Pozieres Day: WA Premier calls for national day to remember bloody WWI battle

WA Premier Mark McGowan has asked the prime minister to declare July 23 Pozieres Day, commemorating the start of a WWI battle that killed 23,000 Australians.

Coffins containing the remains of an unknown WWI digger are seen at a military funeral at the local war cemetery, Pozieres in northern France Source: DAVID BAILEY

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been asked to declare a national day to commemorate the enormous loss of Australian lives at a First World War battle in France.

WA Premier Mark McGowan says July 23 should be known as Pozieres Day to mark the start of a seven-week battle that killed 23,000 Australians, with historian Charles Bean describing the site as "more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth".

By comparison, 8,000 Australians lost their lives at Gallipoli, from a total of 26,000 casualties over eight months of fighting.

"I wrote to him (Malcolm Turnbull) a few weeks ago and hope to hear back from him relatively quickly. This is one the Commonwealth could embrace," Mr McGowan told reporters in Fremantle on Sunday.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan says July 23 should be known as 'Pozieres Day' to mark the start of a seven-week battle in France during WWI Source: AAP

Premier McGowan said it would be fitting to begin a Pozieres day tradition next year, marking 100 years since the end of World War 1.

"It doesn't cost anything, but it does acknowledge a part of our war history that was above and beyond anything else that we've ever been through in the history of this country in terms of young lives lost," he said.