The Memorial Project

The Memorial Project seeks to expand the Memorial offerings in Memorial Close, Montville. The Montville Village Association seeks to provide a space for all to enjoy time out - to eat, play, rest, contemplate and reflect. We are exploring creative ways to incorporate the land to the east of the Montville Hall and Deck. We welcome ideas. Suggestions have included viewing platforms, bush tucker plants, sensory trail, a dry creek bed with embedded boulders, and signage with QR codes with brief explanations about conflicts and peace-keeping engagements. Roger Todd, a local architect has been engaged to construct a basic 3D model of the place, 2D schematic drawings and provide a report to accompany a future major grant application following community consultation. Email your suggestions to Cate Patterson - montvillehistorygroup1@gmail.com.

Below are short accounts of the conflicts that have involved Australians as prepared by Gordon Plowman. We invite you to read and respond. Our intention is to make this information available through QR Codes as people wander through the Memorial Space.

QUEENSLAND COLONIAL CONFLICTS

INTRODUCTION

To tell the full story of the known consequences of the British colonial occupation of the Australian continent on its indigenous population, would take volumes. This brief summary may foster an understanding of this aspect of our history and the plight of the original occupants.

During British colonial rule in India, Canada and South Africa, traditional owners were forced from their lands. Superior British military might dealt with any opposition. Introduced diseases, starvation and the force of arms caused rapid declines in indigenous populations. The British colonial regime applied similar principles to their occupation of Australia where indigenous peoples lost both their lands and their lives.

It is never pleasant or my normal style to write about suppression of rights, dispossession, reprisals or killings. Here, I have attempted to show some aspects of our history while trying to avoid bias or the inclusion of my personal views.

Concerning the Queensland Native Mounted Police and others involved in confrontations with Aboriginal people, records of their activities are often non-existent or incomplete. I have mainly relied on the work of other highly-regarded researchers, namely: Timothy Bottoms, James Lergessner and Val Donovan. Also, a publication, “Taming the North,” by Hudson Fysh which explains his version of the conflicts with the Kalkadoon peoples of north western Queensland. Newspaper reports published when confrontations took place were also consulted.

This excerpt from the poem, “Dawn Wail for the Dead,” by Aboriginal activist Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal tribe, now deceased, sets the scene:

Dim light of daybreak now

Faintly over the sleeping camp.

Old lubra first to wake remembers:

First thing every dawn

Remember the dead, cry for them.

CONFLICT

Three ticket-of-leave sailors, Pamphlett, Finnegan and Parsons, shipwrecked on Moreton Island in 1823, spent several months in a friendly encounter with Aborigines who provided them with food and shelter. The friendships extended to them continued amongst Aboriginal people on Bribie Island and those who lived on the adjacent mainland.

The following year, 1824, the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement established initially at Redcliffe, was moved to Brisbane where peaceful co-existence between settlers and Aboriginals continued for some time.

Problems only began when Aboriginal people were dispossessed of their lands by European farmers and settlers. This deprived Aboriginal people of their hunting grounds and made their traditional foods harder to procure. Also, Europeans failed to realise the deep reverence Aboriginal people held for the lands on which they lived and where they held their secret tribal ceremonies.

Several convicts escaped from the harsh Moreton Bay penal settlement and lived with the Aboriginal people, among them, Davis and Bracewell who made their escape in 1829. James Davis spent 13 years with friendly Aboriginals and returned to European society in 1842.

In 1840, settlement of the fertile Darling Downs began and, in the land-grab that followed, aboriginals were disposed of their lands on which they lived, hunted and performed their age-old rituals. The take over of huge tracts of land completely disrupted their society.

When the British arrived in 1788, they declared the continent, terra-nullius which means, no one’s land. They ignored the presence of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. Those who took over Aboriginal land used the terra nullius decree as their right to do so. Then, in 1847, The Australian Waste Lands Act, gave squatters pre-emptive rights to their runs.

With the law well and truly on their side, settlers, in their lust for land, moved further inland from coastal regions and the Darling Downs. Emboldened by the laws very much in their favour, those who squatted in isolated regions, often took the law into their own hands. Numerous skirmishes took place with unknown numbers of Aboriginal people killed in the process. Spears and nulla-nullas were no match for high powered rifles.

