Australian troops arrived on the Western Front in 1916, after the withdrawal from Gallipoli. A number of the soldiers whose papers are held at the University of Melbourne Archives completed an arduous tour first in Egypt, then Gallipoli before finally being sent to France and Belgium.

UMA holds a large number of collections of soldiers who fought on the Western Front, involved in varied sections of the Australian Imperial Force and others. They include privates whose correspondence and diaries hint at the terrible conditions of trench warfare, tunnelers whose bravery and skill have become the stuff of legend (and movies), as well as medical officers and pilots.

The collections also hold a wide variety of material including correspondence (often with the euphamistic address "somewhere in France" to appease the censors), diaries, publications, memoirs, photographs, maps, offical papers, memorabilia and more.

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