1916 and 1917 were years of unrelenting and horrible fighting for the Australians and they suffered huge losses which dwarfed the casualties experienced at Gallipoli. Read more…

WWI History

Today, 28th June 2014, marks the 100 year anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. This event is commonly attributed as the trigger for the commencement of World War I, although many believe the cause is much more complex. Britain declared war on Germany just 37 days after the assassination and, with that, Australia pledged her support and prepared for conflict. 

Visit the timeline for more significant dates of the First World War

Timeline

What about the men in the trenches?  WWI Propaganda by D.H. Souter.

See WWI in Pictures

At 12.45pm on Tuesday 5 August 2014, a single shot will be fired on the Mornington Peninsula at Point Nepean to mark the centenary of a remarkable and defining moment in our nation’s history – the first shot fired in the British Empire at the start of World War One.

Find out more about this commemorative event supported by the State Government of Victoria. 

www.thefirstshot.com.au

Do you know the history of the RSL’s formation?

The RSL was formed in June 1916 by troops returning from WWI with the purpose of preserving the spirit of mateship formed amidst the carnage and horror of battle, to honour the memory of the fallen and to help each other whenever required.In 1916, there was no formal government welfare service for veterans and the RSL committed itself to provide for the sick, wounded and needy among those who had served, including their dependants.

RSL Victorian Branch

‘How we remember’

The Shrine of Remembrance, Anzac Day 2014 ©Susan Gordon-Brown.

See WWI in Pictures

The Trumpet Calls

See WWI in Pictures

The landing at Gallipoli captured the imagination of the Australian public as no other event in Australian history has ever done.  The news provoked a rush of Australian recruits to the Australian Imperial Force and eventually 320,000 Australians would serve overseas in the war – an extraordinary contribution from a nation of just over four million people.

Read more WWI History

‘Lest We Forget’

Stained glass window memorial at Mordialloc St Brigid’s Catholic Church.

See WWI in Pictures

Have you seen the State Library of Victoria’s ‘The Anzac Spirit’ image gallery?  

This is a selection of Reverend TP Bennett’s collection of hand-coloured and black-and-white glass slides, donated to the State Library of Victoria in 1983.

Victoria’s 22nd Battalion landed at Anzac Cove in September 1915, after months aboard a troopship and in Egypt. Chaplain Bennett, known to the men as ‘Padre’, lived in a dugout in Shrapnel Gully where he spent his days burying the dead, writing to their loved ones, and conducting services. Every day he went into the trenches, his ‘parish’, to visit the battalion. He was, wrote Patsy Adam-Smith in ‘The Anzacs’, ‘the paragon among men’.

See the collection