To respond to KeyboardSMASH's comment: The "400 acres of useless beachfront" is referring to the approximately 400 acres of land held by the ANZAC troops during the Gallipoli campaign. It was "useless" as it was dry, scrubby and mountainous, not good farming land (and it didn't wind up being of much military use either).
I feel the song is evoking the latter days of the ANZACS at Gallipoli in general; I don't see any details that make me think it's talking about Lone Pine in particular. Also, regarding the line about how death "rattled the bones of the Light Horsemen, still lying out there in the open": the charge of the Light Horse Brigades (7 August 1915) and the battle of Lone Pine (5-10 August 1915) were on at the same time. There would have been no time for the bodies to turn to "rattling bones". It was quite "normal" to not be able to retrieve the bodies at Gallipoli, there were very many who lay where they fell and were never confirmed dead, only permanently Missing In Action. To say the Light Horsemen are "still lying out there", feels like we are looking at the battlefield some time after 7 August, between then and December when the troops were evacuated.
To respond to KeyboardSMASH's comment: The "400 acres of useless beachfront" is referring to the approximately 400 acres of land held by the ANZAC troops during the Gallipoli campaign. It was "useless" as it was dry, scrubby and mountainous, not good farming land (and it didn't wind up being of much military use either).
I feel the song is evoking the latter days of the ANZACS at Gallipoli in general; I don't see any details that make me think it's talking about Lone Pine in particular. Also, regarding the line about how death "rattled the bones of the Light Horsemen, still lying out there in the open": the charge of the Light Horse Brigades (7 August 1915) and the battle of Lone Pine (5-10 August 1915) were on at the same time. There would have been no time for the bodies to turn to "rattling bones". It was quite "normal" to not be able to retrieve the bodies at Gallipoli, there were very many who lay where they fell and were never confirmed dead, only permanently Missing In Action. To say the Light Horsemen are "still lying out there", feels like we are looking at the battlefield some time after 7 August, between then and December when the troops were evacuated.