The ANZAC Experience in Malta

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The ANZAC experience in Malta is a set of four self-guided tours to the principal sites associated with the personnel of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), mainly during the First World War. For a brief summary of ANZAC presence in Malta, click on the Political, Cultural & Trade Relations link under the Main Menu tab above.

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Background*

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At the start of the Gallipoli campaign in April 1915, the wounded were evacuated to Egypt but it was immediately  evident that facilities there could not cope. A week after the landings at ANZAC Cove, at the beginning of May, the first convoy of casualties arrived in Malta; by the end of the month, more than 4,000 sick and wounded were being treated on the island of Malta.

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In 1915, 57,950 servicemen from the Gallipoli expeditionary force were evacuated to Malta and, during the last three months of that year, the sick and wounded continued to arrive from the Dardenelles at the rate of about 2,000 weekly. In one week in December alone, 6,341 wounded were landed in Malta.

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Despite the best efforts of the medical staff, some casualties did not recover and were buried in Malta. Among these are 202 members of the Australian Imperial Force and 72 servicemen from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. When war was declared in 1914, there were just four military hospitals on the islands. Within a year, there were 21 hospitals plus seven convalescent depots and homes - earning Malta the soubriquet of Nurse of the Mediterranean.

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(* Courtesy of the Australian High Commission Malta)

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Self-Guided Tours

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These self-guided tours will show you where wounded Anzacs were hospitalised, convalesced and entertained, and the locations where those who lost their personal battles are buried. The tours also highlight points of interest on the Maltese Islands - places where recovering servicemen and off-duty personnel may have visited, and so can you.

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The following four self-guide tour brochures have been kindly made available to the New Zealand Consulate by the Australian High Commission in Malta and can be downloaded for your convenience.

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