Shrine of Remembrance

Recorded Wednesday 14 June 2017 What threads connect Australian soldiers across six decades? Those who travelled to South Africa at the turn of the nineteenth century and to Vietnam in the early 1960s had little idea of what they were to encounter on the battlefield. Their insightful and entertaining letters and diaries position them as men eager to bring honour to their country but expose the dif...

Recorded 3 May 2017. Sharon Bown's remarkable 16-year career with the Royal Australian Air Force saw her deployed to East Timor, Bali and Afghanistan. From barely surviving a helicopter crash to commanding a combat surgical team, Sharon's journey is a confronting, but ultimately inspirational account of what our men and women in the military experience, and the price they pay for their service. Jo...

Recorded 20 April 2017, Maryborough Town Hall The Australian debates about conscription for overseas service in the First World War were unique. Conscription was adopted by almost all other countries fighting the war, including Britain, Canada and New Zealand. Australia was the only country to put the issue to popular vote and to reject it, if only by narrow margins. Why was Australia different? W...

Recorded Tuesday 30 May 2017. In 1917, Robert Grieve was awarded the highest military honour, the Victoria Cross (VC) medal, for knocking out a machine gun post concealed in a concrete pill-box during the Battle of Messines. Unusual for a VC award, Grieve's actions were reported by two non-commissioned officers. Hear Philip Powell discuss his research on Grieve and the broader implications of the...

Presenter: Neil Sharkey Recorded 11 April 2017   The battles at Bullecourt in April and May 1917 were an unmitigated disaster. Marred by poor planning and disastrous mechanical failures, the battles resulted in more than 10,000 casualties and over 1,000 Australians taken prisoner. Neil Sharkey, Shrine Curator, explores the circumstances which led to this hollo victory on the Hindenburg Line.

Recorded Friday 7 April 2017. The Soldiers' XI  explores conflicts in Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan from the unique perspective of cricket. SGT H has played cricket on eleven deployments with the Australian Army: to maintain team resilience, to build rapport with locals, and to de-stress after combat. Cricket once even brought together allies and enemy. Eleven bats each tell a story about war in the...

Recorded Thursday 6 April 2017 During the Second World War, heavy cruiser HMAS Australia (II) protected our nation's borders, trawled the Atlantic for German battleships and served alongside US forces in the Pacific where she survived both the Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She withstood mutiny, the first on an Australian war ship and multiple kamikaze attacks. Join journalist a...

Recorded 23 March 2017   For 44 Days in March and April 1942, RAAF Squadron stood alone in Port Moresby between the invading Japanese forces and Australia. By the time relief arrived, the squadron had almost been wiped out. Join author and broadcaster Michael Veitch, as he explores the little-known story of these young recruits and their Kittyhawks.   For more information on upcoming talks and eve...

Recorded Tuesday 28 March 2017 Panelists: Sergeant David Robertson, recipient of the Medal for Gallantry, was deployed twice to Afghanistan and currently serves as an instructor at Puckapunyal. He now wants to help the community better understand the Afghanistan conflict and how it affected the soldiers who served there. Dr Steven Cooke, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Heritage, is the Course Director...

Dr Amanda Laugesen Recorded Friday 10 March 2017 at the Kerang RSL Language provides a fascinating way of approaching and understanding the Australian experience of the First World War, a war like nothing that had come before. Technological innovations generated a new language and slang helped those who fought make sense of their experiences. Join Dr Amanda Laugesen as she explores the language an...

Dr Richard Trembath Recorded Tuesday 7 March 2017 Established in the 1980s, the Regional Force Surveillance Units (RFSUs) differ in many ways from the rest of the Army Reserve.  First, their area of operation is vast: NORFORCE, the most famous regiment, covers all of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley.  Second, their activities include military surveillance, border protection and detection o...

Saturday 11 February - Havala Laula, Bill Stuart and David Howell Throughout the fighting on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guineans were at the forefront of the campaign. Not only did they carry over the much needed supplies for Australian soldiers but they also carried the wounded to safety, earning the name Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. In addition, many Papuan New Guineans served as soldiers, policeman and...

