Showing 3 items
matching volunteers, themes: 'service and sacrifice'
Diverse state (13)
Aboriginal culture (3)
Built environment (3)
Creative life (1)
Family histories (2)
Gold rush (1)
Immigrants and emigrants (2)
Kelly country (1)
Land and ecology (5)
Local stories (7)
Service and sacrifice (3)
-
Lucinda Horrocks
The Missing
... Volunteers...Miss Brotherton from Castlemaine: Red Cross Bureau Volunteer...In 1919, 1100 Australian servicemen and volunteers returned to the silent battlefields of Europe and Turkey to locate graves, identify the missing, and exhume and rebury the dead in Commonwealth cemeteries....The Australian Red Cross was formed in Melbourne in 1914 directly in response to the First World War by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, the wife of the Australian Governor-General. Both men and women volunteered to work for the Red Cross, whose remit ...When WW1 brought Australians face to face with mass death, a Red Cross Information Bureau and post-war graves workers laboured to help families grieve for the missing.
The unprecedented death toll of the First World War generated a burden of grief. Particularly disturbing was the vast number of dead who were “missing” - their bodies never found.
This film and series of photo essays explores two unsung humanitarian responses to the crisis of the missing of World War 1 – the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau and the post-war work of the Australian Graves Detachment and Graves Services. It tells of a remarkable group of men and women, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who laboured to provide comfort and connection to grieving families in distant Australia.
-
Geelong Voices
... Centre, The State Library, The Geelong Family History Group and The City of Greater Geelong. Eventually the ‘Geelong Voices Oral History Project’ was initiated in 2001, with strong support from the staff and volunteers at the Geelong Heritage Centre ...Stories of World War 1, World War 2 and the Vietnam War as told by Geelong residents.
During World War 1 and World War 2 Geelong residents - whether joining the Armed Forces as soldiers, nurses, pilots, or helping out at home on projects such as the Australian Women’s Land Army - were swept up in the action. Motivated by youthful enthusiasm, the desire for adventure, and intense feelings of patriotism, they joined in hordes. For many, however, the war was not what they expected.
The Geelong Voices Oral History Project was established in 2001. The project collected recordings of diverse programs broadcast by a range of groups - including multicultural groups, women’s groups, trade unions, Aboriginal groups, youth groups and Senior Citizen’s groups - on 3YYR, Geelong Community Radio from 1988 to 2000.
Keeping in Touch and Koori Hour were two such programs. Keeping In Touch was a nostalgic program hosted by Gwlad McLachlan. Gwlad conducted interviews delving into historical aspects of Geelong and Geelong West, including world scale events such as WW1 and WW2, that shaped both the city and its people.
Koori Hour was a Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative Radio Program hosted by a range of people including Richard Fry and Gwenda Black, and consisted of talk about community activities, messages to friends and family, music and discussions about current events. One such event was the launch of “Forgotten Heroes” a book about the overlooked contribution of Aboriginal people to the Australian Armed Forces.
Over 200 of these interviews were recorded off the radio by Gwlad’s neighbour and her husband, Colin. Many of these recordings have been preserved and are available to listen to in digital format at the State Library of Victoria and the Geelong Heritage Centre.
-
Against the Odds: The victory over conscription in World War One
... was the wife of a volunteer soldier in her anti-conscription campaigning. Lavender was a leading member of the Women’s Political Association after her return to Melbourne. She was Vice-President of the Association from 1912-14 and was a major organiser ...In October 1916 and December 1917 two contentious referendums were held in Australia, asking whether the Commonwealth government should be given the power to conscript young men into military service and send them to war overseas.
These campaigns were momentous and their legacy long-lasting. This is the only time in history that citizens of a country have been asked their opinion about such a question, and the decisive 'No' vote that was returned remains the greatest success of the peace movement in Australia to date. Yet the campaigns split families, workplaces and organisations, and left an imprint on Australian politics that lasted for decades.
Many of the actors and events that were central to these campaigns were based in the northern Melbourne suburbs of Brunswick and Coburg. In many ways, these localities were a microcosm of the entire campaign. Against the Odds: The Victory Over Conscription in World War One tells the story of the anti-conscription movement in Australia during World War 1 through this lens.