Australia in World War One

This site is a tribute to the men who sacrificed their lives for their country in World War One.

There is no glory in War only pain and suffering. The pain of loss lingers long after the event. Approaching 100 years since this catastrophic war which achieved little, and after the last veteran of that war in Australia has died we should remember the generation of men who gave their lives to build a better world. Maybe we can help ensure that they did not die in vain - lest we forget.

' Australia Will Be There'

Rally round the banner of your country, 

Take the field with brothers o'er the foam

On land or sea, wherever you be,

Keep your eye on Germany.

For England home and beauty

Have no cause to fear

Should old acquaintance be forgot

No-no-no, no, no, Australia will be there! 

Australia will be there !'

---o---

Australia was a country of only 5 million people in 1914 and yet with a purely voluntary army Australia lost 66,000 men killed and 230,000 wounded. This is a higher percentage of casualties relative to population than any other country in the war. The result was devastating to the demographics and economy of Australia. A young country depleted of its younger generations. Within 20 years the devastation was to be repeated in the Second World War...though thankfully to a lesser degree...although 33,000 also died in that war.

How many lives shattered is 66,000 dead? Well discounting the Mothers, Fathers, wives and children who lost their dearly loved husband, father or son 66,000 dead is too many people to show clearly on a web page.

Taking the picture of 16Bn soldiers parading above, there are aprox 100 men in the front ranks.......extrapolating that to 60,000 men gives the picture below....

Click on the picture to see how many men that really is!

Imagine how many city streets this column of dead would stretch. What would those men in the picture at top have thought had they realised that the ranks of dead would dwarf their parade? How much would the crowd have been cheering then? Unimaginable.

Of course to really test your power of imagination....multiply that picture by 330 to picture the 20,000,000 dead of the First World War. Or try a 1000 times for the dead of the Second World War.

--o--