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Articles by Peter Stanley
How should the Australian War Memorial deal with conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on the colonial frontier?
Defending Country and Defend Sacred Ground have different objectives, but they agree on the need for clarity in how the Australian War Memorial deals with frontier conflict in Australian history. This forum has been organised with the agreement of the publishers of Independent Australia and Quadrant Online. The protagonists are each providing a 1,200-word article, a 600-word rejoinder, and a 100-word summing up. Both publications provide for reader comment.
Australian War Memorial, New Galleries, Opened April 2026
Advanced search Australian Historical Studies Latest Articles Submit an article Journal homepage Full Article Figures & data Citations Metrics Reprints & Permissions Read this article /doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2026.2732301?needAccess=true Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Best of 2025 - Flawed Hero, flawed decision: The War Memorial’s institutional cowardice
The Australian War Memorial remains one of Australia’s most cherished national institutions, attracting a million visitors, mainly tourists, to Canberra each year. A repost from 19 September 2025. Those who follow the institution’s fortunes are variously saddened and outraged at its latest own-goal, diminishing its tarnished reputation in refusing to face the reality of Australia’s military experience.
Flawed Hero, flawed decision: The War Memorial’s institutional cowardice
The Australian War Memorial remains one of Australia’s most cherished national institutions, attracting a million visitors, mainly tourists, to Canberra each year. Those who follow the institution’s fortunes are variously saddened and outraged at its latest own-goal, diminishing its tarnished reputation in refusing to face the reality of Australia’s military experience.
Remembering Darwin ... and Timor, February 1942
While 150 Australians died in the Timor campaign, 40,000 Timorese paid the real price. Has Australia made good the price in blood that they paid? We owe Timor a debt. _ _ The 80th anniversary of Japans bombing of Darwin, on 19 February 1942, focuses Australian attention on our historical relationship with our neighbours. We remember the attack on Darwin, but on the very next day after the raids, the Japanese invaded Portuguese Timor.
Anzac: a tale of two nations
National days are usually by their nature, you might think exclusive. No one but the USA celebrates 4 July. Even when nations share a date (as Australia and India share 26 January) they are not the same occasion. 25 April Anzac Day is perhaps the only national day celebrated in common by two nations. You might assume that Australia and New Zealand mark the day identically, but they dont, and never have. The differences between the two Anzac nations are worth noticing.
A strange Anzac day
Its what Australian military historians tend to call Anzac season the weeks preceding the one day of the year when they get asked to speak on talk-back radio about current anniversaries (there are always a couple), or to discuss how Anzac seems to be both changing and un-changing. But this year, Anzac season seems somehow different. First, theres the election. Its widely tipped to be a khaki election or at least Scott Morrison is trying to make it so, even though the country is not actually at war.
The little world of Australian military historians is talking about Daniel Lanes The Digger of Kokoda and the resurgence of the debate over whether the Australian War Memorial should recognise Frontier Conflict. The two are connected by the Memorials reprehensible silence. These issues are being discussed by professionals, but the open nation-wide debate we need is being stymied because essential players have, like surly tennis players, decided to sit out the match.
Time to tell the truth at the Australian War Memorial
_Imagine an Australia where government agencies operated according to grossly outdated ideas. The Department of Health still accepts the theory of Humours regulating the body; Treasury tries to keep to the Gold Standard; Defence believes in the Domino theory. _ Ludicrous, isnt it? Of course except that thats exactly what still happens at the Australian War Memorial, our national war museum and the focus of commemoration of Australias war dead.
Remembering Darwin and ...
On a warm Thursday morning 79 years ago, on 19 February 1942, two forces of Japanese bombers swept over the Arafura Sea to drop bombs on Darwin…When Australians remember the bombing of Darwin which they should as a shocking and potentially portentous event in Australias history, they might also consider the sufferings of the people of Timor, and Australias part in it. The attacks left the town, its port and airfield smoking ruins.
The living and the dead: Gaza war cemetery
Gaza is surely now among the internets most recognisable words, for obvious reasons. It used to be far less familiar to Australians. Up to about 1948, if they knew it at all it was as the place where the Biblical blinded Samson pulled down the temple, or where the Light Horse fought in 1917 to carry the British empires war against the Ottomans from Sinai into Palestine.
