More than 90 years after a First World War battle that helped pave the way for Israel’s creation, a memorial to the Australian soldiers who routed the Turks at Beersheva has been unveiled.
Almost 1,000 dignitaries, including many descendants of the Australian Light Horse Brigade who fought there, witnessed the unveiling by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Australian Governor-General Michael Jeffery of a 1.5-tonne bronze sculpture of a mounted soldier leaping over the Turkish trenches to capture the city.
The sculpture is the centrepiece of the Park of the Australian Soldier in the southern Israeli city, funded by the Melbourne-based philanthropic foundation of Richard and Jeanne Pratt.
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