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The last weekend in April next year will - rightly - be awash with ANZAC commemorations, events and celebrations.

So the University has decided to stage its commemorative program in August, with a three-week festival of activities, and an outdoor program in early December, including a recreation of the famous Aussie cricket match at Gallipoli in December 1915.

Ted Snell , Director of UWA's Cultural Precinct , said the three-week period from Thursday 6 August to Saturday 29 August covered a rare confluence of dates.

"The exact dates cover the centenary of the August Offensive at Gallipoli: the Battle of Lone Pine (August 6) through to the end of the Offensive for Hill 60  (August 29). August 6 is also the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, while August 15 is the anniversary of  the surrender of Japan, which marked the end of the Second World War," Professor Snell said.

"The period provides an opportunity to develop a program that contains both commemorations and celebrations, the dark and the light, and encompasses both the First and Second World Wars.

"The aim of the program is to present a comprehensive exploration of war and the ANZAC engagement with it over the past one hundred years, from Gallipoli to Afghanistan.

"We chose not to be in competition with everybody else over the ANZAC Day weekend, and to commemorate the ANZAC spirit by looking at ANZAC as an ethos rather than an event."

The Cultural Precinct has engaged UWA graduate and artistic director and producer Ian Lilburne to develop the program.

"Much of it is contingent on winning funding from the Federal Government," Professor Snell said. "But some events will go ahead with or without funding.

The August program is a planned mini-festival comprising a series of concerts, exhibitions, free public talks, performance poetry, a publication, a commissioned play and a themed dinner that trace the ANZAC legend, commemorate the August Offensive , and celebrate key moments from the end of WWII. The aim is to engage the broader UWA academic and cultural community and get underneath the events to look at the deeper cultural shifts.

The outdoor events in December will commemorate the centenary of the evacuation of Gallipoli.

"Although the actual evacuation took place on 19 December 1915, the proximity to Christmas and the annual University shut-down make this an impractical date to hold activities on campus," Professor Snell said.

"However, it is appropriate to host a second, smaller program earlier in the month that focuses on outdoor activity, centred on James Oval and the historic Irwin St building."

Events that definitely go ahead, regardless of funding are a series of ANZAC Videos for 24SEVEN, the screen outside the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery; the MY COLLECTION projects at the Gallery; the History project and some of the music activities;  and an exhibition of Elise Blumann's works.

The Cultural Precinct's annual WINTERarts festival will also have an ANZAC theme.

We will publish more details next year, as they are confirmed.