Conflicts
Boer War
Date: 1899-1902
Boer War (1899-1902) South Australia was still a colony, and Australia not yet a nation, when the Boer War broke out in South Africa in 1899. The colonies of Australia each provided contingents. When the war was over the colonial contingents had been merged, reflecting Australia's emergence as a...
Boxer Rebellion (China)
Date: 1900-1901
During the early nineteenth century there was a strong demand for opium among the Chinese population and, despite China's reluctance to engage in trade, the major European powers used this demand to commence trading Chinese goods for opium. Trading centres were established at major ports such as...
World War 1
Date: 1914-1919
Places: Beersheba, Bullecourt, Dernancourt Fr, Dernancourt SA, Ieper (Ypres), Pozières, Warlencourt-Eaucourt, Zonnebeke
World War 2
Date: 1939-1945
Places: Darwin, Port Moresby
Non Warlike
Date: 1945-2015
This entry is administrative only and serves to enable enlistment and discharge details outside of warlike and other specified service to be recorded.
Occupation Force Japan - BCOF
Date: 1945-1952
With the cessation of hostilities against Japan following VJ Day in August 1945, plans were put in place to form an Army of Occupation in Japan. The battalions raised to form the basis of this force were later to become the basis of Australia's new Regular Army. One of them became the basis of...
Peacekeeping
Date: 1947-2013
Places: Harare, Kigali
Malayan Emergency
Date: 1950-1960
The post-WW 2 world from 1945-1960 was characterised by a process of 'de-colonisation' in Asia and Africa. Widespread insurrection and violent revolution resulted in some former colonies. Communist Soviet Union and China were behind many of these revolutionary groups with the aim of installing...
Korean War
Date: 1950-1953
Place: Gapyeong
Vietnam War
Date: 1962-1973
Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War will always be remembered for controversy and the divisions it caused in the community during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Vietnam was the only conflict in which Australia has deployed conscripted service personnel on active service overseas. And for...
Malaysia / Indonesia Confrontation
Date: 1963-1966
Also referred to as the Indonesian Confrontation, or 'Konfrontasi' in Bahasa, it was an undeclared war fought from 1962 to 1966 in response to the creation of an independent Federation of Malaysia. Sukarno, President of Indonesia, argued that the creation of Malaysia was an attempt by the British...
Iraq, The First Gulf War, 1990-91
Date: 1990-1991
Australian War Memorial On 2 August 1990 Iraq invaded its rival oil-exporting neighbour Kuwait. The invasion was widely condemned, and four days later the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously approved a trade embargo against Iraq. A blockade of Iraq’s access to the sea followed within...
Middle East Area of Operations
Date: 2001-2014
Australia had existed in a largely conflict-free environment from 1973 after its withdrawal from Vietnam until shortly after the invasion of Kuwait by Sadam Hussein's Iraq in 1990. Although not initially directly involved, these events began a sequence of incidents that culminated in the 2002...
Afghanistan
Date: 2001-2014
Main image - Australian ASLAV and CH47 Chinook helicopter in support of operationshttp://media.defenceindustrydaily.com/images/LAND_ASLAV_and_CH-47D_Afghanistan_lg.jpg Australian involvement in Afghanistan began with Prime Minister John Howard invoking the ANZUS Treaty in response to the Al Qaeda...
Iraq, The Second Gulf War, 2003-09
Date: 2003-2009
On 20 March 2003, a combined force of American, British and Australian troops under US leadership invaded Iraq in what was termed ‘the Second Gulf War’. Their object was to locate and destroy suspected ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Small but highly effective Australian army, air force and navy...The Human Cost
A summary of South Australian casualties arising from conflicts in which Australia has been involved. The picture below is of the interior of the SA National War Memorial in Adelaide.
Click here for more information on the human cost.