Craig Roach - Gallipoli Battlefield Tours

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Craig Roach - Gallipoli Battlefield Tours

Having walked the hallowed ground of Gallipoli for nearly thirty years. Craig Roach (Roachie) gives you the Gallipoli Story in depth.
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30/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Located between the sea and the frontline, tucked away in the folds of the Gallipoli hills lies a seldom visited cemetery. It's cemetery holds many who died in this sector, including the brother of AB Facey and my mate George Rowley. When the full moon sets over the Aegea...

29/10/2023

What better way to celebrate the 100th birthday of our modern Turkish Republic than to share some Turkish Kalecik Karasi from Akin Gurbuz, with Turkish made olives and Camembert and Rockford cheese. Happy Birthday Turkey and thanks to the man who created it Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

29/10/2023

Available now for purchase. A few years ago I discovered that my brother-in-law had two uncles that enlisted and served in WW1, the McDonald brothers Joe and Allan. Allan joined the Light Horse and served at Gallipoli and Palestine. Allan returned to Australia and enlisted again in WW2, serving in A...

28/10/2023

Available now for purchase. On the southern end of Anzac Cove is a small headland called Hell Spit lying at the front of it is Beach Cemetery. A cemetery in use from day one of the Gallipoli campaign. In 2019 I had the pleasure of travelling around with a wonderful mob of people I affectionately cal...

27/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Imagine on a cold and stormy night in January 1915 a small ship slipped quietly into the shallows of Gully Beach in Gallipoli. After more than 8 months in this hellhole, the troops were finally evacuating. Their ANZAC counterparts had done so two weeks earlier and now fin...

26/10/2023

Available now for purchase. The Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 and 1916 affected more than those fighting on the Aegean Coast of Turkey. From February 1915 the allies had occupied the nearby Greek island of Lemnos. The reason for this occupation initially was to provide support for invading forces as th...

25/10/2023

Available now for purchase. I stumbled across some ancient windmills on the hilltop overlooking the beautiful Gumusluk village. They were indeed very beautiful. You can check out the separate gallery for the 4 canvasses completed of the windmills, which have since been destroyed to build luxury vill...

23/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Those who have travelled with me around Gallipoli are sometimes shocked when I suggest we leave a beautifully maintained Shrapnel Valley and take a steep walk for 650 metres along the ridge overlooking Anzac Cove. Some people are reticent to attempt it, and I don't force....

22/10/2023

Available now for purchase. A few years ago I was approached by the partner of a previous client from Gallipoli. Actually, as in most cases my clients become more friends than mere clients. Chris is one of those friends. His 50th birthday was coming up and his partner contacted me about how much Chr...

22/10/2023

It was such a wonderful day at Akin Gurbuz' Winery Harvest Party in Lulleburgaz. Congratulations to Akin and his team. From the vineyards to the restaurants of Turkey and all of his friends.
Thanks to everyone!

21/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Anzac Cove in the past century has changed lots and at the same time changed very little. even though there are retaining walls and a wide road, all built in recent years, there are still the original little lost places on the Cove. You can still find those little places....

20/10/2023

Available now for purchase. This commission features the pre-dawn situation on North Beach prior to sunrise on 25th April 2019. Always the coldest part of the day just before the dawn. These pilgrims wrapped up like sleeping cocoons in sleeping bags, huddled together, while those awake are entertain...

19/10/2023

Available now for purchase. We searched for Harry.......... He landed on that fatal shore. for two days he fought until the day he disappeared. His unit fought across Lala Baba to the plain, he took Green Hill, then when they pressed for Ismailoglu Tepe when Sgt Harry went down in the field. Fires r...

18/10/2023

Available now for purchase. A few years ago a local farmer in Cape Helles decided to clear the blackberry bushes on his land. What he found shocked him. In June 1915 the French dragged these guns here. They face not the enemy on the frontline but fire eastwards across the Dardanelles all the way fro...

17/10/2023

Available now for purchase. No visitor to the Gallipoli Battlefield can avoid the bustling ferry port of Canakkale. Especially beautiful at sunset. Such a lively place, a university town filled with young History students. The seaside promenade alive with life. Across the Dardanelles, The Narrows, s...

16/10/2023

Available now for purchase. There on the shores of Suvla Bay is a testament that nature has won the war started in the Aegean in 1915. Located near what they called The Cut, the channel cut by the British after their landing in August of that year. It was once one of the necessary tools of the invas...

15/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Two paintings, same subject, same location, different results. This set just can't be separated. So I'm offering them both. The W Beach wreck changes throughout the year, depending on the tide, the weather, the wind. I love it.

