From Cables to Commemoration:

THE GOLD COAST HOME FRONT 1914 –1918

Proudly supported by This project is proudly supported by the Government. Cover image: Group of people at Mudgeeraba Railway Station, circa June 1917. Image courtesy Libraries Local Studies Collection.

2 CONTENTS

Introduction 5

Recruitment and training 8

The Southport Cable Station and the Pacific Cable 23

Life at home during the war 26

Repatriation and convalescence at home 34

An unquiet peace 41

End notes 60

Acknowledgements 67

3 Peace Day marching band with soldiers and nurses looking on, Mudgeeraba, circa 1919. Image courtesy of Jack Rudd.

4 Introduction had ambitions for expanding its territory and power. This booklet and accompanying It allied with the old Austro-Hungarian Empire in exhibition, titled From Cables to 1879, built up its military and naval might, and began acquiring colonies in Africa, China and the Pacific. Commemoration: the Gold Coast Under Wilhelm’s grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany home front 1914 – 1918, explores became increasingly aggressive, and this inevitably led to conflict with the other great global power of the day, the effect of on the Gold the . Ferdinand’s assassination sparked a Coast. World War I, also known as the diplomatic crisis that triggered a major conflict between these superpowers and their respective allies. Great War, had a profound impact World War I commenced on 28 July 1914 and lasted on all of , and while there until 11 November 1918. The scale of this war was are many national stories about the unprecedented, and involved all the major European powers, as well as the Turkish Ottoman Empire, Japan war, there are also those particular to and eventually the United States of America. More individual communities. From Cables to than 70 million military personnel were mobilised and over 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died Commemoration: the Gold Coast home as a result of the war.1 As a loyal member of the British front 1914 – 1918 looks at some of Empire, Australia was swept into the conflict. Indeed, proportionally Australia was to commit, and lose, more the key themes and stories which young men than any other Commonwealth country. emerged from this tumultuous part of Between 1914 and 1918 the Australian population stood at approximately 4.9 million, and a total of around the city’s history. 420,000 people enlisted for service, representing 38.7 per cent of the male population aged between On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to 18 and 44.2 Of those who enlisted, it has been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, estimated that more than 60,000 were killed and were assassinated by Serbian separatists while being 156,000 were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.3 No conveyed in their open car through the streets of previous or subsequent war has made such an impact, Sarajevo. No-one that day could have foreseen that the and across the nation communities large and small event would precipitate World War I. Political tensions struggled to deal with the war and its after effects. had been building in ever since 27 German Among those communities was Queensland’s Gold kingdoms, principalities and other small states unified Coast, then known as the South Coast. In this period in 1871 into the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I. it was a lightly settled, relatively prosperous rural This new German state was highly industrialised and district which had grown on the back of timber-getting,

5 Soldiers and residents on the platform of West Burleigh Railway Station, Queensland, circa 1916, Marriott family, photographer. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

6 sugarcane, dairying and mixed farming. The South Coast Railway, completed in 1903, linked a number of principal hinterland centres (Nerang, Beenleigh and Mudgeeraba), coastal towns (Southport, Coolangatta, Burleigh Heads and Currumbin), as well as various smaller villages and farms, to and the border. While the railway had been built primarily to boost rural production, it also brought in tourists. The region’s main drawcard were its beaches which were becoming popular holiday destinations for Brisbane people as well as farming and coal mining families living out west in the Ipswich and areas. During the years of World War 1, the railway served to transport enlisted men from the South Coast area to recruitment centres in Brisbane, predominantly at Enoggera Barracks. The railway also carried sick and injured men back to their families or to convalescent facilities which had been established on the coast. The Gold Coast also played a crucial role in telegraphic communications with the Southport Cable Station sending and receiving messages for the Commonwealth. The war stirred up issues not previously encountered in the local community, including ostracism of the German community – a group which had played a crucial role in the development of the district since non-Indigenous settlement began. It removed many young men and women from their families and livelihoods, some never returning. It Letter to Mr D. Denham, from Lieutenant- also brought a growing desire within the community , Arthur Morgan relaying the telegraphic to both commemorate those who served in the war message from the Governor General of Australia about war breaking out between Great Britain and Germany, 5 August 1914. and to avoid future conflicts. With the end of the war Queensland State Archives Item ID2120791, Batch file. came the terrible 1918 – 19 global influenza pandemic which had a particularly local impact; the closure of the Queensland/New South Wales border and the growth of Coolangatta as a township.

