
This iconic anti-war ballad was created by Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, as an oblique response to the Vietnam War. Ostensibly about Gallipoli, it was intended as a veiled attack on Australian participation in Vietnam, which Bogle opposed. The song has gone on to be covered by numerous domestic and international musicians, and become Bogle’s most recognised track. In 1986 it was given a Gold Award by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), and in May 2001 APRA named it one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.