Even as the guns fell silent over the battlefields in Europe in 1918, Australia’s military leaders were planning to commemorate pivotal Australian victories through a series of monuments on the Western Front. In Australia too, communities motivated by loss, grief and a determination to never forget the cost to a generation, erected hundreds of war memorials across the land. This talk explores the motives for commemoration—victory, honour and remembrance—through a range of key monuments to Australia’s service men and women.

 

Recorded 9 November 2016.