One-hundred-and-one years after the landings at Gallipoli, it is time the mythologising about Australia's role in the First World War ended.

Many of the things we have come to believe about Gallipoli - for example, that Australians bore the brunt of the casualties - are untrue.

There is much of which we can be truly proud in the Anzac legacy. The desire to embellish history is unnecessary and unworthy. Credit:Michelle Smith

Worse still, some of our misunderstandings are the result of the fevered jingoism of authors such as Peter FitzSimons. A rollicking good yarn they might be, but a fair representation of history is another matter.

This is a shame, because there is much of which we can be truly proud in the Anzac legacy. The sad desire to embellish history is unnecessary and unworthy.