Thursday 30 April 2015 Peter Rees Charles Bean was Australia's greatest and most famous war correspondent. He is the man who told Australia about the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front, created the Anzac legend and was central to the creation of the Australian War Memorial. Yet we know so little about the real man. Peter Rees gives us insight into a key figure who helped shape the emerging Australian identity.
Thursday 16 April 2015 Peter FitzSimons Now approaching it’s centenary, the Gallipoli campaign, commemorated each year on Anzac Day, reverberates with importance as a symbol of what it truly means to be Australian. However, the facts of the battle – which was minor against the scale of the First World War and cost less than a sixth of the Australian deaths on the Western Front – are often forgotten or obscured. Peter FitzSimons, with his trademark vibrancy and expert melding of writing and resea...
Tuesday 3 March 2015 Dr Bart Ziino Join Dr Bart Ziino as he examines the private experience of the Great War in Victoria, drawing on personal letters and diaries to tell a story of the war as an individual, familial, and communal trial. Through an examination of anxieties over loved ones at the front, and tensions over who was bearing the greater burden. This talk offers new ways of understanding the costs of the war, the capacities of Victorians to meet and endure its demands, and its increasin...
Wednesday 25 February 2015 - Dr Mark Johnston Australian soldiers praised stretcher-bearers on every battlefield of both world wars. From the landing at Gallipoli to the last campaigns of 1945, in desert, jungle, mountains and mud, Australian stretcher-bearers routinely risked their lives to save others. To win that praise, all bearers paid a high price. Their job was intensely dangerous and no category of Australian soldiers saw more of war’s suffering. In this talk Dr Mark Johnston, author of ...
Wednesday 11 February 2015 - Mr Barrie Cassidy Barrie Cassidy shares his dad’s experience as a POW for four years in World War II. His father, Private Bill, participated in his first conflict on Crete in May 1941, during the largest parachute invasion in wartime history. Just four days later, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Join us as Barrie shares of his father’s escape attempts with horrific consequences, the courageous support from fellow prisoners and the return home to his new wife, Myra...
Thursday 6 November 2014 - Bob Semple and Ron Williamson Meet our Rats of Tobruk, Ron Williamson and Bob Semple, as they share their recollections of the siege of Tobruk 73 years ago. Hear about their battle experiences, living conditions and the camaraderie which was shared by the Rats, as they were to be forevermore named. This mateship continues today in the Rats of Tobruk Association, supported by a broad network of friends honouring their efforts and contribution.
Wednesday 1 October 2014 Dr Mark Johnston To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings on 6 June 1944, Dr Mark Johnston discusses the largest seaborne invasion in history. Involving more than 150,000 Allied troops, including 3,000 Australians, the invasion of Normandy began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe and contributed significantly to Allied victory in the Second World War. General Rommel, commanding German forces in France, prophesied that the day of the invasio...
Wednesday 24 September 2014 Professor Bruce Scates, Dr Michael McKernan and His Excellency Jean-Luc Bodson Two of Australia’s renowned military historians will be joined by the Ambassador to Belgium to discuss the outbreak of the First World War which, in its time, was considered to be the war to end all wars. Not only focusing on the Australian perspective and contribution, this talk will provide an international perspective to the War which so many felt the cost of.
Tuesday 16 September 2014 - Mr Tim Smith One hundred years ago at the outbreak of the First World War, Australia had the most technologically potent submarine capability in the southern hemisphere: the E-class submarines. Tragically in September 1914 AE1 went down with all hands. AE2 rallied and led the charge to be the first submarine in history to penetrate the Dardanelles military defences in Turkey on 25 April 1915. Join maritime archaeologist and Executive Director of Heritage Victoria, Tim...
Thursday 19 June 2014 - Mr Tim Whitford Join Tim Whitford, Shrine of Remembrance Education Officer, as he discusses the search for the missing men of the Battle of Fromelles. Tim’s tireless search and advocacy over many years led to the discovery of a mass burial site for 250 soldiers lost since the First World War. This search has led to the creation of the first new Commonwealth War Cemetery since the Second World War and has connected hundreds of families with their military heritage....