The Santal Hul: Arrows against muskets
Exactly 169 years ago, in the jungles of what is now the Indian state of Jharkhand, Bengal Army sepoys fired the final shots in what became known as the 'Hul', or uprising, of 1855. The last of about two thousand Santal fighters died in the Hul's last, anonymous clashes. For six months Santal bands had roamed the jungles of Bengal, burning, plundering and murdering those who had oppressed them.
Arrows against muskets the Santal Hul
Exactly 169 years ago, in the jungles of what is now the Indian state of Jharkhand, Bengal Army sepoys fired the final shots in what became known as the 'Hul', or uprising, of 1855. The last of about two thousand Santal fighters died in the Hul's last, anonymous clashes. For six months Santal bands had roamed the jungles of Bengal, burning, plundering and murdering those who had oppressed them.
The living and the dead: Gaza war cemetery
Gaza is surely now among the internet’s most recognisable words, for obvious reasons. It used to be far less familiar to Australians. Up to about 1948, if they knew it at all it was as the place where the Biblical blinded Samson pulled down the temple, or where the Light Horse fought in 1917 to carry the British empire’s war against the Ottomans from Sinai into Palestine.
The Native Mounted Police: extermination on the Australian frontier
Native Mounted Police took a leading part in conflict on the Australian frontier. As police they are supposedly ineligible to be included in the Australian War Memorial: but why not? They acted as mercenary cavalry, Australia’s own extermination squads. Wars come in all kinds, from large, formal conflicts to small scale guerrilla struggles.
Santal Rebellion 1855: This book explores why it took place, how it was fought, and the way it ended
The end of the hot weather had seen cities, cantonments and towns somnolent beneath the beating sun, with many sepoys in their home villages on furlough. Now the month was ‘attended with much rain...the weather frequently gloomy’.
Book Exceprt | Military lens from Raj justifies relook at the Santhal Hul!
The Santal rebellion has been explained virtually from the moment it began in July 1855. An anonymous article in the Calcutta Review published early in 1856 set the essential narrative of the insurrection within months of its declared end, a narrative which this book seeks to elaborate and challenge.
exclusive excerpt from Hul! Hul!, a fascinating chronicle of the great Santhal revolt of 1855 and how it was put down - Telegraph India
Big Story The Indian republic has just got its first tribal as head. We present here an exclusive excerpt from Hul! Hul!, a fascinating chronicle of the great Santhal revolt of 1855 and how it was put down FREEDOM DREAM: File picture of Santhal men practising archery | Published 28.08.22, 03:35 AM The rebellion began in the Rajmahal Hills “like a sudden thunderstorm”, an apposite metaphor as monsoon rains swept across the country practically every day for the first few months.
Gallipoli and Australian Nationhood
Here's a weird thing. There's a battle, a long way from home and a long time ago. A lot of men are killed and wounded. It was a defeat and it didn't change anything. But we're still interested in it. Is that weird or what? It is indeed weird. But not mysterious. For Australia, Gallipoli has become an important founding legend. It is attracting even greater attention as the 90th anniversary approaches. Why? Australians entered the Great War welcoming conflict as a test of their nationhood.
Remembering Darwin ... and Timor, February 1942
Australian troops burn native villages in East Timor during WW2. (Image: Australian War Memorial) While 150 Australians died in the Timor campaign, 40,000 Timorese paid the real price. Has Australia made good the price in blood that they paid? We owe Timor a debt. The 80th anniversary of Japan’s bombing of Darwin, on 19 February 1942, focuses Australian attention on our historical relationship with our neighbours.
Tides of opinion | John Quiggin
The rise of the OK Boomer meme has given a shot in the arm to the idea that social divisions can be understood in terms of conflict between generations. The boomers — named for the “baby boom” of 1946 to 1963 — were the first generation to receive a widely accepted name, so it’s not surprising they still feature the most prominently. I’ve been pointing out the problems with this way of looking at attitudes for a generation or more, and will restate some of them below.
