2016 sees the centenary of a bitter six-week combat central to the Battle of the Somme, with an Allied win but a huge number of losses and casualties, many of them for the ANZAC forces.

Site of an estimated 23,000 casualties in three Australian Divisions (the 1st, 2nd and 4th), including 6,800 losses, Pozières and surrounding countryside has been described by historian Charles Bean as ‘more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth’. Some have argued that the battle has left as great a mark on Australian history as Gallipoli.