Tuesday 20 May 2014 - Mr Patrick Lindsay The Anzac spirit forms the bedrock of the Australian and New Zealand national characters. It was forged from a mateship which grew into something greater than the shared experiences of brothers-in-arms. The Gallipoli Campaign was a kind of crusade and a national rite of passage for three of the countries involved: Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Each emerged from the devastating losses with an enhanced international reputation and its image clarified i...
Wednesday 30 April - Professor Joan Beaumont For many Australians the First World War is the event that defined our nation; larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have become part of the Anzac Legend. But it was also the families at home which made the war effort possible with their resilience in the face of hardship, a stoic acceptance of enormous casualty lists and the belief that their cause was just. Join Joan Beaumont, internationally recognised historian and author ...
Tuesday 15 April 2014 - Susanna de Vries Join us for this compelling lecture recounting the lives of eight remarkable nurses whose resilience, courage and skill took them from Australia to Gallipoli, Lemnos and the Western Front. These women, represented in Susanna de Vries’ reprinted publication, Australian Heroines of World War One, had the courage and strength for which the Anzacs are renowned and the compassion and tenderness that only a woman can bring.
Tuesday 8 April 2014 - Ashley Ekins As another ANZAC Day approaches, the story of the Gallipoli landing and the eight month long campaign that followed will be retold. Most accounts will dwell on stories of the Anzac spirit: reckless courage, endurance, humour in adversity and above all, mateship. Yet how well do we Australians actually know the history of Gallipoli that has become a central part of our national foundation story? The Gallipoli story, especially as it is widely understood, is rid...
Wednesday 2 April 2014 - David Howell and Reg Yates Following a telegram from Britain a few days after the outbreak of war in 1914, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) captured the German wireless station at Bita Paka in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. The Shrine’s David Howell will be joined by Reg Yates who recently uncovered the original foundations of this wireless station. Together, they discuss this important but little known campaign of the First World War....
27 March 2014 - Chris Masters Discussing his publication, Uncommon Soldier, Chris Masters, one of Australia’s foremost investigative journalists, turns his attention to the modern Australian soldier. Moving away from our ongoing fascination with Anzac story, he looks at the rich and illuminating present to write a character study of the modern Australian soldier—war fighter, peacekeeper, street-level diplomat, and aid worker. Having been taken into their ranks in a way rarely before afforded an ...
25 March 2014 - Professor Bruce Scates In the lead up to the Centenary of the Great War, the Australian and New Zealand governments will embark on a great initiative, one destined to change the way that conflict is remembered. ‘Project Albany’ will involve the digitisation of tens of thousands of repatriation files, charting what happened to the diggers who came home. What became of the casualties of war: the gassed, the blind, the crippled, the insane? Who cared for them? How did they cope with...
Dr Heather Sheard- 19 March 2014 By 1914, a small number of determined women had been graduating from the Melbourne Medical School for 23 years and there were almost 130 women registered as medical practitioners in Australia. From the declaration of war in August 1914, the male medical fraternity enlisted enthusiastically across the country and women doctors were just as keen to offer their skills and experience. Their attempts to enlist, however, were met with firm rebuttals by military authori...
Thursday 13 March 2014 - Dr Kathryn Spurling Boxing Day 1944, six Australians aged between 20 and 25 should have been standing in an Aussie backyard drinking a cold beer and burning sausages on the barbeque. Instead these young men were at RAF Binbrook being briefed for an operation to bomb rail yards at Cologne, an operation from which they did not return. By war’s end, thousands of Australian aircrew would lie in European cemeteries or would never be found. Join Dr Kathryn Spurling as she disc...
Professor William Logan - 18 February 2014 Most cultural heritage is difficult to protect and with Australia’s war heritage lying mostly overseas, the conservation and management of significant sites and related artefacts is even more difficult. Using illustrated examples from both World Wars and the Korean and Vietnam War, this lecture discusses the delicate international negotiations which have enabled this heritage to be recognised and protected for current and future Australians....
