“Qualities of independence, originality, the faculty of rising to an occasion and loyalty to a ‘mate'”; this was how renowned historian Charles Bean described the Australian national character three years after the end of World War I.
For Bean, the idolised spirit of the Anzacs born at Gallipoli and on the Western Front had become ingrained in the character of the whole nation.
But what was Australia really like when the first Anzacs sailed to war?