Here's a weird thing. There's a battle, a long way from home and a long time ago. A lot of men are killed and wounded. It was a defeat and it didn't change anything. But we're still interested in it. Is that weird or what?
It is indeed weird. But not mysterious. For Australia, Gallipoli has become an important founding legend. It is attracting even greater attention as the 90th anniversary approaches. Why?
Australians entered the Great War welcoming conflict as a test of their nationhood. Their nation had been born amid prosaic debates and referenda, not in war. The troops who landed on April 25, 1915- almost all civilians less than a year before - wondered how they would meet the challenge.
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