2015 Australian Summer Scholars Presentations
Public Talk:
2015 Australian Summer Scholars Presentations
Thursday 19 February, 2 pm – 3.30 pm
BAE Systems Theatre
Australian War Memorial
Presentations for the 2015 Australian War Memorial Summer Vacation Scholarship Scheme will take place on Thursday 19 February in the BAE Systems Theatre at the Australian War Memorial, 2 pm – 3.30 pm.
This year the three presentations feature Mr Shaun Mawdsley (Massey University) on the creation of the iconic Lone Pine diorama, Mr Bryce Abraham (University of Newcastle) on the planning for and the recovery of Australian prisoners of war from Europe and Asia by specially organised contact groups in the Second World War, and Ms Julia Smart (Monash University) on the work of Australian war graves units locating and creating the graves of the dead in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. For full abstracts and author details, please see below.
Now entering its 31st year, the Summer Scholars Scheme annually hosts three outstanding students in their third or fourth year of an undergraduate course, or who are undertaking early-stage postgraduate studies.
Since 1985 the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial has hosted 86 young historians under the scheme, providing them with practical experience of working in a major historical institution. Many former scholars have gone on to forge successful careers in academia, education, museums, or other public institutions.
All staff, friends of the Memorial, volunteers and members of the general public are welcome to attend.
In search of Lone Pine: the battle of the diorama
Mr Shaun Mawdsley (Massey University)
Wallace Anderson and Louis McCubbin, Lone Pine (1924–27)(detail). AWM PAIU2011/184.10
The battle of Lone Pine is one of the most enduring events in Australian military history. Arguably the most iconic depiction of the battle is the Lone Pine diorama displayed in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Finished in 1927, it has never been removed from the galleries and has remained the first diorama one sees upon entering the Memorial. Nevertheless, for such an important object of public history its creation almost did not happen. Unique among the Memorial’s collection of Great War dioramas, uncertainty surrounds the selection of the subject and its subsequent construction during the foundational years of the Memorial. This presentation will reveal findings on why and how Lone Pine was selected as a subject to be modelled; the relationship between narratives of the battle and what is actually depicted; and the public responses to the diorama over the years.
About the author: Shaun recently completed an MA in history at Massey University, New Zealand. His thesis looked at the New Zealand 3rd Division in the Pacific war, and in particular their amphibious operations in the Green Islands in 1944. Shaun plans to undertake a PhD in military history on a topic relating to operations in the Second World War.
Bringing them all back home: prisoner-of-war contact, recovery, and reception units, 1944–45
Mr Bryce Abraham (University of Newcastle)
Returned members of the 8th Division at Rose Bay, Sydney, September 1945. AWM 115981
During the Second World War more than 30,000 Australian soldiers, sailors, airmen, and nurses endured captivity as prisoners of war. When the conflict came to an end in Europe in May 1945, and in Asia the following August, specially organised units were tasked with the contact, recovery, and reception of the surviving prisoners. However, while strong historical scholarship has emerged on the Australian experience of captivity and postwar readjustment, the work of these units has yet to receive critical attention to bridge this historiographical gap. Contact, recovery, and reception groups played a particularly important role in rehabilitating servicemen and servicewomen, investigating war crimes, and determining the fate of the many missing personnel in Asia. This talk examines the organisation and operation of these units and the political issues inherent in their task, and ponders their success in light of the ex-prisoners’ responses to the recovery process.
About the author: Bryce completed his honours degree in history at the University of Newcastle in 2014 with a thesis on the awarding on the Victoria Cross, focusing of the Palestinian Campaign in the First World War. Building upon this research, Bryce will begin a PhD at the University of Newcastle in 2015 on the constructions of military heroism and the history of Australia and the Victoria Cross.
“A sacred duty”: locating and creating Australian graves in the aftermath of the First World War
Ms Julia Smart (Monash University)
Members of the Australian Graves Detachment loading bodies from a mass grave in France in preparation for their transfer to individual graves, c. 1919. AWM P04541.001
When the First World War ended, the Australian government was faced with the bereaved families of more than 60 000 Australian war dead whose bodies would never be repatriated. Having assumed responsibility for the bodies of these men, the government was confronted with the overwhelming task of finding and recovering the Australian war dead. Working within the wider international framework of the Imperial War Graves Commission, specific Australian units embarked upon the grim and seemingly impossible task of locating, identifying, and reburying the dead. The work of these units was critical in transforming the chaos and devastation of the battlefields into the peaceful and tranquil cemeteries of today; yet closer examination of the nature of this work and the experiences of the men charged with this task reveals a disjunction between the reality of their experience and the portrayal of this work on the home-front.
About the author: Julia completed her honours degree in history at the University of Wollongong in 2013. Her thesis focused on the representations of captivity of Australian prisoners of war from the First World War. Building upon this research, in 2015 Julia will commence her PhD at Monash University, Melbourne, looking at the legacies of captivity and the impact of prisoners of war from the First World War on Australian national history.