This article will consider the motivation behind, and timing of, Maurice Shadbolt's interventions as a writer between 1982 and 1988 to determine the extent to which cultural nationalist interpretations of Gallipoli resonated in the decade and how they came about. My argument will pivot around Shadbolt's powerful 1982 stage play (Once on Chunuk Bair), subsequently adapted as a low budget feature film (Chunuk Bair).