7 View of Southport Recreation Reserve showing the Southport Drill Hall (building with curved roof), 1898. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

Recruitment and training When war was declared, Australia did not have the Club (established 1891), the Ormeau-Pimpama Rifle large, full-time, professionally trained defence force Club (established 1901), the Logan and Albert District it does today. It had vast spaces to defend, a small Rifle Club (established 1907), the Alberton Rifle Club population and an economic depression resulting (established 1909) and the Coolangatta Rifle Club from a series of droughts in the 1890s and early 1900s. (established 1913). Australia could not afford more than a small regular The Southport Drill Hall, established in 1890, was also army supported by a large contingent of volunteers. part of the Commonwealth commitment to developing During peacetime the vast majority of soldiers were in the citizen military units. Designed purely for military reserve units of the Citizens Military Force (also known purposes the function of the Drill Hall was to maximise as the CMF or Militia). When needed Australian Imperial the safety and efficiency of personnel and their work Forces were formed, drawing on the CMF and the and to provide training facilities for the citizen forces. broader population, to serve overseas.4 The Defence Drill Halls were designed to a standard plan and were Act 1884 provided for the establishment of rifle clubs erected at strategic points throughout the country for the CMF to encourage rifle shooting throughout including locations near harbours and rivers. These the colony and as such, rifle clubs became important areas were deemed to require protection, particularly for the defence of Australia. They were seen to be a as they might have afforded access to enemy warships. reserve of manpower that could be called upon should The South Passage at Southport was selected as an any invasion occur. Rifle clubs were so important that important site for defence, along with protection of the the Commonwealth supported the movement through river traffic between Southport and Brisbane. the provision of land for rifle ranges, training staff, rifles, ammunition and targets. At the time of the outbreak of From 1891 to 1901 the Drill Hall was used by Colonel war there were a number of local rifle clubs operating William Larther who was Officer-in-Charge of the in the South Coast region including the Nerang Rifle Moreton Regiment of the Queensland Defence Force.

8 Mudgeeraba Volunteer Defence Corps parade in Southport Alberton Rifle Club, circa 1913. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Showgrounds, circa 1914. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Libraries Local Studies Collection.

At the time, the purpose of the Regiment’s location was CMF (known as the Army Reserve after 1980) began to to protect the overland telegraph line from Brisbane decline in importance. to Southport. In 1901, the permanent staff, volunteers The First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) was the main and militia associated with the Southport Drill Hall were overseas, or expeditionary, force of the Australian Army absorbed into the Commonwealth Defence Force and during World War I. It was formed on 15 August 1914, the Drill Hall was handed over to the Commonwealth. initially consisting of one infantry division and one light During World War 1, the drill hall was used by the horse brigade.6 The infantry division subsequently fought Commonwealth Defence Force for military training at Gallipoli between April and December 1915. The AIF purposes, including training of the Volunteer Defence was then expanded to five infantry divisions and three Corps. A contingent from the Commonwealth Defence light horse brigades by the time fighting began in France Force based at Southport also guarded the Pacific and Belgium along the Western Front in March 1916. The Cable Station at Southport during war time. 1st AIF also included the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) The CMF model remained in place until 1947 by which which operated in the United Kingdom on the Western time the Australian Army had fought in three major Front and the Middle East. The AFC eventually became wars: the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa, the Royal Australian Air Force, while the rest of the 1st World War I (1914–18), and World War II (1939–45). The AIF was disbanded between 1919 and 1921. model had been inspired by the Australian experience By the end of the war the AIF had gained the reputation of the Second Boer War in South Africa, where the army of being a well-trained and devastatingly effective faced a highly mobile foe conducting a campaign of military force, playing a significant role in the eventual guerrilla warfare under conditions similar to those back Allied victory.7 Its soldiers, who became known as home – large spaces, low population and little money.5 ‘Diggers’, were considered among the best fighters and A standing regular army was then formed and the became central to the national Anzac legend. However,