One of the worst examples of Aboriginal suppression occurred on Kilcoy station owned by Evan McKenzie. In a stand-off with a large number of Aboriginal people at one of the properties’ out-stations, shepherds employed there feared for their lives. They left their camp and headed back to the safety of the main station compound. Before they went, they mixed arsenic, a white powdery poison, with the flour they left behind. Aboriginal people feasted on damper made from the poisoned flour and between 40 and 60 of them suffered a painful death.

Following the use of arsenic laced flour on Kilcoy station, the same method was used elsewhere. A few of these poisonings are known to have occurred but it is probable that many went unreported.

The deaths on Kilcoy station made any hope of further coexistence impossible and conflict, murder and reprisals became much more frequent.  Aboriginal man, Dundalli, became a kind of resistance leader and managed to avoid the law enforcers of the day for over 10 years. Once tried and found guilty of serious offences, he was sentenced to hang. His was the last public hanging in Brisbane.

Squatters, settlers and farmers had frequent clashes with Aboriginal people whose lands they had annexed. To deal with this problem, to disperse Aborigines and protect the land holders and their employees, the Queensland Native Mounted Police force was established in 1849.

Kenneth McKenzie with native police, 1870

At first, Aboriginal people from southern regions who were unfamiliar with Queensland country and its tribal inhabitants were recruited and offered many benefits. Trained and equipped with uniforms and rifle, they were moulded into highly effective killing units. They became an ‘army’ of men who would ‘deal with Queensland’s Aboriginal problems’ for the next 55 years.

Native police were later recruited from within Queensland and most of them were highly effective trackers. They needed this skill so they could track fleeing Aborigines through bush and scrub. One of their officers is on record as saying, “These men could track a mosquito over a stone wall.”

Operating at various times from about 150 camps all over Queensland, they carried out dispersals, attacks and reprisal raids. Reprisals were usually extremely vicious and bloody. The aim was to punish those responsible for a crime, often the murder of a shepherd. Unfortunately, not only the perpetrators were targeted. Innocent men, women and children were killed without mercy in these bloody raids. In remote regions where the native police were the ‘unseen’ protectors of squatters and land holders, their dark deeds went unreported.

According to researcher, Timothy Bottoms, tens of thousands of Aboriginal people died at the hands of the Queensland Native Police and the same number again were killed by squatters and their sympathisers. His research suggests that at least 140 major confrontations took place throughout Queensland plus numerous smaller encounters which usually resulted in more killings. Of these tragic events, a few are mentioned below:

In 1843, a large group of squatters were ambushed by Aborigines at One Tree Hill (now called Tabletop Mountain), near Toowoomba. The squatters were forced to retreat but reprisal raids organised by squatters and soldiers brought a heavy toll on Aboriginal lives. Undaunted, the Aboriginal people organised powerful resistance and, although doomed to eventual failure, persisted for the next five years. This stands as an outstanding example of Aboriginal resolve to protect their people and their lands.

The Warroo Station near St. George in south west Queensland, was the scene of a massacre in 1848.  Aborigines killed one or more stockmen working on the station. The corresponding reprisal raids are said to have killed over 100 Aborigines. There is an unconfirmed report of a mass grave on the station where 70 bodies are buried.

All but one of the Fraser family was murdered by Aborigines on Hornet Bank Station near Taroom in 1857. The European population were outraged and swift punitive action by the Queensland Mounted Police and settlers followed. An estimated 300 Aboriginal people were killed in reprisal raids.

In 1861, Aborigines killed 19 Europeans at Cullin-la-Ringo Station near Springsure. Incensed by the murders, a band of squatters stormed an Aboriginal camp and killed 30 of its occupants. The violence continued and it is possible that hundreds of Aborigines were killed as a consequence.

At Fort Rainworth near Springsure, a fortified building was built to repulse further attacks by Aborigines. It was never needed and stands today as a reminder of the violent past.

In the north of the state, Edmund Kennedy, speared by Aborigines while on a journey of exploration along Cape York in 1848, prompted violent and deadly reprisals by the Queensland Mounted Police supported by settlers and volunteers. Aboriginal men, women and children were killed in the process. Most of those killed had nothing whatsoever to do with Kennedy’s death.

The Jardine brothers and their team of drovers were taking a herd of cattle overland to Somerset near the tip of Cape York in 1864.  This historic droving feat of 1,600 kilometres through scrubs, swamps and rivers was marred by clashes with Aborigines. Whenever attacked, the drovers responded with rifle fire resulting in multiple Aboriginal deaths. Their encounters included the “Battle of Mitchell River,” where records say 38 Aborigines died. The correct number of deaths is suspected as being significantly higher.

