Australian History
Book Details

Rural Australia and the Great War

From Tarrawingee to Tangambalanga

John McQuilton

Conscription debates, recruiting, fund-raising, homecoming, and design of the war memorial — as experienced across North Eastern Victoria.

Opinion

'McQuilton's intention was to write a social history as it happened; he has succeeded admirably and enriched our understanding of the impact of the Great War on rural Australia.' (Australian Historical Studies, Tanja Luckins, 119, 2002)

‘Enlivening detail helps to rescue this methodical, balanced and pleasantly illustrated history from being just another academic study in the well-worn field of World War I. Thematic issues such as soldiering, politics, religion, recruitment, gender, labour, prisoners of war and, especially, the conscription plebiscites have been well surveyed.’ (The Weekend Australian, 9–10 June 2001)

About this Title

In the cities and in the countryside of Australia, the Great War of 1914–1918 marched to somewhat different tempos. John McQuilton evokes the wartime experience of all rural Australians by capturing the moods of the country towns and hamlets of North Eastern Victoria.

Every aspect of the war—recruiting, fund-raising and, eventually, homecoming and the design of the war memorial—was marked by a mixture of small-minded local politics, heroism and sacrifice, and grief. Individuals, whether journalists, town councillors or leading local citizens, shaped the recurring battles on the home front.

The conscription debates were particularly vicious, as the countryside exhausted its pool of volunteers long before the cities. In small communities the ‘shirker’ could not hide; everyone knew which families had sent men to the front, and who had genuine reasons for staying home. This intimacy worked in favour of the many German Australians: country people knew them as trusted neighbours, but in the cities they were reviled as enemy aliens.

Rural Australia and the Great War is unique among writing on the First World War in creating a richly detailed picture of wartime in a particular part of country Australia. For country and city readers alike, this is fascinating social history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Conversions

Introduction
1 The Region in 1914
2 British First, Australia Second
August 1914 to April 1915
3 How Can You Stay?
Recruitment, May 1915 to September 1916
4 Free Men or Shirkers?
Conscription, September to December 1916
5 By the Scruff of the Neck
The War's Last Years
6 Whose War?
A Fracturing War Effort
7 To 'wait and weep'?
Women and the War
8 True Britons
Teachers, Children and Youth
9 Doing their Share?
Catholics
10 Who are You?
German Australians
11 He Saw His Duty
The Soldiers' War
12 Only Peace?
The Post-war Years
Conclusion

Tables
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The War's Last Years

About the Author

Born in the bush nursing hospital in Yackandandah and educated at Tangambalanga and Wodonga, John McQuilton is a native of North Eastern Victoria. He was a senior member of the Bicentennial History Project at the University of New South Wales, and is head of the History and Politics Program at the University of Wollongong.

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978-0-522-84911-0