name on the walls of this great memorial is a story … a story of a family and families changed forever, the story of communities changed forever," he said. "We honour them."

Therese Rein and Lucy Turnbull joined their husbands in laying single-stemmed roses at the tomb of the unknown soldier after the service.

In Australia, of the 416,809 men who enlisted in WWI, more than 60,000 were killed and a further 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner. At the time, the population was fewer than five million.

After a military band played the Last Post and the gathering observed a minute's silence, a schoolboy, Oliver Bailey, read epitaphs etched into gravestones of Australians on foreign soil.

"Greater love have no man that he lay down his life for his friends," read one.