1. Art techniques
2. Book design
3. Bravery
4. Collage
5. Courage
6. Death
7. Gallipoli
8. Historical fiction
9. History
10. Illness
11. Imagery
12. Loss
13. Narrative techniques
14. Nonfiction
15. Photography
16. Soldiers
17. Visual literacy
18. WW1

Gallipoli is a name that has longed been seared in the Australian consciousness. It is there that the ANZAC legend began and much has been written about it, particularly the role of Australia’s soldiers.

‘The beach they called Gallipoli’ takes a different perspective. We meet the beach not at that infamous dawn landing but days earlier with the local fisherman patiently going about their day. It is a place of peace and beauty, a bucolic scene to soon shattered by the arrival of war.

And arrive it did to that beach in the early hours of 25 April 1915 when thousands of men from the other side of the world stormed the narrow beach and scaled the cliffs above. On the clifftops were more men there to defend, for this was their country.

Focusing on the place ‘a beach called Gallipoli’ enables the events to be seen through the prism of the different people involved. The text is spare but replete with rich powerful imagery ‘men dug like wombats;’ bullets whizzed like wasps;’ ‘red flowers bloomed on the white sand’ but always ‘death came hunting.’ This was not a grand adventure but a time and a place of blood, disease and death and the futility of war.

Bruce Whatley’s artwork integrates the universality of the text’s message. Whatley tells of approaching the project ‘as more of a documentary in the form of a picture book.’ He felt the use of original images rather than illustrations was both respectful and powerful and variety of mediums were employed. The use of collage integrates these historic photographic images together with pen and ink, and acrylic artwork. The overall effect is a seamless weaving of the images and the text giving a strong message about the senselessness of war and a homage to the many whose blood soaked into the sands of ‘The beach they called Gallipoli.’

1. Harper Collins. Teaching notes by Robyn Sheahan-Bright for ‘The Beach they called Gallipoli’ by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley https://hcau-assets.supadu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/04024337/Teachers-Notes-The-Beach-They-Called-Gallipoli.pdf
2. The Bottom Shelf Edublog 20 November 2014. Barbara Braxton reviews “The Beach they called Gallipoli’ by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley https://thebottomshelf.edublogs.org/2023/04/22/the-beach-they-called-gallipoli-2/
3. Kids’ Book Review. 3 November 2014. Tania McCartney reviews ‘The Beach they call Gallipoli’ by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2014/11/review-beach-they-called-gallipoli.html
4. The Never-Ending Bookshelf. Review of “The Beach they called Gallipoli’ by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley https://nevendbookshelf.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/review-the-beach-they-called-gallipoli-by-jackie-french-bruce-whatley/
5. National Museum of Australia ‘Gallipoli landing’ includes teaching resources https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gallipoli-landing