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
Australia 20th century
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