A big article about Australia Hall in Australia’s national press

Published: April 25, 2015 at 8:43pm

australia hall in australian press

In this Gallipoli Campaign centenary year, Australia Hall (described in the article as having been sold by Malta’s Labour Party to pay off some of its debts) has made the national news in Australia.

The article was published in January – how did we miss it? A reader has just sent it in – probably a lot of Googling going on right now around the key words ‘Gallipoli’ and ‘Malta’. Good, I’m glad about that.

This is an excellent piece, with good photographs – but note that the number of Gallipoli Campaign wounded which it gives as having been brought to Malta for care is that of ANZAC men only. The total number was around triple that.

The article also clears up the common misconception in Malta that Australia Hall was built by the British using British public funds (‘tar-re/regina’).

In reality, it was built during the actual Turkish campaign using private donations from thousands of people in Australia who were called upon to do this for their compatriots, and responded enthusiastically.

This knowledge only serves to make its recent history all the more repulsive: something that exists because ordinary men and women in Australia gave money they could ill afford to have a place built for their sons, brothers and fathers who were wounded in war on the other side of the world has been sold so that the Maltese Labour Party has more money to spend on marketing campaigns.