A reception was held yesterday at the residence of the Australian Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Peter Truswell, on the occasion of the premiere of the film Kajmakčalan, which tells the story of the participation of Australian volunteers—mostly nurses—in the battles of the Serbian army at Kajmakčalan during the First World War
The reception was attended by representatives of public, social, and cultural life.
The film premiere took place at the Belgrade Youth Center. While researching Australian, Serbian, British, and French archives, Bojan Pajić discovered that more than 1,500 Australian and New Zealand volunteers—doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, soldiers, sailors, and air force members—served side by side with Serbian forces during the war, supporting the Serbian resistance against the Austro-Hungarian and German invasion.
However, official Australian war history, as well as later historical studies, do not mention the participation of these forgotten volunteers.
Serbia is the country with the highest number of civilian and military casualties relative to its population in the First World War.
Australian volunteers fought alongside the Serbs during the heroic defense of the country, the retreat of the Serbian army across Albania to the island of Corfu, and in the battles on the Salonika front, all the way to the liberation of Serbia.
Australian soldiers fought against the enemy that had attacked Serbia, but many of the volunteers from Australia were women—including doctors, nurses, artists, and writers—who were pioneers in their professions, as well as in the struggle for women’s rights.
Filmed over eighteen months in Australia, Serbia, Greece, and North Macedonia, Kajmakčalan (Australia / 2025 / 60’) tells the story of six Australians: Dr. Mary De Garis, nurse Ethel Gillingham, writer Stella Miles Franklin, Olive King, daughter of a well-known Sydney magnate, as well as soldiers Nyle Malarkey and Edward Remidge, who served with Serbian forces on the Salonika front.
The film features historians, military and medical experts from Australia and Serbia, including Professor David Horner, Major General Professor John Pearn, Mr. Matt Anderson, Dr. Milo Bjelajac, and Dr. Ratomir Miličić, who shed light on little-known details of this subject, as well as descendants of Australian volunteers who revive the memory of their ancestors and their wartime service.
The film crew follows Bojan Pajić on his journey to Serbia and the region, together with a group of descendants, as they visit hospitals, battlefields, and towns where the memory of these Australians still lives on—uncovering this previously unknown chapter of Australia’s First World War history.
The film, based on a screenplay by Boris Trbić and Bojan Pajić, was directed by Trbić and Dragan Gavrilović, produced by the Australians with Serbs Association Inc.
