This year has seen an enormous public outpouring of emotion as weve commemorated the centenary of the end of World War I on 11 November 1918.
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For Australia, in terms of the numbers of deaths and casualties, this war remains the costliest conflict in our history. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Australias entire population was less than five million people, an extremely small number. To put this in perspective, currently Sydney alone has over five million people. From this tiny 1914 Australian population 416,809 men enlisted.
One hundred years ago our local residents were celebrating the first Christmas at peace for four years. For many families it was to be the most joyous Christmas imaginable as husbands, sons, brothers and fathers came home at last, or at least there was the sure knowledge that they were coming home.
Repatriation itself was a long process. The large number of Australian troops deployed overseas mean that it was a long trip home and most soldiers did not return until 1919.
The large number of Australian troops deployed overseas mean that it was a long trip home and most soldiers did not return until 1919.
Other families were not as lucky. Not only were the men in their families not coming home, their bodies could not even be returned. They were in mass, or unknown, graves and so for those families there would be no headstone in a local cemetery over which to grieve.
In this environment, public war memorials listing the names of individual soldiers took on a greater significance than just honouring their military service. For many families these memorials became the only site where they could lay flowers, grieve their loss and have a site of commemoration for the lives of men they loved.
This year Cessnock Council won a Centenary of Armistice grant through the Department of Veterans Affairs to document these war memorials across our Local Government Area (LGA). The information collected and photographs taken will be uploaded early next year to the register of War Memorials in NSW website where it will be available to everyone: www.warmemorialsregister.nsw.gov.au.
One of the interesting aspects of this project is the variety of memorials which exist across our LGA: tributes to individual soldiers, marble scrolls, wooden honour boards, engraved church plaques, honour gardens, memorial gates and lone pine trees.
Do you know any hidden memorials which council should look to document? If so, please contact councils local studies librarian, Kimberly OSullivan by phone on 4993 4383 or email: kimberly.osullivan@cessnock.nsw.gov.au
