Use this as a guide to wearing your own or your ancestors' medals to ANZAC Day parades, Remembrance Day marches, or other official ceremonies.
1. If you have earned the medals yourself, the medals are to be worn on the left side of your chest.
This applies to all medals authorised for wear by the Governor-General's Office. All State and Federal awards (not to be confused with Commemorative and Unofficial awards - see point 3 below) are worn on the right side of your chest. State and Federal awards are also official awards and may contain various bravery and meritorious service awards.
2. If you are wearing medals to honour an ancestor (either replica or original medals), they are worn on the right side of your chest.
3. If you are wearing multiple sets, place them one above the other. Try not to wear every set at the one time, and instead consider rotating the sets each ANZAC or Remembrance Day, or different sets to different ceremonies, or perhaps let other family members wear them.
3. Unofficial or Commemorative medals such as the should always be worn on the right side of your chest, and placed below any official awards.
4. Service badges and qualification badges (Return from Active Service Badges, Army Combat Badges, Operational Service Badges, Dolphins, Wings, etc) should not be worn at all if they were not earned by you.
5. Lastly - and the most important point of all: if you have not officially been awarded a medal, you should never wear one portraying it as your own. No matter how "eligible" you think you are for the award, if you've not been officially awarded it, you are both breaking the law and disrespecting every service person, both civil and defence, by doing so.
Lest we forget.