Project blog

Visiting Canberra? Those with an interest in Mosman’s connections with WWI are well served by the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition, Artists of the Great War.

On the 28th of October 1916, Australians were asked to vote “YES” or “NO”, in favour of military conscription or against it. It was, in the words of Official Historian C.W. Bean “one of the most acrimonious struggles Australia has ever seen.”

Strike-breakers at Taronga Zoo viewing the monkey enclosure, 1917. Their tents can be seen in the trees behind them. Stanley R. Beer Studio (National Library of Australia)

Screen shot of 1917 film reconstructed by National Film & Sound Archive experts https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/australias-great-strike-100-years. The placards protest or make humorous reference to strike breakers residing at Taronga Zoo.

Photographs of strike-breakers at Taronga Zoo and a digitised image of a letter written by a Mosman mother enquiring about her son, give us a glimpse into Australian society in the early 20^th century.

A few days after the disaster at Fromelles, Australian Divisions were thrown into the battle for a small French village called Pozières

Australian official historian Charles Bean wrote that Pozières ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.” At least 21 Mosman volunteers fell between the 23rd of July and the 17th of August, 1916

Gibraltar bunker Pozieres (AWM EZ0098)