A group of gunners from an unidentified battery of the Royal Victorian Volunteer Artillery, who ...

A group of gunners from an unidentified battery of the Royal Victorian Volunteer Artillery, who have deployed their guns and limbers in the field during the annual Easter encampment at Jacksons Creek near Sunbury, Victoria. The area of the Sunbury Camp had considerable advantages as a suitable setting for military maneuvers which included a sheltered valley for the participants and natural viewing platforms for the spectators from the surrounding hills. On Easter Monday spectators could watch a huge mock battle with ranks of Infantry marching shoulder to shoulder into the storm of rifle and cannon fire and hear the thunder of massed cavalry charges, galloping recklessly into the teeth of the enemy batteries. In the early years of the 20th century, Easter military exercises were again held at Sunbury. But in the post Boer War environment, there was none of the reckless bravery and dash of the earlier reviews, where soldiers were trained to face up to devastating defensive firepower without flinching. The days of the massed maneuvers, the rigidly set battle plans and the spectacular displays of battle were over. The new soldiers tended to wear drab earthy coloured uniforms blending in and using the landscape to conceal their movements. All skills which would soon be utilised in the First World War.