Today, we gather on sacred land.
We gather on land that tells the story of the Battles for Bullecourt.
It is a story of fierce fighting.
It is a story of immense courage.
But above all else, it is a story of incomprehensible sacrifice.
The Battles for Bullecourt were fought across two encounters.
The first took place on the 11th of April 1917 and lasted several hours.
The second was launched on the 3rd of May 1917 and ended two weeks later, on the 17th of May. By then, British and Australian troops had successfully taken the shattered remains of the village of Bullecourt.
The Battle for Bullecourt was ultimately won, but the lives of far too many Australians and Britons were lost.
The casualties included 10,000 Australians killed, missing or wounded in the Battles of Bullecourt.
This included more than 3,300 men during the first battle , in which more than 1,100 men were taken prisoner of war. The attack was a costly disaster.
There is much to say about Bullecourt…
… The poor planning
… The savage fighting
… The tenacious soldiers who first broke the 'impregnable' Hindenburg Line.
But that is not why so many Australians, just like so many of you here today, travel vast distances to see, hear and touch this battlefield.
So many Australians make the pilgrimage to Bullecourt because this land is sacred to us.
Just like it is sacred to France, whose people know sacrifice in great numbers and who know war in a way I hope we never do.
We make the pilgrimage here to be as close as possible to our war dead - to walk in their shoes… to imagine their fear and courage… to touch the dirt that is their final resting place.
First World War historian and author, Paul Kendall, is someone who has walked this battlefield many times.
He has written about the Battles of Bullecourt and told the stories of the men who fought and died here.
He tells the story of Private Jack Stewart of the 14th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force.
Many Australian soldiers who fought at Bullecourt were experienced soldiers who had seen action at Gallipoli and The Somme.
Jack was one of those soldiers. He was wounded at Gallipoli on the 3rd of May 1915. He spent months in hospital in England and was then returned to Australia to recover, but then he returned to duty.
Jack was killed on the 11th of April 1917 during the first Battle of Bullecourt. It was said he died taking out a German machine gun position. While he lost his life, his courageous actions saved his commanding officer and comrades.
His grave is unknown.
Jack was one of three brothers who served in the First World War. One brother, James, was killed at Gallipoli in the charge at The Nek on the 7th of August 1915 serving with the 8th Light Horse Regiment.
His other brother, Charles, put his age up to enlist. In the same month Jack was killed, Charles was posted to the 57th Battalion. The very next month, the 57th fought in the Second Battle of Bullecourt in the same general area where Jack had lost his life.
After Jack's death at Bullecourt, their mother, Elizabeth, who I can only imagine was heartbroken and grief-stricken, having lost two of her three sons to the war, wrote to the Australian Army requesting Charles be removed from the front line.
When it was realised Charles was underage, he was posted to the 1st Australian General Hospital, serving with the hospital until the war's end when he alone of the three brothers returned home.
Jack's story, and that of his family, is just one story of the 10,000-odd Australians who were killed, reported missing, or wounded in the Battles of Bullecourt.
We make pilgrimages to humanise the tragic statistics, to try to comprehend the great sacrifices.
More than 100 years on, we are upholding our promise to never forget.
This Anzac Day, we remember the more than 103,000 Australians who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.
We also remember their families, as well as the service personnel who made it home but forevermore carried the weight of war.
Their legacy is our enduring freedoms.
Behind me is a statue of a digger who symbolically watches over our war dead in these fields.
But it is us - the generation of today - who watches over their legacy.
Our best way to honour their sacrifice is to safeguard peace… to work with allies and partners to deter future conflict… to make sure no new names are added to the Roll of Honour in Canberra and that there are no new battlefields to pilgrimage to.
Lest we forget.
