Letter from the Front
From 1914 to 1918, 416,809 Australians served their country in World War One. Many of these soldiers wrote home about their experiences and often these letters were published in local papers offering the community fragments of information about the lives of their family and friends at the front. This section is a direct link to the Anzac experience, where you can read about their observations, their struggles and the courage of those who served.
- Soldier's Letter: Sapper O. G. Pettit, 6th Field Coy. Engineers, 10 December 1918
- Soldier’s Letters: Written by Signaller/Sergeant W. H. Pethard, 7th Battalion, between 1914 and 1917 (6 Letters)
- Letter from Dorothy Mildred Waters of Middlesex UK to Family in Australia During WWII
- Soldier’s Letter: Lieutenant K. J. Fourdrinier, 2nd Battalion, May/June 1915
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Memories & REMINISCENCES
Read first-hand accounts of life in Australia’s yesteryears.
- Memories of Parramatta in 1837 by Mr. John Taylor
- Reminiscences of the Old Coaching Days in New South Wales & Queensland by a Native of Llandilo
- Reminiscences of Early Penrith Going Back to the 1830s (New South Wales)
- Early History of the Murrumbidgee – Wagga Wagga
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At Home with our Ancestors
Travel into the past with this unique collection of recipes, advice and handy-hints from our ancestors.
- Domestic Advice from 1828 Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)
- Recipes from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) 1828
- Soldiers’ Gingerbread
- Soldiers’ Rock Cakes
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Echoes from the Bush
The Australian bush is iconically Australian. Bush poets such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson revered the bush as a source of national ideals and romanticised the bush in their poems. This section reproduces yarns, ballads and anecdotes rich with the spirit of the Australian bush.
- A Camp-Fire Yarn
- Settling on the Land
- An Old Mate of Your Father’s
- The Drovers’ Prank – A Droving Reminiscence of 1879 on the Queensland and NSW Border
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Aboriginal Legends & Folklore
Explore a collection of ancestral legends which form a part of Aboriginal oral tradition. Featuring stories of creation, the bush, animals, storms, floods, fire, thunder, the sun, moon and stars.
- Wirreenun the Rainmaker
- Wayarnbeh the Turtle
- Mayrah, the Wind that Blows the Winter Away
- Deegeenboyah the Soldier-bird
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Australian Poetry
Poetry has always played a dominant role in Australian writing. Many of Australia’s early poets wrote about their experiences in the new country, of the unique Australian landscape, about migration, love, family and mateship. Much of Australia’s most distinctive poetry and ballads originated in the outback reflecting on life in the bush and on the barren, dusty plains. While scores of Australian soldiers also wrote poetry responding to the horrors of the Great War and other conflicts. This section records the insightful, poignant and at times witty poetry, of our Australian bards.
