Johnston's Jolly is one of the most evocative stops in the ANZAC sector, a quiet pine-shaded site where a war cemetery sits beside preserved trench lines. Here the opposing front lines were separated by only a few metres of no man's land.
The unusual name and the surviving earthworks make it a powerful place to grasp just how intimate and brutal the trench fighting at Gallipoli became.
The story behind the name
The site is said to take its name from an artillery officer whose guns would 'jolly up' the Ottoman positions on the plateau. The nickname stuck and became its formal name.
Like much of the ANZAC battlefield, the everyday soldier humour behind such names sits alongside the grim reality of the fighting here.
Trenches only metres apart
At Johnston's Jolly the Australian and Ottoman trenches ran almost side by side, with tunnels and saps pushed out beneath no man's land. Visitors can still trace the lines among the pines.
It is one of the clearest places on the peninsula to understand how close the two sides lived and fought for months on end.
Visiting Johnston's Jolly
The cemetery and trenches lie along the main battlefield road through the ANZAC sector, between Lone Pine and other key sites, making it an easy and rewarding stop.
Its small scale and preserved earthworks make it a favourite for those tracing the day-to-day experience of the front line.
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