We will walk the ground on which the Great War was fought. We’ll visit the museums that interrogate the memory of a war that changed the world. And we will engage with history in the places history was made during a 18-day intensive study tour that retraces Australia’s war across Gallipoli and the Western Front.

We begin in Istanbul, to get a sense of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire’s military traditions and how they were mobilised during the Gallipoli campaign. We will explore the Topkapi Palace and the galleries of the Harbiye Military Museum and Cultural Site Command.

Students will then relocate to the Canakkale province on the straits of the Dardanelles, the epicentre of both the Trojan wars and the Gallipoli campaign. Over four days students will reconstruct the battles of 1915, charting the old front line through the gullies and across the ridges. We will also examine the ways Turkish, Australian, New Zealand, and French and British Imperial authorities claim a place in this vast commemorate landscape.

The second phase of the program moves to the Western Front. All Australia’s major campaigns will be examined, as will the experiences of war behind the lines, in particular the interaction of troops and nurses with the civilian population. Again, there will be a focus on commemorative landscapes, the making of memorials (by all combatant nations) and a detailed interrogation of the major museums in Flanders, the Somme and Verdun. Here you will meet with the curators of ‘In Flanders Fields’ Museum in Ieper and you’ll hear about an ANU internship program that offers further opportunities to work and study in Europe.

Visited locations in Belgium and France include but are not limited to: Ypres, the Menin Gate, Langemark, Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, Hill 60, Fromelles, Vimy, Wellington Quarry, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Bullecourt, Mont St Quentin, Villers-Bretonneux, Le Hamel, Pozières, Thiepval, Beaumont-Hamel, Douaumont, Verdun, Vauquois and museum/commemorative sites in Paris. Our journey will conclude in Paris at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

What are the fees associated with this course?

This course will incur the same tuition fee of any 12-unit course offered in history at the ANU. Refer to Programs and Courses website for domestic and international tuition fees.

Is there any financial assistance I can access?

 

This is an intensive course that will earn 12 units towards your degree. We welcome students from all disciplinary backgrounds, so you do not need to be enrolled in a History major to undertake this course. It counts towards a History Major or a War Studies Major but may also count towards electives in your program of study, if available. Please seek advice from your academic college’s student office if you are unsure. You need to have completed 36 units towards your degree at ANU to enrol in this course, but admission may be approved by the Course Convenor in other circumstances. For example, students who have completed 24 units in their first year at ANU and will have completed an additional 12 units before departing for overseas.

The Great War’s Battlefields Study Tour takes teaching and learning out of the classroom. Assessment has been tailored to take advantage of teaching and learning ‘in the field’, engaging with places and objects of immense historical interest. There is a strong component of collaborative learning, an opportunity for you to draw on your own skills and interests and a chance to reflect on your experience on your return to Australia. Specific assessment will include:

• In-country presentations (1000 words each) 15% each - total 30%
  These exercises will involve a mix of group work and individual endeavour. The presentations will be delivered on-site (memorials, battlefields, museums etc.) Each student will contribute to two in-country presentations.
• Course diary (1500 words) 15%
  This diary will be the narrative of your journey across this memory landscape. It will be kept during your time overseas and can provide an additional resource for your research paper.
• Preliminary Research Paper (1500 words) 15%
  This is a reflective essay on the John Monash Interpretive Centre. ‘The digital battlefield’: war as a Re-enactment’.
• Research Paper (4000 words) 40%
  Although you will have completed much of the research and readings for this project before we return to Australia, you are not required to submit the major essay until a month after our return. The research essay will compare and contrast sites and museums we have visited in the course of our tour, focusing on galleries/exhibitions/commemorative landscapes that you found of particular interest.

Are there preliminary readings/activities?

Dr. Romain Fathi is a Senior Lecturer at the School of History and has published widely on the First World War and its commemoration. Romain has previously visited the sites selected for the tour, often on multiple occasions.

