William O’BrienThe Queenslander 3 Oct 1914 p.28 A bluish haze in the far asternAnd galloping seas between,The last-long look at one’s native land,Where boyhood days we’ve seen.For our bows are dipped in smothering spray,Our course to the setting sun.We’re bound for the front, with foot and horse,And a-clanking steel and gun. The transport reels in … Continue reading A Soliloquy by Lance Corporal William O’Brien (1882-1936)
Australia 20th century
Excerpt ~ Outback Odyssey by Paul Rushworth-Brown
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Paul Rushworth-Brown’s novel, Outback Odyssey, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Blurb 1950s Australia. In the wake of war and dislocation, young Yorkshireman Jimmy journeys to the outback, chasing escape but finding something far more dangerous: the truth of … Continue reading Excerpt ~ Outback Odyssey by Paul Rushworth-Brown
And the Women Watch and Wait
Today I released a new novel, And the Women Watch and Wait. It is set in Coburg, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, between 1914 and 1919 and depicts the struggles of ordinary women left to watch and wait and pray during the four long years that their men were away fighting a war on … Continue reading And the Women Watch and Wait
Commemoration of the Fallen – 1916
Australia’s first major engagement1 of the Great War was on the Gallipoli Peninsula alongside troops from New Zealand, Britain, France and India. They had spent up to four and a half months training in Egypt before they embarked for Gallipoli. The aim was to assist the British Navy in forcing the Dardanelles Strait and then … Continue reading Commemoration of the Fallen – 1916
One Minute Book Review – Citizen to Soldier: Australia Before the Great War : Recollections of Members of the First A.I.F. by J N I Dawes and L L Robson
Published in 1977, Citizen to Soldier draws together the recollections of soldiers who served during World War 1. These were collected as the result of an appeal made through newspapers in 1966. The soldiers' own words are woven into a very readable narrative. The book looks not only at the soldiers lives before the war … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Citizen to Soldier: Australia Before the Great War : Recollections of Members of the First A.I.F. by J N I Dawes and L L Robson
A Day at the Beach
Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. In the heat of summer, Australians enjoy nothing better than a day at the beach. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was little different except that beach goers did not strip down to costumes flimsier than their underwear. This delightful photograph was taken on a bright sunny day in … Continue reading A Day at the Beach
Christmas 1914
Christmas 1914 is remembered mainly as the first of World War 1, and for the Christmas Truce on the Western Front when British and German soldiers met in No Man's Land and exchanged gifts, and even played games of football. As part of the British Empire, Australia too was at war but had not yet … Continue reading Christmas 1914
Military Music – Western Australia, September 1914
Recently, while attempting to find examples of songs and music from the Word War 1 period that were not military, I stumbled across this delightful photo (definitely a search fail but a wonderful find). Taken in September 1914 at Blackboy Hill camp, Western Australia, it shows Privates Leonard Darcy and John Pratley of the 3rd … Continue reading Military Music – Western Australia, September 1914
The First Anzacs
Often we think we know our country’s history, particularly if we are only one degree of separation from those who made that history. Many people of my age had grandfathers who fought in World War One. We have some of their stories, though often highly sanitized if they were told to us as children. I … Continue reading The First Anzacs
Catherine Meyrick 