Discovery of the Palmer River goldfield in 1872 led to Aboriginal opposition and conflict with European and Chinese miners. Attacks by Aborigines almost invariably resulted in reprisals. Bullets from carbine and snider rifles accounted for 150 Aborigines during their attack at Battle Camp.

Now a good-news story. Newspaper headlines in 1875, hailed the saga of Frenchman, Narcisse Petellier. As a young lad he had been marooned on the east coast of Cape York where he was taken in and cared for by Aborigines for 17 years.  He was coerced into reluctantly leaving his Aboriginal family and returned to his parent’s home in France. He spoke highly of his time amongst the Aborigines of Cape York and longed to go back to them. His experience shows how caring and nurturing Aborigines unaffected by European influences could be.

To the north-west of the state, close to what we know today as Mount Isa, relations between settlers and Aboriginal people continued to deteriorate as the land-grab spread ever further into the west. Hostilities between settlers and the Aboriginal population, especially the mighty warrior tribe, the Kalkadoons, showed no sign of abating. In 1878, a settler and his stockmen were slain and this led to even more extreme violence.

Kalkadoon warriors decided to attack Suleiman Creek homestead. Police inspector, Eglinton anticipated the attack and had sent for reinforcements. Facing fierce rifle fire, the brave Kalkadoon warriors armed with spears, had no chance of victory. An estimated 300 Kalkadoons died on that day.

Alexander Kennedy, a landholder in the area, travelled to Brisbane and asked for government help to quell the activities of Aborigines. The response was to send Sub-Inspector Frederic Urquhart to take charge of the unruly Native Police stationed near Boulia.  He retrained these men and moulded them into a very capable fighting force then led them and a large contingent of volunteers into battle against the Kalkadoons. These mounted and armed men rode off to confront several hundred Kalkadoon warriors who had taken strategic positions on Battle Mountain near Kajabbi.

Memorial plaque, Battle Mountain, Kajabbi

Urquhart ordered a cavalry charge, the only one ever to take place on Australian soil. Intended to take the Kalkadoons by surprise, the cavalry charge failed and for a while, the Kalkadoons held their positions. Urquhart then decided to attack on two fronts and this seemed to confuse the warriors. The Kalkadoons decided to confront their enemies head-on and rushed at them from their mountain hideaway. Rifles barked and warriors in their dozens fell dead. By the end of the battle, an estimated 100 Kalkadoon warriors lay dead. But this wasn’t the end of hostilities. Reprisal raids over the next few weeks killed every man, woman and child they encountered in a bloody conquest. Estimates of the dead range from between 300 and 900. Whatever the truth, authorities claimed the Kalkadoons had been tamed.

The last recorded Aboriginal massacre was at Mitchell River in 1884. This was the conflict already mentioned between Aboriginal people and the Jardine droving team. Although never officially recorded, confrontation and killings are known to have continued in remote areas well into the 20^th century, even after the Queensland Native Mounted Police units were disbanded in 1904.

Oral histories suggest that land holders who lived far away from areas of public or police scrutiny, continued their vendettas against Aborigines. Several serious acts of armed aggression are alleged to have covertly taken place.

The incidence of killings declined during the 20^th century. Control of the Aboriginal population continued by moving them into government or church-controlled missions. These institutions were designed to strip Aboriginal people of their lands, control their movement and alter their culture. They were also supposed to encourage assimilation into existing white societies.

TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS AND LAND RIGHTS

To Queensland’s far north lie the islands of the Torres Strait. Colonial interest in this island group intensified when outsiders established a pearling industry there. Trepang and trochus shell industries followed. In 1879, an act of parliament gave the colony of Queensland authority over the islands.

This new sovereignty restricted the rights of islanders and interfered with their traditional culture. As with other colonial regimes, peoples of the Torres Strait were removed from their lands and repressive legislation further restricted their rights. Violent reprisals are known to have taken place against those who openly opposed colonial values. Despite this, the struggle for human rights and land rights continued. It took a long fight but finally, in 1992, a highly significant ruling was made.

Eddie Mabo grew up on Mer (Mulgrave) Island and later moved to Townsville where he and fellow activists continued their fight for land rights for indigenous peoples.

In June, 1992, The High Court of Australia handed down their Mabo decision recognising native title and overturning the terra nullius ruling which had existed since 1788.

