Because they were. Volunteers to a man. Not to defend Australia, but to defend the empire. They knew they were not fighting for Australia, but they damn well knew they were fighting as Australians.
Damn right, we have only had one conflict in which the Australia land mass has been on the receiving end, folk sign up for military conflict for a whole gamut of reasons, my brother was picked in the draft but the Army rejected him on medical grounds, severe limp from broken leg, twelve months of physio fixed that, KIA Vietnam. Likewise I volunteered.
And here’s the point - when discussing the future of the flag it’s irrelevant what some soldiers over 100 years ago “fought under”. The concept of young men being brainwashed to follow a flag into battle to be butchered and turned into mincemeat because of the squabbles of old rich men is grotesque in the extreme. If it’s an argument that the current national flag, that almost 10,000 Australians were slaughtered under on sand dunes in Turkey trying to invade a country that never threatened Australia but was an obstacle to the British Empire, should be kept because of that then it’s a poor argument. How many millions of young men (and civilians, women and children) have been killed because of leaders brainwashing them to kill and die for a piece of cloth?
I assume from that you say we should have given Hitler free rein, thankfully there were citizens from around the world who volunteered their services, to the RAF for example. Folk don't volunteer for combat to kill and die for a piece of cloth, they volunteer because of a belief in a country and its precepts, even when the country isn't theirs, the flag is but a representation of their country.
Australian Flag covering the grave of ‘Breaker’ Morant, South Africa, February 1902
Flag carried to many locations during the war period by a member of the Australian Army Corps
Military Death Notice, October 1916
Royal Australian Navy Christmas Card 1915-16. Postcard sent to parents by A.C (Charlie) Connell
Commemorating the Naval Victory of the HMAS Sydney over the German Light Cruiser Emden, 1914