14/10/2023

A few years ago a man from Queensland crossed my path. He was the 75 year old nephew of a man who had already lived an extraordinary life up until he was wounded in Gallipoli at 22. A gr***de blew up in his hand and blinded him as well as blowing off his right arm. This extraordinary Anzac then fell...

13/10/2023

Available now for purchase. My earlier works were a mix of watercolour and acrylic. A different style at the time. I'd like to see these as a set. Same subject, same location but two different paintings. I love them both and don't want to see them separated.

12/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Along the coast from the crowded trench-filled ANZAC Sector lies Suvla Bay. The landing there in August 1915 saw 30,000 men come ashore. Interestingly many of the troops did not land in Suvla Bay but on C Beach and B Beach outside oof Suvla. This beach is pristine! Clear....

11/10/2023

Available now for purchase. At 04.30 on the 25th of April 1915 as the first rowboats of the first wave of the ANZACs approach their date with destiny. The first searchlight from the shore shines onto one of the boats. Even though this soldier is one of many boats with forty comrades, he could not fe...

10/10/2023

Available now for purchase. How many times have I walked down this track? How many times have I imagined the French Artiluers preparing their guns to fire not on the enemy at their front, but the enemy located in another continent, the Asiatic guns of the Ottoman Empire protecting the right flank of...

09/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Another of the 'Rusty Wrecks on Gallipoli Beaches' series. This poor steampacket lighter ran aground in 1915, often target practice for Turkish gunners it has survived until the 21st century. A favourite home to nomadic crabs and small fish, it lies along the pristine A B...

08/10/2023

Available now for purchase. As the sunsets and the moon rises, and all the visitors to the cemeteries have left. When the gardeners and stonemasons have gone home to their families, then an eerie loneliness twilight descends on Anzac. Just me, just all those memories.

07/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Down on the toe of the Gallipoli Peninsula and battlefield is W Beach. This beautiful little beach is still littered with the detritus of the war that raged here in 1915. One enduring feature of W Beach is the wreck lying on the western end of the beach. Funny thing is th...

06/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Barbed wire was first patented in 1867. Like most inventions at the time it didn't take long for the military to find a way to utilise it. Can you just imagine the millions of metres of barbed wire were used along trenches in WW1? The landing at W Beach on the southern ti...

05/10/2023

Available now for purchase. We've all heard the story of The Nek. The tragic Light Horse charges, Mark Lee sprinting to his death. There is more to The Nek. In the recent trench clearances the entire left flank of The Nek and Russell's Top trenches has now opened up. When you walk all the way to the...

04/10/2023

Available now for purchase. In 2018 The Gallipoli Artist, me, whilst on a family holiday near Bodrum and always on the lookout for things old and interesting. I stumbled across these ancient windmills along the hilltop overlooking Gümüşlük. They have stood here for more than 500 years and very s...

03/10/2023

Available now for purchase. Kylia Bay was the main resupply harbour for the Ottomans during the Gallipoli campaign. It also went on to provide the same function for the allied occupation forces after the war. There are signs of this activity everywhere. In this painting Canakkale is in the backgroun...

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Eceabat
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http://www.gallipoli-roachie.com/

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Videos

Thai red chicken curry with coconut milk, cream and just about every vegetable and some fruit. I feel a nice dinner coming along tonight. Hmm which wine?

Indigenous ANZACs

This week in the Monash Uni course I'm doing, we are discussing several stories about Aboriginal or Indigenous Australians who served in WW1. I've written on this subject before as you might recall. I discovered that my brother-in-law had two uncles who went off to fight for a country that didn't care for them. One of them, Joe McDonald was awarded a medal for bravery on the Western Front which cost him his leg. Months after returning to Lake Condah Mission in Victoria, he was found hanged in a police cell, by the lace of his prosthetic leg, in a cell you could not stand up in. This video tells the story of another soldier from Lake Condah who bravely enlisted but was discharged 200 days later from Meningitis. He was awarded a pension for him and his family but the people in charge of the Mission resented the fact that he received this money and was forced to either leave the Station or give them the pension. Over 1300 Indigenous Australians served in WW1, maybe even more, as indigenous people explore their recent history. They served because basically, in the trenches they were treated equally. German machineguns didn't discriminate. But when they came home, they hoped their efforts would pave the way for human rights, sadly to find out that the governments and bureaucrats of the time saw them as nothing other than 'loafers'.... We owe these brave men a debt of gratitude, and their communities a well earned apology

Tipperary to Fremantle

I'm currently doing an online course at Monash Uni called Worl War 1: A History of 100 Stories. This song is in one of the exercises and would love to share it with you. The course is being run by none other than Prof Bruce Scates