Film - 'Ballarat Underground', 2013, Museums Australia (Victoria)

YVON DAVIS

My name is Yvon Davis and I’ve officially been named the Project Manager for Mining Mud and Medals, all about the tunnellers of World War 1 from the Ballarat electorate and where we are today, ah where we’re sitting here, is part of the old School of Mines and so the people we are researching and hope to find out more about either went to the School of Mines, or came from Ballarat surrounding area.

I hope by the end of it we can do them all justice and people in Ballarat will say – look this is part of our history, you know, this is what these people did. They went to, the Schools of Mines or they were miners, and they came here for the gold rush initially and ended up fighting at the Western Front or elsewhere.

Today we have asked people in the public in Ballarat, or wherever else they came from, if they have any mementos that they would like scanned, or find out how to care for them. A lot of people might have photographs or papers or letters and people don’t always realise how to look after them.

SHARON UPHAM

I’m Sharon Upham and from my mother’s side of the family I’ve brought my Grandmother’s two brothers, who went to the First World War.

STEVE HUNTER

My name’s Steve Hunter and I’ve brought along a viewfinder that belonged to my Grandfather, it’s about 100 years old. It shows 3D photographs of the horrors of war and other different things that are on there.

YVON DAVIS

So today was the day where people could bring in stuff, find out how to look after it and have it for the next couple of generations. As well as people came in today to find out where they could find out more about their relatives by way of computers.

NEIL LECKIE

I’m Neil Leckie and I’m the manager of the Ballarat Ranger Military Museum. And my connection with the Military started in 1968 when I got called up for National Service.

Ballarat in 1914, Ballarat was a big regional city. It was the biggest regional city in those days, just bigger than Geelong. There were around 6,000 men who were enlisted who claimed to be born in Ballarat.

Quite a lot of men would have trained at the School of Mines because it was a mining college and they would have gone off into the tunneling companies. We know that quite a few from Ballarat were there at Hill 60 and they would use their mining skills down there.

YVON DAVIS

When you look at the Western Front in the First World War, there was nothing left standing. Buildings were gone, there wasn’t even a tree in sight quite often. So the only way to get to the enemy was to go underground.

And it’s not as simple as it sounds because you can’t just dig a hole and tunnel underground. In Flanders for instance, they had blue clay, so quite often they were called the ‘Clay Kickers’, some of them, because they had to really kick with the machine to get the clay out and they tunnelled underneath the German lines in France and Flanders, also a little bit in Gallipoli, but mainly the Western Front and because everything was quite secretive, you know, nobody wanted to know where they were or what they were doing, because you don’t want to give away the game, so we don’t know a lot about them, and Ballarat with it’s mining history we already knew of a few tunnellers, but now we’re still finding more and it’s just great to be able to acknowledge them, and be in touch with the Cemetery Trust or the Arch of Victory people to sort of say, look we’ve found another person who is from Ballarat and hasn’t been acknowledged.

NEIL LECKIE

A lot of the time the tunnellers lay on their back to push the shovels in, because they didn’t have a six foot tunnel to work in, it would have been a lot narrower than that.

YVON DAVIS

Quite often they were called the ‘Clay Kickers’, some of them, because they had to really kick with the machine to get the clay out and they tunnelled underneath the German lines.

NEIL LECKIE

Well the aim of the tunnellers was to make tunnels where you could get underneath the enemy and plant mines. Now, they called it a mine but these mines were just tons and tons of explosives. So they had to have these big holes in the ground, get the explosives underneath it and then they would all get out and get a long way away and then press the button and it would explode. Some of the mines that were exploded were so large that they were actually heard in England, when they went off.

YVON DAVIS

We already knew of a few tunnellers, but now we’re still finding more and it’s just great to be able to acknowledge them. I’ve always felt it was a bit of a lost history, so it’s nice to be able to work on a project for the next couple of years to get the history, to get the background, to get photos and little personal stories. It’s those little bits and pieces that make a person who they are and it’s just really nice to find out and then we also have eight members of one of the tunneller’s families that’s come down from Queensland. And to meet them and to see a postcard that he’s written to the family is just, you know.

TANDY DESCENDANT

Nothing much was said about Arthur Elton Tandy in our family, I supposed because my father was much younger than he was. It just so happened that we came into possession of a number of letters that he wrote from France and Belgium in 1916, 1917.

We brought the letters today and have had them scanned and recorded. The reason we came today – I found out through Judy this whole weekend was on – and that’s why we’re here.

YVON DAVIS

And it gives this, this human insight. It’s not just a name anymore that’s written on a gravestone, it’s a person.

TANDY DESCENDANT

So the tunnelling company that Arthur Elton was a Leftenant in was the company that did Hill 60.

TANDY DESCENDANT

And our other link with Ballarat of course was that he attended the School of Mines in 1902, I think.

YVON DAVIS

And I said to them ‘you’ll have to wander round the area because this is where he would have studied all those years ago, this is the place where he came to’.

NEIL LECKIE

4,000 men enlisted in Ballarat and unfortunately of those 4,000 around about 400 didn’t come home.

YVON DAVIS

The impact of losing these miners, mining engineers, electricians and carpenters would have had to have an impact on the city at the time.

NEIL LECKIE

So there were some effects on Ballarat when you take away up to 4,000 men, a lot of them who were hands on workers.

YVON DAVIS

I think people came today because they had the opportunity to find out about their World War 1 ancestors.

NEIL LECKIE

If we don’t have our ANZAC Day commemorations continue and we don’t keep showing things to people to see what the men and women did in those battles, in those wars, then it will all be forgotten.

STEVE HUNTER

And I think it’s important that every generation keeps that in mind and never forgets what they done. Ever. Should never ever be forgotten.

Film - Joel Checkley, 'Ballarat Underground: Snapshot one', 2014, Museums Australia (Victoria)

I'm Neil Leckie, and I'm the manager of the Ballarat Ranger Military Museum. And my connection with the military started in 1968, when I got called up for national service. So after that two years, I ended up doing a total of 34 years of service with army and the army reserve. And as part of my job with the army reserve, I was given the position of the museum manager, and I've now done that job for about the last 12 years, and enjoy every minute of it.

The museum started in 1989, down at the old barracks. And it moved to Sebastopol when the barracks closed, and then we moved it across here and opened it in 2008, on the battalion's 150th birthday. We specialize in Ballarat's military history, and in particular, in the battalion history, the 87 RVR. We go back to 1858, and we try and cover all the various changes between the volunteers, and malicia, the citizen military force, and a little bit about World War I, where we had the 8th and 39th battalions, and World War II, where we had the 8th battalion militia. And of course, we were linked after World War II with the 7th battalion, and that's where the 87 comes from.

Film - 'Snapshot Two: Commemoration in Ballarat', 2014, Museums Australia (Victoria)

In 1917, the girls from the Lucas Clothing Factory here in Ballarat, they decided that we needed some sort of a memorial for all the soldiers that went away, and they got started with fundraising. And in 1917, they started the Avenue of Honor. It took two years, and they planted, in the end, 3,771 trees, and those trees were to represent the men who enlisted in Ballarat.

It's just a bit unfortunate that the number of trees that are out there don't actually represent the number of men and women from Ballarat, because a lot of families didn't ask for a tree, and there are other trees out there that actually aren't belonging to Ballarat people. And then in 1920, they decided that they would commemorate the end of the war by putting up the Arch of Victory. And it was started in February of 1920.

It was actually finished in June, which was quite an amazing task. The Avenue of Honor is probably one of the longest in the world, 22 kilometres. Until the cenotaph was opened, actually, the Arch of Victory was a focal point for our commemorations.