Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

In March 1885, the New South Wales Contingent departed from Sydney to participate in a British colonial conflict in Sudan, the first time that Australian soldiers had been sent to fight overseas. The contingent comprised 758 soldiers.  Hostilities had ended before the Australians arrived and the Contingent returned in May 1885. Nine men were lost through illness.

Milestone
Date of event
1885
Type

War Memorials for the Sudan and Boer Wars

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2014

The earliest monuments to Australian soldiers in Sydney are for the Sudan Contingent in 1885, and the Boer War in South Africa between 1899 and 1902. These plaques honour soldiers who served and died and, in one case, women who worked as nurses during the Boer conflict.