Eddie Mabo’s grave, Mer Island, 2015

After more than 100 years of dispossession and repression, the indigenous people of Australia and Torres Strait were finally recognised and granted land rights.

Mabo Day is commemorated annually on 3 June each year to honour the part Eddie played in securing indigenous land rights.

REFERENCE SOURCES

BOOKS:

Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland Frontier Killing Times. By: Timothy Bottoms

Publisher: Allen and Unwin, 2013.     ISBN: 9781743313824

Death Pudding: The Kilcoy Massacre. By James G. Lergessner

Publisher: Woorim, Queensland: James G Lergessner           ISBN: 9780646477510

Taming the North: The Story of Alexander Kennedy and Other Queensland Pathfinders.

By: Wilmot Hudson Fysh.

Publisher: Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1933.

The Reality of a Dark History. By: Val Donovan.

Publisher: Trails Network, Arts Queensland.  ISBN: 0-7242-8092-8

NEWSPAPERS:

The North Australian, Ipswich. 8 Dec. 1857. “The Massacre at Hornet Bank station.”

Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advisor. 2 Nov. 1861

Evening News, Sydney. 10 March, 1879. “The Perils of the Bush.”

IMAGES:

Kenneth McKenzie with mounted police, 1870, State Library of Queensland.

Kalkadoon memorial plaque, Battle Mountain, Kajabbi, Australian Frontier conflicts 1788-1940’s and beyond.

Eddie Mabo’s grave, Mer Island, 2015. State Library of Queensland

THE NEW ZEALAND WARS (also known as the Māori wars)

The New Zealand wars involved sporadic but deadly combat over 27 years between 1845 and 1872.

Māori chiefs who had signed the treaty of Waitangi in 1840, believed they were not ceding their lands and that they would not come under British sovereignty. The British took the opposite view and when an ever-increasing number of Europeans left the poverty of their homelands and began occupying Māori lands, fighting broke out all over the North Island. Although hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by British military units, the Māori warriors offered stiff resistance using delaying tactics, ambush and guerrilla warfare.

Storming the rifle pits at Te Ranga, June 1846

British regiments stationed in Australia were sent to fight in the First Taranaki war of 1860-61. The government of Victoria sent their naval sloop, “HMCS (Her Majesty’s Colonial Service), Victoria”.  The colony of Victoria was the first Australian colony to send a naval ship to a war zone.

When the New Zealand government sought more troops in 1863, recruitment began in Australia. Promised free land in return for three years of military service, approximately 2,500 men signed up. After years of fighting, most Māori opposition ceased in 1872, but few enlistees eligible for a land grant took up the offer.

According to available figures, 1,000 British soldiers died during the conflicts. Just over 2,000 Māori were killed with another 1,000-suffering severe gunshot and bayonet wounds. An unknown number of Māori non-combatants, men, women and children were killed in attacks on villages and from starvation and disease. 1,600,000 hectares of Māori land was confiscated.

Today, this dark period of New Zealand history is commemorated on Commonwealth Day and the government is committed to including this history in the school curriculum.

Reference sources

Australian War Memorial: “New Zealand Wars, 1855-1872.”

Australian War Memorial: Image, “Storming the Rifle Pits at Te Ranga, 21 June, 1864.” Accession Number: ART50235.

State Library of Victoria: “New Zealand Wars 1845-1864.”

SOUTH AFRICAN WAR (SECOND BOER WAR) 1899-1902

Motivated mainly by greed, several European countries including Britain, recognised the economic and strategic advantages by annexing large areas of the African continent.  With Britain’s push into South Africa, the Boer farmers, descendants of Dutch, German and French Huguenots who had farmed these lands since 1600, migrated north to avoid British domination. Here, they set up the republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Britain showed interest in these republics after vast quantities of gold was discovered in Transvaal.  After negotiations between Britain and Transvaal’s President Kruger failed, war broke out.

 Superior numbers of well-trained and well-armed British troops went into war with untrained and undisciplined Boer farmers. Despite extreme disadvantages, the Boers outperformed the British forces, particularly early in the war. The total Boer force of 60,600 men had only 35,000 men in the field at any one time. Compare this with the total number of British Empire troops of 448,000 men. By sheer weight of numbers and a vicious campaign by General Lord Kitchener which included disease ridden concentration camps in which over 28,000 Boer women children and men died, and the burning of crops and farm infrastructure, the British eventually won out and in May, 1902, Transvaal and Orange Free State was absorbed into the British empire.

