Charles E. W. Bean is considered Australia’s finest WW1 correspondent and historian, having served as a journalist at Gallipoli, arriving there only a few hours after the sea-landing, and then travelling to the Western Front after recovering from wounds received on the battlefield. His first-hand accounts of the ‘fog of war’ exposed the heroism, logistical [...]
When I was little, my older brother, John and I had a treehouse opposite the jackeroo’s quarters on the property. Actually, treehouse is probably too flash a name for what was basically four long timber boards nailed into the higher branches of a bottle tree. From our point of view, what that tree lacked in [...]
The largest public display of Victoria Crosses in the world resides in the Hall of Valour in the Australian War memorial in Canberra. Here in the heart of the building directly below the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are 82 individual displays for the holder of each of the 82 Crosses won out of 100 [...]
“Such a man, could scarcely fail to be a hero to his men” - The grazier who became a Major General. Bull Ryrie was tough, an outgoing man of the Monaro who could ride like the wind as well as being a crack shot. Born into a grazing family, after attending the King’s School at Parramatta [...]
In the late afternoon of October 31, 1917 around 800 men of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade looked from a ridge down across six kilometres of sloping ground towards Beersheba. Behind them were thousands of troops desperate for water and a never-ending desert, in front of them, the heavily fortified town of Beersheba. They [...]
In August 1900 during the Boer War in South Africa, Colonel Charles Hore commander at the Elands River Post received a request from Boer(Dutch-Afrikaner) general Jacobs Koos de la Rey to surrender. His reply: “Even if I wished to surrender, and I don’t, I am commanding Australians who would cut my throat if I accepted [...]
The outback has always evoked themes of struggle and survival, epitomised in tales of bush-rangers, drovers, rural women and lost children. Certainly any debate about National Identity usually gives consideration to rural Australian life, particularly as it is portrayed in painting, music, literature, film and most importantly, foods. To an extent rural Australia still helps [...]
In state this new world Achilles, he of translucent glow rests, world weary: Oblivious to commanders. Those reticent masters of the bayonet charge, lauded yet by those similarly inclined. Ten miles beyond the sordid scope of battle, only Generals die in bed. Our Achilles, little known disparager of war, of wattle and daub beginnings. [...]
When my great-grandfather moved westward from the New England north-west region of Inverell in the early 1890s to our current property he built a homestead on one of two separate holdings. The property was called Mona and the original house was of mud-brick and cypress pine. This early building was made with the black soil mud found on the property with the bricks [...]
If you enjoy history ... Many of you know that all of my novels to date have relied heavily on the Alexander Family archives which date back over one hundred and twenty years and cover station life from the 1880s on. As you can imagine with such a rich resource my interest in history was [...]
