For Australians, the battlefields of Gallipoli, the Western Front, and the Thai-Burma Railway hold a pull that has nothing to do with the calendar. People travel to these places to stand where history took place, where the Anzac legend and our national identity began to be forged — and for some, to walk in the footsteps of relatives who served.
While Anzac Day remains the most symbolic time to visit, it is far from the only one. Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours runs trips to these sites throughout the year: the 4-day Western Front Explorer departs weekly from Paris between April and November, scheduled group tours of Gallipoli, the Western Front and Vietnam War battlefields run on key dates across the year, and private tours of Gallipoli, the Western Front, WWII Europe, WWII in the Pacific, and Vietnam War battlefields can depart on any day of the traveller’s choosing.
For those who’d rather explore by water, Mat McLachlan History Cruises, in partnership with AmaWaterways, couple the luxury of river cruising with battlefield touring, fully escorted by an expert Historian with exclusive battlefield shore excursions and on-board history seminars, travellers can shape their own journey — joining a battlefield excursion one day, and a cultural shore excursion the next.
The stories below come from travellers who made the journey around Anzac Day, but the experiences they describe — of discovery, reflection, and connection to family history — are ones that await visitors no matter when they choose to go.
Gallipoli: A Pilgrimage to Anzac Cove
For many, Gallipoli remains the most poignant of all the battlefields. Walking the beach at Anzac Cove, where the Anzacs came ashore on 25 April 1915, travellers move between trenches, shipwrecks, and the cemeteries that line the peninsula — set against the backdrop of Turkish hospitality and culture.
For John Barry, from Victoria, his trip was a chance to honour his mother’s family. His great-uncle, Allan Hayes, was killed on the very first day of the landing. “Every step was a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by too many,” Barry said, describing the Anzac Day and Lone Pine services as “deeply moving, stirring emotions I hadn’t anticipated” — particularly the moment he saw his great-uncle’s name on the memorial wall.
Dianne and William Brisbin, from Townsville, made the journey for a similar reason. Their great-uncle, Lowry Brisbin, was among the first ashore on 25 April and died only days later. “We’ll cherish the memories that we’ve experienced and the path that these soldiers must have dealt with going ashore on foreign lands,” they said.
Other travellers extended their journey further. Geoff and Hope Roberts, from Canberra, followed Gallipoli with a trip to the Western Front, tracing the steps of six relatives who served across both campaigns.
The Western Front: From Ypres to the Somme
If there is one town where remembrance never pauses, it is Ypres. Every evening at 8pm, without exception, buglers sound the Last Post beneath the Menin Gate — a ceremony that has run almost continuously since 1928 and shows no sign of stopping. For travellers, staying in Ypres means becoming part of that nightly ritual, regardless of the date on the calendar.
Mat McLachlan’s Western Front land tours all spend several nights in this medieval town, using it as a base to explore the surrounding Ypres Salient — its WWI trenches, the cratered landscape of Hill 60, and behind-the-lines sites such as Talbot House, the “everyman’s club” founded by Australian-born Tubby Clayton in December 1915. The Mat McLachlan History Cruises through Holland and Belgium will also visit Ypres, ensuring travellers get to stand beneath the Menin Gate, walk past the Gothic Cloth Hall – completely destroyed during WWI and then rebuilt to its original design.
On the Western Front land tours, the journey continues from Ypres to Amiens and the Somme, through underground tunnels, trenches and past the chateau that once served as Sir John Monash’s headquarters.
On Anzac Day itself, two services draw travellers in: the Dawn Service at the Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux, and a smaller, quieter ceremony among the pines of Polygon Wood, near Ypres.
For some, this year’s Anzac Day tour was about family they had only just learned existed. David Wood, from Brisbane, recently discovered that his great-uncle, Guy Ralston, had served and died near Ypres in 1917. Standing at his grave, he said, was “a very moving and humbling experience” — made more powerful by the thousands of fellow soldiers buried alongside him.
Kurt Simmel, from Perth, made a similar discovery: two relatives who died together at Flers during the Battle of the Somme in late 1916, and a great-grandfather who survived the war on the Western Front despite losing a leg at Fromelles. Simmel grew up hearing his great-grandfather’s stories as a child — stories that took on new weight once he stood on the same ground. “The chance to visit where they served, and to see their names inscribed at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, was particularly poignant,” he said. “To be able to take part in the Dawn Service at that same memorial was incredibly moving, and an event I will never forget.”
At Polygon Wood, Heather Campbell, from Newcastle, attended a Dawn Service unlike any other — candles lighting a path through the pre-dawn forest, mist settling over the trees, pipers and buglers sounding in sequence during the Last Post. “The site was shrouded in mist, as though all the lost souls were there with us,” she said. She later visited Westof Farm Cemetery, where her great-uncle Eustace Peverell is buried — the first member of her family to make the journey in 108 years.
Sisters Susan and Patricia, travelling from Queensland with Patricia’s sons Ben and Luke, summed up the experience simply: “It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience — a moving experience for us all.”
Hellfire Pass: A Story of Endurance
The Second World War left its own scars on Australian history, from the beaches of Normandy to the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Hellfire Pass tour took a group through Kanchanaburi Province in Thailand — to the Bridge over the River Kwai, along stretches of the Thai-Burma Railway and to Hellfire Pass itself, a 75-metre cutting carved through solid rock by Allied prisoners of war using little more than hand drills and hammers.
For Paul and Denis O’Bryan, from Melbourne, the trip traced the story of their relative, James O’Bryan, who died as a POW while working on the railway. Standing at the cutting at dawn on Anzac Day, where the marks of that suffering remain visible in the stone, they described it simply: “It was an incredible journey, a must-do experience.”
For those drawn to this chapter of history, Mat McLachlan offers a number of WWII tours, including a D-Day Anniversary Cruise to Normandy.
More Than a Holiday
What emerges from these accounts is something that goes well beyond a typical itinerary. Some travellers came searching for a name, a grave, or a place that had lived only in family stories until now. All came to stand on the ground where history was made, and left with a deeper understanding of it than any book or documentary could offer.
That’s the thread running through all of these journeys — whether to Gallipoli, Ypres, Hellfire Pass or beyond, and whether timed around Anzac Day or any other week of the year. For travellers looking for something with real meaning — a holiday that leaves them with more than photos — these battlefields offer an experience unlike any other.
