Our Colonial Brothers in Arms: Australian Bushmen on the March

As part of the British Empire, the Australian colonies offered troops for the war in South Africa. Australians served in contingents raised by the six colonies and from 1901, by the new Australian Commonwealth. The Australian contribution to the Boer War consisted of five 'waves'. The first were contingents raised in 1899, the second and third were 'Bushmen' and 'Imperial Bushmen', and the fourth 'draft contingents'. The Australian Commonwealth Horse contingents were raised as the fifth wave. In all, some 16,000 Australians fought in the Boer War. Published in the Illustrated London News on 19 January 1901, "Our Colonial Brothers in Arms: Australian Bushmen on the March" reveals Australian mounted riflemen in uniform crossing the dry South African landscape with troops from other nations in the British Empire, including New Zealand and Canada. The work is a Photogravure; an intaglio printmaking technique where copper plates are coated with a light-sensitive gelatine tissue which has been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality print able to reproduce the detail and tone of a photograph or painting. The technique became common from the 1850s, and was often used in the illustrated press.