"I can say right here," Queensland soldier Olly Gunderson wrote from Gallipoli to Miss J. M. Solomon of Tambo, "that I never did believe in war.
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"I think it is a terrible thing that civilised people should be murdering one another, because war is nothing else but legalised murder," he wrote, echoing Voltaire.
"I think that disputes between nations should be settled by an international court of arbitration. However, as the world is not yet so far advanced to adopt peaceful methods of settling differences, it was absolutely necessary for us to take up arms."
One hundred years ago today, Bairnsdale's Every Week published Gunderson's frank, vividly descriptive letter to Ms Solomon.
She had "pinned a note of a cheering character" inside a flannel shirt sent to the troops.–
Gunderson wrote to tell her, "I was the lucky one to get the flannel shirt you kindly donated for the Australian soldier. I found the note pinned inside . . . The shirt came at a time when it was badly needed and I greatly appreciated your kindness.
"No doubt you have read reports of the Australians landing at Gallipoli. The Turks fired at us when we were getting out of the boats in the dark. When the Turks' bullets hit the stones, the sparks were like a lot of crackers going off. It is a terrible thing to see one's comrades killed and others wounded. I have been very fortunate so far, only getting a slight bullet wound in the stomach."
