Shrapnel Valley Cemetery

Shrapnel Valley Cemetery; Shrapnel Valley (also known as Shrapnel Gully) Cemetery was laid out near the exit to the beach from the valley, south of Anzac Cove in early May 1915. After Lone Pine it is the largest battlefield cemetery in the old Anzac sector. Despite being some 1,000 yards (914 metres) from the Turkish lines the cemetery was constantly exposed to enemy sniper fire. On 9 May 1915, Chaplain Ernest Merrington wrote of his visit there:

The bullets often fell thickly around our little parties of workers on this site which has become forever sacred to Australians and New Zealanders … I was down there by myself at dawn, and found the fallen men laid side by side ready for internment. For hours I worked, laying the bodies in the graves, with no assistance except for a few men of a fatigue party making a track near by. I placed the identity discs and personal effects at the head of each grave. I counted 42 Australians and 10 Turks. The sun arose over the eastern hill revealing the awesome scene around me, of death, nobility, valour and sacrifice.

AWM 1DRL/496 Chaplain Ernest Northcote Merrington, 1st Light Horse Regiment.

Reverend Walter Dexter organised working parties to build a low rock wall around part of the cemetery to protect it from flooding winter rains and obtained paint and other materials to ensure the neat appearance of the graves.

Today Shrapnel Valley with its distinctive Judas tree is considered to be amongst the most beautiful on the peninsula. Largely completed during the Gallipoli campaign, a small number of graves were incorporated into the cemetery after the war. Of the 683 burials in the cemetery, 527 are Australians, fifty six New Zealanders, twenty eight British and seventy two unknowns. Special Memorials commemorate twenty three men believed to be buried here.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat - Bigali Road. From this junction you travel into the main Anzac area. After 10.1 km's you take a right turn along a short track to find the cemetery on your left. Shrapnel Valley (or Shrapnel Gully) runs from the west side of the Lone Pine Plateau, behind Maclagan's Ridge, south-westwards to the sea near Hell Spit (Queensland Point).

Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time. The location or design of this site, makes wheelchair access impossible.

Historical Information

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac.

Shrapnel Valley was an essential road from the beach up to the Anzac front and took its name from the heavy shelling it was given by the Turks on 26 April 1915. Wells were sunk there and water obtained in small quantities, and there were camps and depots on the south side of its lower reaches. Gun positions were made near its mouth.

The cemetery was made mainly during the occupation, but some isolated graves were brought in from the valley after the Armistice.

There are now 683 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 85 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.