By Zora Cross  ‘They were so young,’ my father says, "so brave—The whistling brown men from the far away.Foemen by Allah! worth a fighting dayAs they...

by Mary Hannay Foott    Past the Fort on the fairway, where river and sea are met, Like new stars risen on the hillside, the Bushmen's fires are set,...

by Emily Bulcock    Unveiling of Anzac Memorial, Sunday July 2, 1922 They met to honour the brave young dead,      Where a noble shaft rose high! In the...

by Zora Cross    He called….The quiet nurse stole to his side, Seeing how with his hands he strove to hide Dull tears, that from his mother's breast...

by Howarde Tilse From the distant village Comes the throb of a native drum, And savage voices Chanting through the trees. A full moon Crystalises...

by Peter Austen     The blue waves break along the shore, How blue, how blue the summer skies! Somewhere in France two brave blue eyes Lie closed for...

by Peter Miles    You’re the tight twist in my heart when lost gulls of paperboys cry in a brownout, you are the lights  of my vanishing home and my...

by Howarde Tilse    Death leers from the jungle – mockingly, And smiles all-knowing from the skies: With bony hands outstretched, caressingly... But light of...

by Llywelyn Lucas      The wings of the great dark angel – I heard them brushing, I heard them brushing but thank God not by me, And the tide of battle...

  He is long, he is lean, he is wiry; He is loose-limbed and carelessly hung; He is quick on the flare-up and fiery; He swears with an eloquent...

  by Garry Lyle   Let them glide bravely while the night-time lingers Boys and girls dancing down the blue-lit room.  Let them not see the pale,...

by Mabel Forrest       From AUSTRALIA UNDEFENDED                                        I.   The blue sea skirts her slim, sun-ambered feet, Upon her mighty brow red gold is bound,  Upon her breast...

by Colin Bingham    A Fragment Upon the crimson-mottled landing beach, The dying groan among the stiff'ning dead, And here and there a one as if to...

by George Essex Evans    Well done, Queensland! How's that, Umpire? More we may not say, "Kruger and the Mauser rifle" , Are not well to-day, For the...

by Thomas G Rabbets     There was only one volunteer after yesterday's great recruiting meeting, held in Market-square, as the climax of the March of the...

Out of this battle            by Kathleen Watson (1942) I never saw such blossom on the trees as in this year of sorrow.                                         Nothing freesthe heart of grief;but...

Have you heard the bell-birds calling, thro' the grey Australian bush, On some blue September morning, from the trees? Have you heard a creek go...

by Thomas G Rabbetts    The great recruiting march, Warwick to Brisbane, has begun. Rub! Dub! R-r-rub-dub-dub! Rub! Dub! R-r-rub-dub-dub! March! March!...

by Pat Galligan    I shall wait impatient for the day When I shall leave this land of mine To fight her battles on a distant shore; To fight those men I...

By Barbara Patterson[1] They in tired ways beset me Asking for pass ports And news of rain; I cannot tell them, I am escaping And the sun will...

by Frank Francis    I shall not cheer at your triumph for I shall be dead, Exiled from home and part of an alien soil; Lost to your sunset's gold and...

by Alice Gore-Jones    The purple jacaranda bells are fluttering in the air; The mango trees are budding, there is sunshine everywhere. By silver...

by Paula Fitzgerald    To Cyril* All through the years have we not seen your eyes Searching ours as if in mute appeal- And a voice – my soul's –...

by James Sweeney    Who comprise those gallant heroes, and where did they come from Renowned in song and story, Aussies some thousands strong? They are...

by Alice Gore-Jones    These are the lists of death: They were so young! Brave valiant hearts Who loved the earth and sun, The stir of life, And joy's...

by Peter Austen                Somewhere in France he lies- Above his head the scarlet poppies blow, And silver moons have bloomed and still will bloom; Somewhere...

by Garry Lyle      How was that boy who laughed a-down the river on glad, unshadowed holidays of peacetime to see across the years himself returning from a...

                      By Kathleen Watson Hold the shadow in your handbravely, though you understand only what its loveliness might be, if men were free, If men were...

  by E. Maurice Little      What mean these monuments of bronze and stone That in our midst like sentinels are set? What mean these words I read with...

by E. Maurice Little      Left-right-left! left-right-left! list to the marching feet! Thum-thum-thum! thum-thum-thum! hark to the drum’s quick beat! It calls me...

                   by Alice Gore-Jones   Men move about the workshop clumsily Some limping on a crutch, some with their hands  Seeking lost brushes, or the hidden, key  Of...

by Peter Austen    There was a day, when insolently gay, I laughed unto the strumming of guitars. There was a night, I wove in some brave way A...

by Shawn O'Leary    God grant one letter from home today. The days are long and the blood-hate Leaves me weary when the fighting's done. My soul is...

We watch your attitudes with candid eyes: Plain men are we, not given much to prate, Bluntly sincere, keenly compassionate But lions in our wrath at...

    Remember now, as the storm wind from the bay awakens the weeping chorus of the pines,  how proudly I led you[1] off to your first long day at the...

by Alice Gore-Jones    Troop trains troop trains Passing on their way. A sudden gust of cheering cuts The crisp cold winter's day. Above, a sky swept...

  Some few nights in the store-keeper’s hut – tin roof and walls -scarce thirty yards from where the twelve head battery’s crushing feet pounded and crushed...

1ST MARCH, 1885. Dedicated to Lord H—n (Minister for War). THE Third Battalion Grenadiers File through their barrack gate,  Mid natural flush of...