This photograph – dated the 25th of September, 1914 – shows the Australian Imperial Force’s 2nd Infantry Brigade marching down Bourke Street, Melbourne.
Australia was involved in the First World War from the outset. 38.7 percent of the country’s eligible male population enlisted in the war – a war taking place on the other side of the world. At this point in time Australia considered itself very British.
Seven weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, and six weeks after Britain – and therefore Australia – declared war on Germany, a military parade took place in the streets of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was the 14th of September, 1914.
Featured prominently in this postcard image are the Light Horsemen, who played a significant role in Australia’s participation in the war.
Today in Belfast: the Titanic museum and the SS Nomadic, which is the only White Star Line vessel that still exists. Titanic was built in the city, and was a pride and joy of the locals. The museum has won international awards.
Ukrainians in Castle Mountain concentration camp in 1915.
The 22nd of August, 1914 saw the passing of Canada’s War Measures Act. The act would result in government-sanctioned human rights abuses against Canadians of largely Ukrainian origin.
Ukrainians were declared “enemy aliens” and thousands were put into concentration camps to be used for slave labour across Canada. They were seen as enemies because the western regions of their homeland were under Austro-Hungarian rule at the outbreak of the First World War.
Some 80 000 Ukrainians who weren’t imprisoned were still required to register as enemy aliens and barred from leaving the country.
Plaque and statue at Castle Mountain near Banff.
The infamous Castle Mountain Internment Camp in Alberta saw prisoners used to work in the national parks, where they established the groundwork for the massive tourism to Banff and Lake Louise seen today.
Abuses at the camp were widespread, and were reported as far away as Britain.
Internment continued for two years after the war ended.
Ukrainian cemetery at the Kapuskasing Internment Camp in Ontario.
The internment of ethnic groups was widespread across many countries in both the First and Second World Wars, including in Australia and the United States, though the internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s is generally the only instance most know of.
The iconic Battle of Amiens, later to be known as the opening chapter of the Hundred Days Offensive that ended the First World War, took place from the 8th to the 12th of August, 1918.
This painting, by Australian official war artist Will Longstaff, is titled 8th August, 1918. It shows a column of German prisoners of war heading in one direction, while horse-drawn artillery heads in the other.
The painting can be found in the collection of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The British Empire entered the First World War on the 4th of August, 1914, with a declaration of war on the German Empire.
This declaration drew Britain’s territories overseas into the conflict, including Australia.
This image is of a military recruitment station in the Australian village of Jerseyville, New South Wales. The Recruitment Officer (beside the flag), new recruits, and their families pose for a photograph, circa 1914.
4th August 1918: British soldiers in Ranchicourt, France hold a service to mark the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. The British Army military band stands in the foreground.
