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: Western Front

Embarked Brisbane, 19 September 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 9 December 1916.

Marched into 8th Training Bn, Hurdcott, 10 December 1916.

Admitted to Camp Hospital, Hurdcott, 29 December 1916.

Admitted to No 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 20 January 1917; transferred to Parkhouse Military Hospital, 13 February 1917; discharged, 25 April 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 96 days; marched into 8th Training Bn, Hurdcott, 26 April 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 19 June 1917; marched into 5th Australian Divisional Base Depot, Le Havre, 19 June 1917.

Reallotted to 47th Bn and proceeded to unit, 8 July 1917; taken on strength of 47th Bn, Belgium, 10 July 1917.

Detached to 24th Machine Company, 8 October 1917; rejoined unit, 28 October 1917.

Killed in action, 28 March 1918.

Buried in Military Cemetery, Derrancourt Railway Line, Albert.