MELBOURNE –Australian military enthusiasts will be given a rare insight into Australia’s contribution to South Africa’s Boer War, when Australian military historian and author Dr Craig Wilcox will lead a unique two-week battlefield tour to South Africa next year.

The 14-day tour will be run under the auspices of RSL Travel (operated by Melbourne-based Ashmore & James Travel Associates) and departs from Australia on May 22, 2006.

The tour will specifically focus on Australia’s role in the Boer War, which was fought between South Africa’s Boer population and British Imperial forces between 1899 and 1902.

“Not many Australians today realise that the Boer War was the first war in which truly Australian military units fought,” said Dr Wilcox.

“Many Australians who think of the Boer War tend to see it as a prequel to Gallipoli. Although it did, of course, train some Australians to be the Anzacs of later legend, the Boer War was more than a rehearsal for the new nation,” he said.

Dr Wilcox, who has written a book on Australia’s contribution in the Boer War, highlights a few other interesting facts about Australia’s involvement in the Boer War:

* It was the longest and most difficult colonial war in which Australians had fought;

* It was the first war in which truly Australian units served – the first unit to carry an Australian name was formed in South Africa in the lead up to the war;

* Around 20 000 Australians fought in this war, and an estimated 1 000 of them lost their lives;

* The only body of an Australian soldier to have died in this war to be brought back to Australia was that of the brother of Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the return of his body to Australia;

* It was in this war that the first men wearing Australian uniforms earned Victoria Crosses (six in all);

* The Queen’s Scarf, knitted personally by Queen Victoria, was awarded to an Australian for heroism;

* It was the first war in which the famous Rising Sun badge was seen on the Australian slouch hat;

* It was the first war in which the forerunner of the famous Australian Light Horse fought.

The tour will trace the progress of the Boer war, starting with the arrival of the Imperial forces (including Australia’s) in Cape Town, and will trace their advance through the interior of the country, visiting en route the locations of significant battles involving Australian units. Towns of Boer War relevance to be visited will include Kimberley (at the time of the Boer War a booming diamond mining town); Klerksdorp, a base for many Australian soldiers during the war; Pretoria, where the peace treaty ending the war was signed (the tour will visit Pretoria on the day exactly 104 years ago that peace of announced); and Johannesburg, where thousands of Australians were living before the outbreak of the Boer War.

The tour will also visit the town of Louis Trichardt, in the area of the country where “Breaker” Morant and the Bushveldt Carbineers were stationed. The visit to this part of the country will also coincide with the special inauguration of a memorial to South Africa’s black people who fought on both sides during the war.

During the course of the tour, participants will learn about some of the most significant Australian figures in the war - men like “Breaker” Morant, who was executed for war crimes and buried in Pretoria); Alexander Krygger, the battlefield hero whose private life caused many Australians to spurn him; Walter Karri Davies, the timber merchant who turned out to be the most influential Australian in the war, and Arthur Lynch, the brilliant Ballarat-born journalist who fought for the Boers and was sentenced to death for treason.

“The beauty of this tour is that it will afford participants some truly unique South African as well as Boer War experiences,” said Dr Wilcox. “We’ll visit not only battlefields and other places of Australian significance seldom found on the itineraries of mainstream tour operators, but also private Boer War collections, rural farmsteads and even a game park.”

Although the tour will be led by Dr Wilcox, a number of other specialist guides and lecturers will provide quality historical content throughout the tour.