The story so far
Defending Country recently got the Australian War Memorial to admit that it had a policy on the recognition of the Australian (Frontier) Wars. Our FOI request to the Memorial also included this: 'We seek access to internal documents, including Memorial Council decisions ... disclosing the currently proposed allocation of Memorial gallery space to frontier conflict ...'
The Memorial referred us to 'Question on Notice (214)', from Senator Dorinda Cox (then Greens, WA) enquiring how much Memorial space would be devoted to the Australian (Frontier) Wars. The Memorial answered the Senator thus:
Part of 410m2 allocated to Pre-First World War gallery. Planning the content will commence in 2025. The decision on space allocation specific to frontier violence will be made during the interpretive design process in 2026. (Emphasis added)
'Question on Notice (214)' had been a public document for two years. But how big was the 'part' and what else besides the Australian Wars was to go into the 'Pre-First World War' gallery?
The answers to those questions had also been publicly available for two years:
under current plans, that 410 square metres is actually 198 square metres in 'Gallery West' of the Pre-First World War gallery;
that 198 square metres is to depict not just the Australian Wars but also the Australian contingents sent to the New Zealand Wars 1845-72 and the Sudan 1885;
the rest of the 410 square metres is 'Gallery East', for the Boer War 1899-1902 and the Boxer Rebellion (China) 1900-1901.
The plan below is from an August 2021 Memorial Council paper released to Senate Estimates in 2023 (pages 54-55). It uses the above figures, except that 410 was originally 408, the change following a minor recalculation in May 2023. (A Defending Country consolidation of relevant statistics, using the Memorial's figures.)
Some options for the Memorial to consider
Defending Country knows nothing of the Memorial's thinking on 'space allocation specific to frontier violence' but here's a possible option: put New Zealand and the Sudan into Gallery East, along with South Africa and China, leaving 198 square metres in Gallery West exclusively for the Australian Wars (that's still just 1.1 per cent of total gallery space after the Memorial's redevelopment).
That 198 square metres would still be ludicrously disproportionate to the deaths incurred (somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 men, women and children, in the Australian Wars compared with about 600 in New Zealand, the Sudan, South Africa and China) and to the relative importance in Australian history of the events portrayed: historian Henry Reynolds and documentary producer Rachel Perkins believe the Australian Wars were our most important war, the foundation of today's Australia.
It would be a start, however, and it would show that the Memorial is attuned to the Australian Commonwealth of 2025 rather than to six colonies under Queen Victoria circa 1900. 'Gallery West' could be renamed 'The Australian Wars Gallery'.
The map above shows that the walls of the Memorial impose constraints on further coverage of the Australian Wars in that part of the building, although another option would be to devote the whole 410 square metres to the Australian Wars. That would still be just 2.3 per cent of total gallery space after redevelopment.
There are two other changes that could be considered. First, add the words 'Australian Wars' to the names of Australian war theatres on the walls of the Memorial.
Secondly, add a plaque to the Memorial's Roll of Honour, spelling out that between 20,000 and 100,000 Australians died in the Australian Wars. Unlike the 103,000 Australians on the Roll of Honour, we do not know most of the Australian Wars names and we cannot do so because their bodies were burned or buried and many of the records were lost, destroyed or never kept.
The lack of names does not make the dead of the Australian Wars less worthy of remembrance than the dead of Australia's Overseas Wars, just as the lack of a name does not make the Unknown Australian Soldier less worthy of remembrance than the 103,000 whose names we know.
If a single unknown dead Australian deserves such honour, how much more honour is due to tens of thousands of unknown dead Australians, men, women and children?
Lest We Forget.
'Memorial management’s current plans for Pre-First World War space [410 square metres] in the redeveloped Memorial will add just 25 square metres to the space that those conflicts – all five of them, including the Frontier Wars – occupied in the Memorial before the redevelopment. That is effectively presenting a raised middle finger to the Australians who looked to our premier commemorative institution to lead the way to honest and proportionate depiction and commemoration of this part of our history.' (Honest History, 5 May 2023)
As always, if the Memorial wishes to comment we will publish comment without amendment, subject to our Moderation Policy.
Picture credit: Volunteers for the NSW Infantry Contingent for the Sudan at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, shortly before the contingent's departure on 3 March 1885 (Australian War Memorial).