This tour may also draw on expertise from other ANU historians and staff attached to leading cultural institutions including the Australian War Memorial, the Historial in France, and the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium.

Joining the course will be one Field Assistant. They will have no formal teaching responsibilities but will assist with tour logistics and play a special role providing additional pastoral care to students. The Field Assistant will be either an ANU postgraduate candidate or a recent graduate of the ANU.

 

This course will commence with a pre-departure briefing on Friday 23 May and a visit to the Australian War Memorial on Saturday 24 May 2025. The Great War’s Battlefields Study Tour itself will be held from 16 June to 3 July 2025 . Overseas teaching will take place in Turkey, Belgium and France.

What if I want to travel in Europe before or after the tour?

This course will involve walking across sometimes challenging terrain (especially on the Gallipoli peninsula). You must have a good level of fitness to undertake this course. You must report any allergies (or any disability/condition that might affect your learning) to the course convenor when you lodge the expression of interest below.

A valid passport with at least six months validity before its expiry date prior to travel.

Students travelling on Australian passports need to apply for a visa to travel to Turkey. This is the site to access:

www.evisa.gov.tr

Students travelling on other passports are required to obtain visas for all the countries we visit and must allow sufficient time for the visa to be processed.

All students must be enrolled in the course and must have completed the ANU Travel eForm and received travel approval before commencing the course.

ANU students are covered by ANU travel insurance at no cost to themselves, upon the completion of the ANU Travel eForm. This form (which includes a statement of any pre-existing medical conditions) must be completed by May 2025 at the latest.

The University’s first priority is your personal wellbeing and safety. This course will avoid any place where students may be put at serious risk and ANU staff will continuously monitor DFAT safety warnings. There may be unscheduled changes to the itinerary in the light of DFAT travel warnings. Students will be briefed on maintaining health and personal safety at the orientation session. All students undertaking this course must be fully vaccinated against COVID.

 

Yes. WOW! Travel can organise flights at a competitive cost, taking advantage of a group fare, as the group will depart Australia onboard the same flights. Organising your return flight from Europe is your responsibility (allowing students maximum flexibility in when, where and how they travel after the tour). Information about flight booking will be provided in the third quarter of 2024.

Absolutely. To deliver quality teaching, and to protect the fragile landscapes and heritage value of all our destinations, this course is capped at a maximum of 20 students. For the 2025 tour places will be allocated on a first in, first served basis.

To secure a place, you must do three things.

1. Register an expression of interest as soon as possible. The EOI can take the form of a simple email reading:

"I, YOUR NAME, wish to reserve a place on Hist2206: The Great War’s Battlefields Study Tour 2025. I understand that the course will be conducted from 16 June to 3 July and undertake to participate in all class activities and assessments outlined in ANU Programs and Courses for Hist2206 before, during and after that time. I also undertake to attend the predeparture lecture and orientation session at the Australian War Memorial in May 2025. I am in good health and have/will acquire a passport (and any required visas) enabling travel to sites overseas. By the time I take part in the tour, I have completed/will complete 36 units of ANU courses towards my degree. I am happy to have my name included on a group email of prospective students. I also agree to have my photograph taken at tour sites, both to promote the course in the future and for assessment purposes."

You must report any allergies (or any disability/condition that might affect your learning)

Please forward this email to Dr. Romain Fathi [romain.fathi@anu.edu.au] no later than 1 November 2024. Please include the subject heading Great War’s Battlefields.

2. Undertake the first in a schedule of payments for the travel package fee of $5990 As noted above, this fee is in addition to the standard tuition fee and will cover all accommodation and most land transport, travel from Turkey to Belgium, all museum entries, some meals in transit and all meals on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The first payment of $500 is due no later than 1 September 2024 (but can be made earlier if you wish). The payment can be made through the approved travel agent for this course, WOW! Travel, email timhakins@bigpond.com.

3. Enrol in the course via ISIS when enrolments open for Autumn/Winter session 2025.