25th of April 2015 marked the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. In Australia
and New Zealand the campaign is commemorated as the anniversary of the first landings of the
Australian Army at Anzac Cove (named after the Australia New Zealand Army Corps or Anzac).
Alongside Remembrance Day on November 11, Anzac Day is the more popular day to commemorate
military fallen and casualties of war. This study will contrast and evaluate the Anzac spirit and
mateship (a close bond between comrades) which are Australian qualities that are often
commemorated and emphasised in remembrance within contemporary Australia. What this study
aims to reveal is that the Anzac spirit, as commemorated today, is not the same spirit that the men
at Gallipoli had amongst themselves and remembered in the immediate post-war period. Rather,
over the synoptic period, political forces, along with changes in culture and identity, altered the
Anzac spirit to make it compatible with cosmopolitan, contemporary Australia. This will be shown by
exploring the themes of the Anzac spirit and how they are presented in original documentation,
soldiers’ letters to home and books published during and shortly after the war.