9 Members of the Coomera District Rifle Club, c. 1910. Image courtesy of City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

10 this reputation came at a steep price with a casualty rate among the highest of any army in the war. It also masked a complex set of tensions and fractures around the process of creating this force. In the early years of the war there was great enthusiasm for enlistment, which was accompanied by considerable pomp, fanfare and national pride. Regional newspapers reported enlistment successes as achievements to be celebrated. When Miss E.M. Greer, a Southport resident, was accepted into the military as a trained nurse it was noted in the Brisbane Courier and special mention was made of the considerable experience she had gained in the Manchu Revolution of 1913.8 also took pride in their enlistment numbers. The Brisbane Courier of December 1917 reported that the schools honour role showed 250 enlistments and the report was accompanied by an analysis which indicated that 75 per cent of the eligible old boys of the school had enlisted.9 Colourful recruitment drives extolling the greatness of the British Empire and the need to defend the motherland (Great Britain) drew in large numbers of men from towns and rural areas to the enlistment centres. The motivations for these men varied from a desire to do their duty, seek travel and adventure, follow family members and mates, to obtaining status and regular employment. A small number also enlisted to avoid paternity suits or criminal charges. Initially the standards for enlistment for men were quite high and rigorously enforced by examining officers. In August 1914 men had to be 19–38 years of age, Certificate of Medical Examination for Mudgeeraba man Hugh Fulton, one of six brothers who volunteered for service, showing he with a minimum height of 5ft 6in (168 cm) and chest met the height requirements for service in 1914. National Archives measurement of 34 inches (86 cm).10 They also had to be of Australia (NAA): B2455 Fulton, H. physically fit and have good teeth and eyesight. Barriers to enlistment were set along racial and ethnic lines. Germans were excluded, as well as anyone who was not of European background. The war occurred during the height of the White Australia

11 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Wednesday 23 December 1914, page 8

I WHY SHOULD FIGHT ? *> ?' '? TO THE EDITOR. Sir,-Becausu 1 am young, strong, and unmarried many people ure asking why I r,in not helping in tho defence of the \V,hat Empire do they expect of mo ? I read the "Courier" e\ery morning, and when the British and their Allies do well I um tho first amongst to glory in their deeds of valour, and I sing "Rule, Britannia," "It's a Long Way to Tip lerurj," and "Sons of tho Sea" in ap- preciation of their victories Common basings of minc aro "Wero giving ihe “My brother was a silly little ass to Germans all they want," and 'We 11 be born in 1894, for as a result he has bhow them how to tight," and "The Ger niDUs won't ' to spend his Christmas holidays in tako us on again 1 al uajs emphasise tho "Wo" and "Us " uniform, under active service con- burel«, thebe unreasonable minded people ditions, assisting in the protection don't think I should volunteer for o'live eervicc abroad of our bridges, water supply, cable Why should I when I baie a station and magazines, whilst I, who nice snug billet and can live in comfort and enjoy mvsclf out of -each of was born four years earlier, am off to bhot and shell ? Australia is not likely to the seaside for a jolly good time; and if he attacked so long as the British afloat, and it you would care to know who I am just Navy keeps is no concern of mine that bravo men arc lobing their make a visit to the Tweed, Southport, lives defending the Empire, of which Redcliff, and other seaside resorts Aubtralia is a part M5 mother and bisterb will when you will spot me in my bathing not havo to undergo the trialb and togs parading the beach…” sufferings of the Belgian women and children until theso travo men are wiped out, and not even then ii my joung brother and the other trainees can it prevent My brother was a silly little ass to be born in 1894, for as a “Why Should I Fight?” Article from the Brisbane Courier,1914.12 result ho has to spend his Christmas holidays in uniform, under active senrtco conditions, assisting in the protection of our bridges, water supply, cable station, and macazines, whilst I, who was born four cars earlier, j am oft to tho seaside for a joll> good time , and if would care you to know who I am just make a visit to tho Tweed, Southport, Redcliffe, and other seaside resorts, when you will spot mc in my 12 bathing togs parading the beach or displaying my athletic abilities in the sea By tho wa«, Mr Editor, there is no fear of any of these places being bombarded, is there ? I read of towns on tho English coast having been shelled the by Germans, and if I there thought was any likelihood of such a thing

