Reflection on War

In central Victoria is a country town named Seymour.  This town has always been the centre of training for military personelle for whichever war was current. Most recently established was the Puckapunyal Army  Barracks in 1939, where my Lovely Man did national service when he was 18 years old.  Fortunately for our family he was never called up to fight.
The site depicted here is that of the training camp of the Light Horse Regiments of the Boer War, the First and Second World War. In 1910 there were 4000 troops and 2000 horses in training here. Subsequently they were shipped to Egypt where they finished their training and then were sacrificed on "The Nek" at Gallipoli, Fromelles, Paschendaele, etc. This particular memorial relates to the 1917 Charge of Beersheba. Hopefully you can just see the outlines of the mounted soldiers etched into the rusty iron of the memorial. You will find the details of this in my extra.
Our walking group from U3A spent a couple of hours walking around this 350 hectare memorial park which is now derelict, with only broken foundations showing amongst the green grass in the clearings.  Throughout the site are various images like this depicting other campaigns. The horror of war quite overwhelmed us and I have to say it was a very quiet drive back to Shepparton. Among the extras is a view over the ancient Dandenong ranges from the top of Anzac Hill, so named because of its irrevocable link with the Anzac story.