The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
An SAS soldier is walking in the village of Bagram. Peter Churcher recalled, "Just outside the main gate of the airbase is the village of Bagram, in which the locals live. I was eager to go into the village and do a painting on the spot including one of the SAS soldiers. When I was in the village with my SAS escorts I was very much taken by the image of the heavily armed Australians in direct contact with the locals. This typified a lot of what the Australians experienced whilst in Afghanistan. Whilst out on patrols they told me they often went into villages to inspect and sometimes interrogate local members. Some of these villages, they told me, were so remote that they had never seen a western face before. To paint this picture in the village of Bagram enabled me to capture an image of this interaction between the Australians and the locals".
Green cloth bound sketchbook containing six drawings from Major Julian Thirkill when deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 to undertake operations as part of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force (MRT
Two SAS soldiers with Simpson the donkey, in the Australian compound, Bagram. Peter Churcher recalled, "The SAS squadron had four donkeys that they purchased from the locals. The donkeys proved to be
Showing the interior of the SAS sleeping quarters at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. Peter Churcher recalled, "The SAS soldiers lived in one of the partly ruined buildings within the Australian com
Painting of a wrecked Russian Aircraft in Bagram. Peter Churcher recalled, "'These wrecks are a vestige from the Russian/Afghan war (Bagram was then a Russian air-base) - They have been piled in one p
Landscape view across Afghanistan, showing wreckage and refuse from the Russian/Afghan war in the foreground, with local people fossicking through the rubbish. Peter Churcher recalled, "It's what you
An American A-10 bomber on the flightline at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. Peter Churcher recalled, "There is a ruined Afghan village visible in the background; heli-pads in foreground for landing em
Three SAS soldiers sitting in their vehicle. There is a grenade gun on top of the vehicle. Peter Churcher recalled, "These vehicles, of which there were about ten, were one of the important tools of t