2016 marked the 15th anniversary of the commencement of the war in Afghanistan, Australia's longest war. Join writer and director Victoria Midwinter-Pitt as she discusses the making of her latest documentary, Afghanistan: Inside Australia's War. This remarkable project involved over 500 frank and moving interviews with service personnel and politicians.  In this talk, Victoria shares her inspirati...

According to London's Times, Melbourne-born Paul Brickhill, spitfire pilot and Stalag Luft 3 prisoner, 'set a standard in the telling of popular war stories which has never been surpassed'. His books about escaping Nazis, about boldly busting their dams, and about legless fighter pilot Douglas Bader became bestsellers, while the movies based on them are classics. Hear award-winning writer Stephen...

Jeannine Baker reveals the little-known stories of the trailblazing women journalists who have reported on war. Since Agnes Macready travelled to South Africa in 1900 to write about the Boer War for the Catholic Press, Australian women have fought for the right to cover conflict. In 1914, Louise Mack defied the orders of Lord Kitchener to travel to Belgium, where she witnessed the fall of Antwerp....

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...

Over 65,000 Australians have served in more than 50 United Nations and other multilateral international peace operations since 1947. While many peacekeepers feel their contribution is important and rewarding, the capacity for some to develop mental illness after their service is well documented—often for reasons different than those found in combat operations. This talk explores the unique charact...

Presenter: Susan Gordon-Brown 23 August 2016   Susan Gordon-Brown spent three years photographing and interviewing Australia's Vietnam veterans, learning about their military training, their experiences in Vietnam, and their lives after the war. In this floor talk, Susan discusses her motivation for compiling the exhibition, the process of interviewing the veterans, and insights gained through the...

Wednesday 10 August 2016 Senior Historian at the Australian War Memorial, Peter Burness, discusses his new research on Charles Bean's Western Front diaries. Peter talks about these remarkably candid diaries and what they reveal about Bean, who was Australia's official war correspondent throughout the First World War. Bean's position took him to London, the Salisbury Plains and every important Aust...

Sunday 14 August 2016 Jean McAuslan, Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the Shrine of Remembrance, is joined by Vietnam veterans Paul Penno, Nicholas LeRay-Meyer and Jan McCarthy to discuss the experiences of Australian service men and women in Vietnam. The panel cover topics such as the role played by nurses and medical staff, experiences of National Servicemen, the RAAF and their own per...

Speaker: Ian McDougall Sunday 31 July 2016 In late 2014, the Shrine unveiled the new Galleries of Remembrance and Education Centre. Australia's history of military service in peacekeeping and war has been incorporated throughout the design and symbology of these new spaces. Join award winning architect and Founding Director of ARM Architecture, Ian McDougall, for a special talk on his involvement...

Speaker: Dave Sabben MG Join 6RAR Platoon Commander Dave Sabben as he discusses his experiences at Long Tan where 108 Australian servicemen fought off 1,500-2,500 Viet Cong. Dave was called up in 1665, aged 20, for the first intake of Australia's National Service scheme. He served with 6RAR first tour and was awarded a Mentioned in Despatches, which was later upgraded to a Medal for Gallantry (MG)...

Speakers: Emeritus Professor David Horner AM and Ted Blamey Date: 26 July 2016 Detractors describe him as ruthless, self-seeking and egotistical and point to personal scandals, and the damaged careers of the many capable soldiers who stood in his way. Supporters speak of a man who understood, better than any other Australian leader, the wider nature of war—the political implications of action and...

Dr Ross McMullin, Christopher Wray and Neil Sharkey Friday 22 July 2016 July and August mark the centenary of the actions at Fromelles and Pozières on the Western Front. These two battles engaged all Australian Divisions on active service and resulted in staggering casualties, over 5,500 at Fromelles and over 23,000 at Pozières. Join historians and authors Dr Ross McMullin and Christopher Wray in...

Presenter: Dr Adrian Threlfall Tuesday 03 May 2016   75 years ago this month, members of the Australian 6thDivisionfought a ferocious battle against elite German paratrooperson theisland of Crete. Having been evacuated from Greece onlyweeksearlier the Australians and New Zealanders were poorly armedandhad no air support but their resistance, althoughultimatelyunsuccessful, would decimate the Germa...