The little French village of Pozières was the site of one of the World War I's bloodiest battles.

Almost as many Australians died in the six weeks of Pozières as did in the eight months of Gallipoli, leading famed war correspondent C E W Bean to observe those French fields were "more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other spot on earth".

Barry Gracey from the Pozières Remembrance Association said the battle was significant for other reasons too: it was a rare clear victory on the bogged down and bloody western front.

"Even though we lost such a tremendous amount of men, we managed to take one square kilometre of France," he said.

"In terms of what was occurring in those days, that was magnificent because yards were being measured as great advances.

"We took one square kilometre, but at a ghastly price ... almost 7,000 men, and 4,000 of them are still missing, they have no marked grave."

For Emeritus Professor of history, Trevor Wilson, the vast numbers of missing men reflects the harsh truth about the war on the western front — there was not much left to find.

"This is the first industrial war, I mean there had been examples of industrial powers fighting before but they were fighting non-industrial powers," Professor Wilson said.

"The north versus the south in the American Civil War, the British against the Boers, but not one industrial power against another.

"So the First World War is a whole new experience, not a good new experience, but certainly a new experience."

But Pozières is significant for another reason.

'I just think these men deserve better'

There are memorials around the village, but not one dedicated solely to the fallen of the battle of Pozières.

It is an absence that moves Mr Gracey to tears.

"Every soldier that's put on a uniform and put his life on the line for Australia deserves recognition," he said.

"These men have got nothing, they would have been better off dying at Gallipoli because at least Australia would have commemorated them ... it does upset me, I just think these men deserve better."

The Pozières Remembrance Association says people who lost loved ones at Pozières don't want to go to the Villers-Bretonneaux memorial 40 kilometres away to remember them. ( ABC News: Matt Coleman )

It has also moved the Pozières Remembrance Association, and the Mayor of Pozières to action.

Four acres of farmland, in which Mr Gracey says many of the 4,000 missing men rest, is up for sale.

The plan is to buy it, plant a rose garden and build a memorial wall, inscribed with the names of the fallen.

Mr Gracey said he was ready to put his house on the market if the money could not be raised through public appeals.

"If your relative died at Pozières I don't understand why you are standing at Villers Bretonneux 40 kilometres away to remember him," he said.

"He died there at your feet and that's where you should be leaving your cross, that's where you should leave your poppy because that's where your man is."

This year there will be official ceremonies at Pozières, marking the 100th anniversary of the battle.

Mr Gracey argues it has come late in the piece, with successive federal governments paying Pozières little attention.

"For 99 years they've ignored it. They'll go to Fromelle, which was four days before Pozieres and then not stay," he said.

"You'd think the politicians would wake up to the fact that there's a free trip to France in it!"

Government needs to change attitude towards Pozières

Head of RSL in Adelaide Brigadier Tim Hanna agreed it was time for the Government to change its attitude to Pozieères.

"It would be wonderful if people of Australia and the Government gave Pozieres the recognition it is due and assisted with some financial contribution to the project," he said.

With Fromelle and Verdun also being marked this year it raises an interesting question: does World War I need another memorial?

Professor Wilson's father fought at Passchendaele in 1917, so he approaches the question as both a relative and historian.

"So what are you remembering, the success of Pozières or the general horror of the whole experience?" he said.

"I have mixed feelings about this, we remember so many things about the First World War, do we want to remember another thing?"

Brigadier Hanna understands Professor Wilson's point, but thinks Pozieres has been so undervalued in the past, it is time to rectify it for the future.

"It is a valid point, we can over-memorialise the battles that we've been in over the last 100 years," he said.

"But Pozières is a very significant part of our Australian military history, many Australians including South Australians were lost there and I think there's a clear case to why we should note it more than we have historically."