4 March 2014 - Helen Raw and Avis Quarrell The involvement and role of Australian women in wartime is many and varied. Come and listen to two Australian women share their story. Helen was ten year’s old when the Second World War was declared and one after the other her four brothers enlisted to serve. Helen was one of the many who sent comfort packs and helped with raising funds for the war effort. At the same time a young twenty year old Avis was learning many new jobs as part of the Australian...
Dr Jennifer Lawless - 27 February 2014 Despite the focus on the Gallipoli campaign, little is known about the experiences of the Australians who were captured and imprisoned in Turkey. Based on ten years of research in the Australian, British and Turkish archives, this presentation examines the identity of these men and their various experiences in Turkey whilst challenging some of the myths that developed.
Tim Whitford - Thursday 13 March 2014 In March 1942, Australia was on its knees. The Japanese were swarming southward, Darwin had been bombed, and the vast majority of Australia’s best troops were overseas fighting the Germans. Fear of invasion was very real… Then ships arrived at Port Melbourne bringing the first of hundreds of thousands of American troops to Victoria. It was a friendly invasion. They arrived like the cavalry in the old Hollywood western movies; “Just in the nick of time”. The ...
Ross Coulthart As an investigative reporter for the Seven Network's Sunday Night program, Ross Coulthart was part of a team that discovered a massive collection of thousands of First World War glass plate photographic negatives, which had lain hidden in a French farmhouse attic for nearly 100 years. The stories behind some of these pictures formed the basis of Ross' best-selling book, The Lost Diggers . Join Ross for a glimpse into the lives of these men whose stories have been brought to life i...
Chaired by Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence AO (Retd), Veterans, Peter Isaacson, Jack Bell and Maurice O'Keefe Join us for a special panel discussion on the experiences of Bomber Command members during the Second World War. Chaired by Shrine of Remembrance Chairman, Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence AO (Rtd), the discussion will explore the experiences of a number of veterans, including Shrine Life Governor, Wing Commander Peter Isaacson AM, DFC, AFC, DFM and provide insight into the service of the mor...
Peter Rees More than 10,000 young Australians served in Bomber Command during the Second World War, flying raid after raid over Europe knowing the odds were against them. More than a third died in the air. In his new book, Lancaster Men: The Aussie Heroes of Bomber Command, Peter Rees describes the bravery shown, which he claims has never truly been recognised.
Ted Graham AM and Kim Kirsner In 2008 the finding of HMAS Sydney , sunk by the German Raider HSK Kormoran on 19 November 1941, touched the heart of the nation and brought a measure of peace to the families of the 645 Sydney men who were killed. This talk tells of the Finding Sydney Foundation (FSF), from its inception to success, and the research that predicted the position of the raider Kormoran and provided accurate and efficient search boxes for both wrecks....
Michael McKernan- Wednesday 16 October 2013 Join Michael McKernan, a historian working in the field of Australian social and military history, to hear of his most recent project which focuses on the history of Victoria in the First World War, commissioned by the State Library of Victoria. Learn about how the State of Victoria adapted to the rapidly changing nature of life, as men and women committed themselves to seeing through the war.
Thursday 10 October 2013 - Graham Wilson One of the most well-known actions involving the AIF during the First World War is the so-called “Battle of the Nek”. Unlike much larger actions involving the AIF later in the war, the action at The Nek is fairly well-known to the average Australian with any sort of an interest in Australian military history. Not the least of these reasons is that the charge of the 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments features as the climax of Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipo...
Rosebud Regional Lecture- Michael Veitch Tuesday 24 September 2013 Over the course of three years and two books, author, broadcaster and performer Michael Veitch sought out and interviewed over sixty former airmen of Second World War and recorded, largely for the first time, their stories of flying, combat and survival. As Michael soon discovered, every man who flew in combat in Second World War has at least one extraordinary story to tell. Stories such as that of Lancaster pilot Bruce Clifton, ...