Uneasy peace | Peter Stanley
The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration Edited by Carolyn Holbrook and Keir Reeves | NewSouth | $34.99 | 296 pages Having published ten or so books about the Great War over the decade of what Australians tend to call the Anzac centenary, I must admit that I accepted the invitation to review this collection of essays, sight unseen, with trepidation. Like some of its subjects, I feel war-weary.
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Eyes Without a Face 25k 12k 7.1k Synopsis Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Why should we remember the Great War?
The 11th of November will mark the final burst of commemoration of the four-year-long centenary of the Great War of 1914-18. For some of us, the anniversary has shaped the past decade of our lives (I’ve published a dozen books and given countless papers and talks.) But the centenary hasn’t quite panned out as its progenitors imagined, at least in Australia.
Why should we remember the Great War?
The 11th of November will mark the final burst of commemoration of the four-year-long centenary of the Great War of 1914-18. For some of us, the anniversary has shaped the past decade of our lives (I’ve published a dozen books and given countless papers and talks.) But the centenary hasn’t quite panned out as its progenitors imagined, at least in Australia.
Why should we remember the Great War?
The 11th of November will mark the final burst of commemoration of the four-year-long centenary of the Great War of 1914-18. For some of us, the anniversary has shaped the past decade of our lives (I’ve published a dozen books and given countless papers and talks.) But the centenary hasn’t quite panned out as its progenitors imagined, at least in Australia.
Why should we remember the Great War?
The 11th of November will mark the final burst of commemoration of the four-year-long centenary of the Great War of 1914-18. For some of us, the anniversary has shaped the past decade of our lives (I’ve published a dozen books and given countless papers and talks.) But the centenary hasn’t quite panned out as its progenitors imagined, at least in Australia.
Remember El Alamein
Exactly 75 years ago, Australians dressed in steel helmets and khaki shorts, and often not much else, sat in weapon pits in the Egyptian sun about 120 kilometres west of Alexandria. They were preparing for what history would call the second battle of El Alamein, the great offensive planned by Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery.
Diminishing city: hope, despair and Whyalla
This piece is republished with permission from State of Hope, the 55th edition of Griffith Review. Articles are a little longer than most published on The Conversation, presenting an in-depth analysis of the economic, social, environmental and cultural challenges facing South Australia, and the possibilities of renewal and revitalisation. Exactly 50 years ago, in the spring of 1966, my family left Pennington Migrant Hostel in Adelaide to drive up Highway 1 to Whyalla.
Armenia, Australia & the Great War
Australian civilians worked for decades supporting the survivors and orphans of the Armenian Genocide. 24 April 1915 marks the beginning of two great epics of the First World War. It was the day the allied invasion forces set out for Gallipoli; and it marked the beginning of what became the Genocide of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenians.
British generals sent Aussie troops to their deaths at the Battle of Fromelles in 1916 - and Australia is still angry
The spat between Australia and Britain over the “banning” of the families of the British soldiers who fell at the Battle of Fromelles in France in July 1916 from this years commemoration is historically confused and based on an anachronistic understanding of Australian and British connections during the war. It’s also an example of the danger of linking your national identity too closely to your military history.
Fromelles: Australia picks a fresh fight with Britain over a 100-year-old battle
The spat between Australia and Britain over the “banning” of the families of the British soldiers who fell at the Battle of Fromelles in France in July 1916 from this years commemoration is historically confused and based on an anachronistic understanding of Australian and British connections during the war. It’s also an example of the danger of linking your national identity too closely to your military history.
Anzac Day: How Australia Grieved 1915-1920
‘Anzac’ (soon transmuting from acronym to word) came to sum up the Australian desire to reflect on what the war had meant. What was the first Anzac Day? At least four explanations exist of the origins of the idea of Anzac, the most enduring legacy of Australia’s Great War. Gareth Knapman has shown that Adelaide held an ‘Anzac day’ on 15 October 1915, a renaming of the traditional eight-hours festival.
Remembering 1942: The Bombing of Darwin
A few minutes before ten o'clock on 19 February 1942 a force of Japanese aircraft swept over Darwin to begin the first of two raids on that day. How did this happen? The attacks on Darwin occurred as part of the Japanese conquest of south-east Asia. Japan had been fighting a brutal war of conquest in China since the early 1930s. It had occupied Indo-China and Thailand in 1941.
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