This is according to several guest speakers at Anzac Day services held in Taree and Old Bar.

Taree High School captains Lucas Kloosterhof and Amber Kelleher kept the large crowd captivated by their words.

"We have the opportunity to give our own respect and thanks to those who have kept and still keep our country safe and Australian spirit safe from threats of wars, violence, terrorism, a pandemic and our own natural disasters," Lucas said.

"The spirit of the Anzacs is the concept of working together to overcome the challenges and fears we would not otherwise be able to solve individually.

"We cannot begin to comprehend or pretend what that is like but we can tell you how we've seen the spirit of Anzacs in our own lives and in our community.

"The way it is more than just learning about a battle in history, it is about standing together.

"The spirit of the Anzacs paved the way for the sense of community that single-handedly held us together through recent tough times."

The concepts of hardship, courage and resilience were shown throughout drought, bushfires, the pandemic and floods.

"During the fires that shocked our nation, we as a community were threatened by forces beyond our control and found only by working together we were set up with evacuation centres in what would usually be our surf clubs, RSLs and clubs and through the collaborative efforts of the Rural Fire Service, emergency response teams and our neighbours we, in a similar way, to the Anzacs were able to reduce the burden on each other," Lucas said.

"And during the most recent disaster to shock the Manning Valley and surrounds, the floods, we are still recovering from," Amber continued.

"We saw the Anzac spirit in the way people stopped to help each other, people got their own hands dirty to help clean up our towns, businesses and the livelihoods of our local families.

"I feel so honoured, humbled and lucky to live in place where I believe and know the people around me support each other because I have seen it in the way people who did not even know each other stopped what they were doing to help.

"People who were just walking past a flood affected building and stopped to sweep up mud.

"People told me 'it was just the right thing to do'. That sentence sounds so simple but it is the result of years of the Anzac spirit and the values it represents being passed down to us for so long that it is now just an embedded part of our culture.

"Lending a hand is just what we do and that's amazing. It started with the mateship of the Anzacs. That is the Anzac spirit, that is the Anzac legacy and we see it in this community time and time again when we are faced with adversity.

"The impacts of the floods ricocheted through our community because the sense of mateship and strong bonds held by so many affected us all."

At the Old Bar service, Member for Myall Lakes Stephen Bromhead said the Anzac spirit of mateship, courage under fire, ingenuity, initiative and loyalty is shown throughout the community.

"That's what we as Australians today aspire to emulate in our lives. And I don't think there was any greater example of that then what we went through in the last two years," Mr Bromhead said.

"Drought, bushfires, the pandemic and then the floods. Our community stood up high, it was our community that during the drought went out to help the farmers, raise money and did all sorts of things.

"Then the fires hit. There were Rural Fire Service crews here and others towns where they could hardly get their truck in into their station because of the amount of food and drinks that had been donated.

"And then the pandemic, (the area was) one of the hotspots in NSW with over 40 people with COVID.

"We lined up for hours to get tested and make sure we did the right thing. Not one person died in our area, not one medical person caught the disease.

"When we thought there wasn't anything else to put up with, then we had the floods.

"That is the spirit of Anzac coming out in us today, making sure we don't forget our mates and neighbours, we go out and help."

At the same service, Manning Great Lakes Police District Commander Superintendent Chris Schilt said he was proud of the community's response to the floods.

"While we're not in a period of conflict and the consequences of involvement, the recent floods were an opportunity for our community to come together and show that the Anzac spirit is well and truly alive," Supt Schilt said.

"We had volunteer groups working alongside our emergency services and ADF (Australian Defence Force) rescuing people from flood waters and doing absolutely everything they could to support the clean-up effort.

"It is these types of actions in our modern day lives that we need to encourage our young people to be involved in.

"To come together as one in tough times and show care and respect are the principles and learnings the Anzacs have given us."