Stories

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is marking the centenary of World War I with a new exhibition commemorating the role Tasmanians played in the war and the impact it had on Tasmanian society.

Drawing from the museum’s collections, The Suspense is Awful: Tasmania and the Great War highlights stories previously untold – including those of Tasmanian Aboriginal servicemen and of the men and women who provided medical support on the front line.

Thousands of Tasmanian men and women enlisted to serve in WWI, and by keeping diaries, writing home and collecting souvenirs they created their own memories of the war. Their families found the four years of war awful, as they wondered whether they would ever see their loved ones again.

This exhibition tells the story of their wait:  how they grieved, kept themselves busy, helped the war effort, were interned as enemy aliens, argued about conscription, and remembered and made sense of the sacrifices made.

In this section, you will find galleries of images featured in the exhibition, as well as links to a variety of resources further exploring the exhibition’s stories.