SUDAN (NEW SOUTH WALES CONTINGENT) MARCH-JUNE 1885

In 1881, a Sudanese religious leader proclaimed himself as al-Mahdi, - the divinely guided one. He ignited a massive uprising against colonial rule and eventually established the Mahdist state. A rebellion by the forces of the Mahdi decimated the British-backed Turco-Egyptian rulers of Sudan. General Gordon, immensely popular throughout the British Empire, was sent to evacuate survivors. He managed to evacuate 2,000 children, women and wounded soldiers before he was killed by Mahdists during the siege of Khartoum in 1885.

In an act of patriotic fervour and the high regard for the slain General Gordon, the colony of New South Wales offered to send troops to assist the British in Sudan. Britain accepted and in March, 1885, amid much fanfare, the New South Wales Contingent consisting of a battalion of infantry and an artillery battery totalling 758 officers and men, embarked in Sydney. They disembarked at the Sudanese port of Suakin on the Red Sea.

New South Wales Contingent disembarking at Suakin

Apart from a few minor skirmishes, they saw little military action. In a brief encounter with Mahdist forces, three Australian troops received gunshot wounds but suffered no other casualties. This action against the enemy is considered to be the first time Australian troops fought in an imperial war. (Australians had previously fought in the New Zealand wars but these troops had enlisted in the British military forces stationed in Australia.)

Britain decided to abandon the Sudan Campaign and the New South Wales Contingent returned home after just six weeks on African soil. During their overseas service, seven men died from illness and disease.  

The New South Wales Contingent was welcomed home at Bennelong Point, (near where the Sydney opera house stands today), by an enthusiastic crowd.

Reference sources

Australian War Memorial: “Sudan (New South Wales Contingent) March-June 1885”

RSL: “The War in Egypt 1885.”

NSW State Archives: “War and Australia-Sudan.”

Image AWM: Landing of Australian Contingent at Suakin-1885. AWM accession No. ART14435 (Public Domain).

Second South Australian Mounted Rifles Contingent (Third from left is Trooper Harry, “The Breaker,” Morant)

All six Australian colonies sent troops to assist the British and after Federation in 1901, the Commonwealth Government committed battalions called Australian Commonwealth Horse. In total, 16,000 Australian troops served in South Africa with 606 fatalities. Australians won six Victoria Crosses.

Reference sources

 Australian War Memorial: “The Boer War 1899-1902.”

National Archives of Australia: “The Boer War: Australia and the War in South Africa, 1899-1902.”

National Army Museum, Chelsea, London: “Boer War.”

Image, Australian War Memorial: “Second South Australian Mounted Rifles Contingent, Boer War.” Circa 1900

THE BOXER REBELLION,CHINA 1900-1901

Members of a Chinese secret society became known as “Boxers,” because the martial arts they performed looked as though they were practising boxing. They believed their rituals protected them from their enemy’s bullets and this prompted thousands of them to join the rebellion. They aimed to expel foreigners, preserve Chinese culture and oppose treaties detrimental to China. They attacked and killed foreigners, missionaries and diplomats and destroyed foreign-owned property.

An eight-nation alliance of Britain, Japan, France, Russia, Germany, USA, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire, took military action. After heavy fighting, the Boxers were defeated and were then subjected to and controlled by the harsh, “Boxer Protocol” of 1901.

Three Australian colonies, NSW, Victoria and South Australia wanted to contribute to Britain’s effort in putting down the Boxer Rebellion. Already involved in the South African wars, they were short of troops, so NSW and Victoria sent naval brigades (sailors serving as infantry). Although the naval brigades saw little active service, they carried out other useful duties and helped restore civil order. When they left China in March, 1901, six men had died from illness or injury but none were killed by enemy action.

The South Australian government sent their gunship, “HMCS (Her Majesty’s Colonial Service), Protector.” Equipped with one 10-inch gun; five 6-inch guns; four Hotchkiss cannon and five 10-barrel Gatling guns, she arrived in Chinese waters when most of the heavy fighting was over and was employed mainly as a survey vessel. HMCS Protector returned to Australia amid much fanfare in November 1900 and was the first Australian warship used in foreign service.

Deployment of Australia’s naval forces paved the way for the establishment of the Royal Australian Navy.

HMCS Protector, 1901

Reference sources

Australian War Memorial: “China (Boxer Rebellion), 1900-1901.”

South Australian History Hub: “HMCS Protector.”

