The Military History Society of NSW

This is the "From the Editor" column of the Winter 2026 Issue of  Reconnaissance , the quarterly magazine of the Military History Society of New South Wales. Earlier in the twentieth century, the Anzac Legend naturally centered on those grinding struggles across the shores and heights of Gallipoli. Only some decades later did the country’s attention turn to the Western Front in France and Belgium, where our soldiers displayed even more heroism and made an undeniable contribution to the victory of 1918. But the Western Front was a universe of warfare embroiling teeming millions of men over long stretches of terrain while absorbing vast resources churned out by the world’s most advanced industrial empires and nations. In some respects, we are still ignorant of many features and dimensions of Australia’s role in that complex upheaval. This issue of Reconnaissance presents a version of Lt-Col David Deasey’s April 2026 lecture shedding light on a little known but important as...

  "From the Editor" column of the Autumn 2026 Issue of Reconnaissance , the quarterly magazine of the Military History Society of New South Wales. Welcome to the Autumn 2026 Issue of Reconnaissance . To mark this year’s 250th anniversary of American independence, which will be celebrated across the United States, our president Robert Muscat chose to deliver the Society’s first lecture for 2026 last month on a topic from the celebrated war which secured that freedom. An article version of his talk on the British Army at the Battle of Long Island, New York, in 1776 is published as the cover feature of this Reconnaissance . For the British generals, as Robert explains, the clash on Long Island was to be a culminating blow to separate the northern colonies from their southern counterparts and bring the whole rebellion crashing down. Owing to its strategic location on the Hudson River, port facilities and thriving industries, New York City was a lynch pin which needed to be inse...

Statement of the Military History Society of New South Wales on sale and redevelopment of Victoria Barracks, Paddington, Sydney Site map of Victoria Barracks precinct The Victoria Barracks precinct contains some of the most elegant Regency style buildings in Australia, even though their original and continuing purpose has been functional as a military facility. The Barracks site is simply too compact in its dimensions (15 hectares) and too important historically to be developed for anything other than its present use. Precious heritage buildings and spaces are dispersed right across the site (see site map above). In accordance with their function and the state of technology at the time of construction, the site’s structures are low-rise. We are concerned that new buildings would be higher in a way that overshadows and spoils the low horizontal silhouette of the Main Barracks, particularly looking to the south. In this regard the Main Barracks and the parade ground have historically b...

  This is the "From the Editor" column of the Summer 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance , the quarterly magazine of The Military History Society of New South Wales. Welcome to the Summer 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance . From our English inheritance of mistrusting over-mighty standing armies and calling on civilian reserves in times of threat, the concept of volunteer soldiering or militia service was implanted in the Australian colonies by the mid-nineteenth century. Interest in this form of defence intensified after the withdrawal of regular British troops in 1870. Since militiamen or reservists remained, primarily, civilians who served on a part-time basis, some degree of overlap between their work status in civil life and their military service was a natural development, as it was deep into English history. Many regiments and sub-units adopted identities associated with the occupations, professions and institutions to which their members belonged, as well as, of course, the loca...

On Sunday, 19 October 2025 a party of Society members visited the magnificent Australian Army Museum of Military Engineering at Holsworthy Barracks in western Sydney. We were granted the privilege of a special guided tour which started off on the upper level along the visual Timeline wall which places events in chronological context from colonial to more recent times. Then we were given access to back-of-office storage and sorting areas containing hundreds of fascinating items from weapons, to uniforms, to maps, to instruments, to flags and to medals, all collected over the historical periods presented on the timeline. We then moved to the lower level where the Ubique Gallery displays many fascinating exhibits relating to wartime engineering across Australian military history. Finally we entered the Large Technology Gallery with its incredible fleet of military engineering vehicles adapted to a variety of battlefield purposes, like bulldozing, repair and maintenance, transport and mine...