It was a cold Mebourne evening when those who were hurt very badly at Gallipoli came home to be part of the Australia Day parade on July 30th, 1915.

They were happily celebrating being back home again.

They had a great time during the parade and when they went to hospital the cheers for them were still ringing in their ears.

Some of the soldiers that had been allowed to leave the Hospital had gone home to their worried friends and family while others had to stay in hospital.

It was winter when the first Australia Day was on the way.
It was celebrated across the nation.

The trip for those men who had taken part in the parade had begun just three months earlier at Gallipoli at dawn on 25 of April, they had been taken home because some were hurt badly and others were very bad.
These men were very brave but sadly they thought it was one great adventure but they did not know about the really gory things going on there.

The most strange thing is those men had gone to the wrong beach, and that's why there were a lot of lives lost because they were right in front of the Turkish trenches.

As the soldiers were about to land on the beach, many of the soldiers were shot by the Turkish soldiers, they had not died on land but they were still in the water, some of those who died were only 14 years old.

This was such a carnage that the first transport ship was full of badly hurt young men.
By the end of June they were sent home.

Australia Day had started off for raising money for the Australian Red Cross, they got the idea from Belgium Day, where people could put in money for the Red Cross in Belgium.
There were shows done by great actors and comedians, there were also other great forms of entertainments. Every small country town had celebrations too.
They raised over 1 million pounds and had the same thing in 1916.
The Automobile Club of Victoria and members met all ships carrying wounded soldiers and took them to the hospital. Because of this the Automobile Club became the RACV in 1916 when they got the Royal Charter for that public service.

Australia Day wasn't held on January 26th until all the state governments agreed in 1946. It used to be called Foundation Day or Anniversary Day before that.
It wasn't until 1994 that everyone finally agreed to have national celebrations and events for Australia Day on January 26th but they had already had huge celebrations all over the country in 1915.