Barbed wire reel : Courtney's Post, Gallipoli

Improvised barbed wire reel made of two halves of a log of wood which has been cut along the length and loosely rejoined using a piece of British barbed wire wrapped around it twice. The centre of the log is hollow. Attached at each end is a cross, made from two joined lengths of tin. These crosses are bent and warped. At each end of the cross arms are two holes - one in each corner with a piece of wire bent through one of the holes.

This wire roll was found at Courtney's Post on 5 March 1919 by members of the Australian Historical Mission (AHM) to Gallipoli in 1919. The AHM, led by Official Historian C E W Bean, visited Gallipoli from February to March 1919 to collect items for the nation, to record the area through artworks and photographs, and to explore the battlefields to answer some of the 'riddles of Anzac' for the Australian official history of the war.

Courtney's Post was the centre post of three - Quinn's, Courtney's and Steele's - that occupied precarious, but critical, positions along the lip of Monash Valley, in the heights above ANZAC Cove. Monash Valley ran right into the heart of the ANZAC position and, as Shrapnel Valley, continued on down to the beach at ANZAC Cove. The post was named after Lieutenant Colonel Richard Courtney, commander of the 14th Battalion, which occupied the position on 27 April 1915. The position had been originally captured by men of the 11th Battalion on the morning of 25 April.