A journalist by profession, Mat was a writer and corporate magazine editor for 15 years before pursuing his passion for history as a full-time career.

His 2007 book, Walking with the Anzacs, is considered the definitive guide to Australian battlefields on the Western Front. It has been reprinted seven times.

Mat’s second book, Gallipoli: The Battlefield Guide, was released in April 2010 (reprinted 2012, 2015) and is the most comprehensive guide to the Australian battlefields of Gallipoli yet published. He is currently working on a book about Australia’s achievements on the Western Front in 1918, and a series of guidebooks to famous WWII battlefields.

Author Mat McLachlan

Walking with the Anzacs

A complete guide to the Australian battlefields of the Western Front 1916-18.

Walking with the ANZACs aims to become the new essential companion for Australians visiting the Western Front. Each of the 14 most important Australian battlefields is covered with descriptions of the battles and Australia’s involvement in it.

The book presents a well-illustrated walking tour across the old battlefields. The tours are designed along easily accessible walking routes and show readers battlefield landmarks that still exist, memorials to the men who fought there and the cemeteries where many of them still lie. In this way the visitor will see the battlefield in much the same way as the original ANZACs did, and gain a greater appreciation of the site’s significance. Importantly, the tours are not written for military experts, but for ordinary visitors whose military knowledge may be limited.

More than just a handy travel guide, Walking with the ANZACs is an absorbing read for armchair travellers and students of the First World War who may not have had the opportunity to visit the battle fields and walk in the footsteps of the first ANZACs.

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Author Mat McLachlan

Gallipoli - the battlefield guide

The essential travel companion for anyone visiting Gallipoli.

Each year, thousands of Australians visit Gallipoli to pay homage and see where their forebears fought, suffered and died. Anzac Cove, Quinn’s Post, Lone Pine – the iconic places where our national legend was forged.

In this essential and authoritative guide, practical information is combined with historical detail, alongside revealing and often heartrending quotes from the letters and diaries of the Anzacs themselves.

  • Detailed easy-to-follow plans for walking and driving tours across the main battlefields
  • Maps, photos and historical commentary to put the campaign in context
  • Everything you need to know where to go, where to stay and how to get there.

Walk where the Anzacs walked, see where they fought and marvel at their courage.

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