Roya Australian Navy: “The Boxer Rebellion and HMCS Protector.”

Image, State Library of South Australia: HMCS Protector, 1901. B18116

WORLD WAR ONE

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, created a chain-reaction. Complex political and military factors prompted Germany to declare war on France and invade Belgium. Britain had now to make a choice: intervene or accept the probability of German domination of Western Europe. Under the 1839 Treaty of London, Britain guaranteed Belgian neutrality and it saw the German invasion as its obligation to defend Belgium. Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Its first major land battle occurred at Mons in the southwestern part of Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force was forced into retreat by the German 1st Army. British Empire forces retreated 400 kilometres toward Paris. Over the next four years and three months, fierce trench warfare, aerial bombardment, tank attacks and Naval battles would take hundreds of thousands of lives. This was the first time tanks and aircraft were used in war, and, with devastating effect.

As part of the British Empire, Australia was also thrust into the war and became involved through the Australian Imperial Force which fought in New Guinea, Gallipoli, France, Belgium and the Middle East.

Australian troops leaving trenches (“over the top”), and moving forward under aerial bombardment. Battle of Passchendaele, 1917

The Royal Australian Navy served with the British Grand Fleet in the blockade of Germany.  This, one of the most decisive operations of the whole conflict, cut Germany off from overseas trade. Germany’s navy was unable to break the blockade and its merchant fleet was trapped in port. HMAS Sydney had previously destroyed the German light cruiser, SMS Emden in 1914, near the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

The fledgling Australian Flying Corps (AFC), served in the Middle East and along the Western front in France and Belgium. These aircraft were used for both surveillance and in attack. Several Australians who served in the AFC went on to achieve great success in peacetime. Among these men was Hudson Fysh, co-founder of Qantas in 1920.

2,300 nurses enlisted for overseas service in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Twenty-five nurses died while in service. At Gallipoli, they served in hospital ships and at Lemnos Island, just 60 kilometres from Gallipoli. In Belgium and France, they worked at casualty clearing stations and were often subjected to shellfire, air raids and gas attacks. Others worked in desert hospitals and at the clearing hospitals in Egypt.

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), seized the German Pacific colonies in New Guinea, New Ireland, New Britain, Admiralty Islands and Bougainville at the beginning of hostilities. This action neutralised Germany’s ability to use these locations to launch attacks on Australian ports and shipping lanes and reduced the possibility of enemy radio broadcasts.

Members of the Royal Australian Navy Bridging Train, (RANBT), were trained to carry out all the engineering works necessary to expedite amphibious landings while working under enemy fire. They constructed the pontoons, piers and landing stages for the amphibious landings at Gallipoli.

 The famous Australian Light Horse served firstly at Gallipoli, without their horses. After Gallipoli they served in Egypt, Syria and Palestine where they mounted the iconic mounted charge at Beersheba. Their cavalry battle at Megiddo, is seen as one of their most decisive victories.

After the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli, Australians distinguished themselves in many of the great battles in France and Belgium including on the Somme, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres. The combined Australian and American victory at the battle of Hamel set the standard for later advances. The Australian night attack on Villers Bretonneux, which halted the German advance, is hailed as, the war’s greatest feat. To this day, Villers Bretonneux is proud to display the signage, “Never forget Australia.”

After years of gruelling and bloody warfare under the worst imaginable conditions, the armistice was signed on 11^th November 1918.

In total, between 9 and 11 million combatants were killed. Between 6 and 13 million civilians were killed or died as result of this war.

From Australia’s population in 1914 of five million, 416,809 enlisted for wartime service with 313,814 serving overseas. 60,000 were killed; 155,000 wounded and 4084 taken prisoner. 397 died in captivity. Of those who returned home, thousands died premature deaths. Many who suffered what was then known as, ‘shell shock,’ (known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD), were placed in asylums. Many affected ex-combatants took their own lives.

The ‘war to end all wars,’ took a terrible toll on Australia’s youth as row upon row of grave stones in foreign cemeteries and at home in Australia attest.

Reference Sources

Australian War Memorial: “Battles First World War.”

Australian War Memorial: “1st. Australian Light Horse Regiment.”

Sir John Monash Centre Australian National Memorial, France: “The Battle of Villers Bretonneux.”

National Archives of Australia: “First World War. 1914-18”

Image, State library of New South Wales:  Frank Hurley photograph, “Over the top,” Zonnebeke, 1917. Public Domain.