A leading British military historian has questioned why Australia places such significance on the landing at Gallipoli when the nation suffered worse loss of life on other World War I battlefields.
Professor of the History of War at Oxford University, Sir Hew Strachan said historians would continue to argue why Australia sees the Anzac battles at Gallipoli as the birth of nationhood.
"Australia suffered far more losses in 1916 on the Western Front than it does at Gallipoli," he said.
"Are you somehow diminishing those if you highlight Gallipoli?"
Sir Hew said he expected the Gallipoli centenary to spark increasing interest among the Australian public, as the WWI centenary has done in Britain.
"[The British people] have engaged with poppies with the symbols that are familiar and then they've gone on to ask further questions," he said.
"So actually the public appetite and the public understanding have both expanded over the course of the year."
Sir Hew presented a key address at the Gallipoli Centenary conference at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra which has been examining the myths and the ugly realities of the Gallipoli campaign, 100 years on.
The three-day-event has been hearing from a range of experts, including Turkish historians, who are helping shed new light on the pivotal battle of April 1915.
Turkish historian Kenan Celik said the failed Gallipoli campaign was a desperately needed win for his people.
"So Gallipoli was a victory in 1915, in which gave great morale for Turkish people, and still Turkish nation is living, not dead, still powerful," he said.
Despite questions over its significance, war memorial historian Ashley Ekins said the Gallipoli legend continues to grow, attracting more Australians back to Anzac Cove to commemorate.
"It's achieved a sort of resonance in our society - there's almost a romance about this story of Gallipoli," he said.
"It always compels people to go to all those cemeteries, and see the row after row of headstones of Australians buried on the other side of the world in a campaign that really seemed to have little difference on the outcome of the war in the end."
