Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 4 February 1916 (fractured base skull: severe); transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, 19 February 1916; to British Red Cross Convalescent Depot, Montazah, 3 March 1916; to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Heliopolis, 19 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 30 May 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 5 June 1916; marched in to 2nd Australian Division Base Depot, Etaples, 7 June 1916.

Joined Bn, in the field, 4 August 1916.

Reported missing in action, 26 August 1916.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 20 July 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 26 August 1916'.

Statement, Red Cross File No 1230913, 4227 Pte R. SCOTT, 21st Bn (patient, 13th General Hospital, Rouen), 7 May 1917: 'He belonged to A Co. At Mouquet Farm he got badly wounded when we went over, in the German trench. He appeared to be very bad indeed. We could do nothing for him and he had to be left where he was.'

Second statement by SCOTT (patient, 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, England), 25 January 1919: 'At Mouquet Farm our Battalion hopped over. When we had gone to Fritz's 2nd trench. We held it till 3.p.m. (about 8 hours)[.] Our party here was under murderous shell fire. A great number were killed, in trench near by me, I saw Haake wounded. I was unable to help him. Then our own mortars were falling short and the whole of the area where Haake was lying went up. I was hit but got back to our old lines with a couple of mates. Our own and Hun's gun fire were playing on this section. Many bodies entirely disappeared[.] Huns got this part of trenches again.'