AUSTRALIANS TREK TO WAR GRAVES

Why do Australian backpackers flock to the war graves of people they never knew, who died in battles they know very little about? Dr Bruce Scates, School of History, has interviewed more than 200 such Australians in order to discover their motivation and experiences.

"Many backpackers go as a mark of respect but others go to party or just to say they have been," Dr Scates said. "Regardless of their reasons all are affected by the experience."

According to Dr Scates, the young pilgrims feel a sense of debt to those who fought and died. "Although the majority of young people know of no close relative buried at ANZAC Cove the desire to say thank you is often very personal. The values long associated with the campaign - mateship, courage, strength and stoicism - are values that the young are prepared to believe in. But there is an overwhelming awareness that the suffering on both sides was pointless and a belief that the Australian soldiers died for a cause that had nothing to do with them," he said.

One seventy-year-old World War Two veteran and son of an ANZAC, told Dr Scates of his horror at seeing beer bottles and sleeping bags spread across the ANZAC Cove memorial site. However he found the solemnity of the young people moved him as much as the service. "Only once did a young chap start to make a noise and he was immediately silenced by his peers… Gallopili restored my faith in the younger generation," he said.

The war grave pilgrimage phenomenon is not restricted to the backpacker set. According to Dr Scates, a flourishing sense of family history is encouraging older Australians to find the graves of their ancestors. "The same urge that leads descendants to scour convict shipping lists also leads those in the 50 plus age bracket to the killing fields in Gallopili and Flanders," he said. "Many people within this group express shock at the extent of their emotions when they find the grave of a family member they never knew."

Dr Scates's research belies the claim that we live in an age bereft of ritual. "Respondents wrote of the need they felt to sprinkle some Australian soil on the graves of their countrymen, how they mourned for the men who would never smell the bush again and how they longed to leave a dusty sprig of wattle," he said.

"For many of the people who have taken part in my survey the ANZAC peninsula was not just a stopover, many described it as a spiritual experiences. Though the Great War ended over 80 years ago we are still a people living with our loss."

CONTACT DETAILS: Dr Bruce Scates, School of History, tel. 9385 1038 or 9661 9564 (home) or Victoria Collins, Public Affairs and Development, tel. 9385 3644.