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20004027 Policy, which was the Federal Government’s strategy Another measure considered for boosting recruitment to exclude all non-whites from participating in the was compulsory military service, or conscription. The country’s development. Consequently many people Military Service Referendum Act 1916 and the War of Indigenous, Chinese, Japanese and other non- Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations European heritage were denied the right to defend 1917 were both contentious attempts by the Federal their communities. They were only able to serve if Labor government of Prime Minister William (Billy) deemed to be of substantial European descent and Hughes to introduce compulsory war service. The largely white in appearance. During the first year of the ensuing public debates during the referendums divided war approximately 33 percent of all volunteers were Australian society on religious and political grounds. rejected on health, bad character or racial grounds.11 The also adopted an anti- conscription stance and went to the extent of guarding As the war progressed, the mounting casualty rates and the Government Printing Office with armed police to stories of horror from the war led to lagging enlistment prevent the Commonwealth Government censoring rates. After 7,600 Australians were killed at Gallipoli, anti-conscription material. The Federal Labor party itself and 50,000 perished at the European Western Front, was divided by the issue, with Hughes’ faction splitting naïve enthusiasm for the war was steadily replaced by away and merging with the Liberal Party to form the heartbreak, questioning and cynicism. Nationalist Party. Local government also responded. In the face of declining recruitment, standards for Prior to the first conscription vote the Southport Shire enlistment were relaxed. By June 1915 the age range Council convened a public meeting to discuss the and minimum height requirements were altered to referendum proposal.17 The conscription debates 18 - 45 years and 5ft 2in (157 cm) respectively, with polarised the Gold Coast as it did elsewhere. At the the minimum height being lowered again to 5ft (152 1916 Southport Show, strong speeches in favour of cm) in April 1917.13 Ethnic barriers were also relaxed, conscription were heard and the local counter argument with people of stronger non-European backgrounds culminated in the formation of the Southport Anti- being admitted.14 These changes allowed previously Conscription League in 1917. Its primary role was to ineligible men to enlist, and a number of historians contribute money to the state-wide Anti-Conscription have highlighted the proportionally significant role Fighting Fund.18 Later, Southport voted 1005 yes to 647 played by Indigenous, Chinese-Australian and other no in favour of conscription19 although the Queensland non-Europeans in the AIF.15 For example, a conservative total was an overwhelming vote of estimate of 1000 Indigenous Australians fought for the no to conscription. British Empire in World War I. At the outbreak of the The campaigns for and against conscription particularly war in 1914 it is estimated that there were less than 1000 targeted the emotions and loyalties of women, who Chinese Australian men of fighting age in Australia, and voted in unprecedented numbers on the issue. In of these about 198 managed the end both attempts to introduce conscription to enlist.16 were defeated. In light of the failed referendum, recruiting committees, in particular women’s recruiting committees, established branches across Queensland.

13 Military portrait of Alexander Laver in uniform, First World War, circa 1915. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

14 Red Cross volunteers and returned servicemen, Mudgeeraba, 1919. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

The Southport Women’s Recruiting Committee regularly held meetings and rallies where patriotic films were screened and appeals for new recruits were made. Ultimately, Queensland contributed 57,705 enlistees. Gold Coast recruits consisted of a mix of men and Example of a recruitment poster. State Records of GR32/16/43 World War 1 women from farms and towns with varying levels of recruitment and war effort posters - State War Council. education and resources. Some, like Alexander Laver, son of prominent Mudgeeraba pioneers William and Margaret Laver, was a farmer and possessed the riding skills and financial means of joining the Light Horse. Alexander enlisted when he was almost 24 years old. The members of the Light Horse obtained higher pay than the infantry but also had to supply and feed their own horses until the horse was deemed suitable for military purposes and had passed a medical examination conducted by a veterinary officer.20

15 Dear Bill

Just a PC to let you know that I have not forgotten you. I have (sic) going to write to you several times but really we have not much time to write here. It has been raining here this last day or so. A lot of our company are isolated on account of mumps. I am going to play in a cricket match against a team selected by H Prumble. I suppose it will be a days leather hunting. I will write you a letter at first opportunity.

Kindest regards Larry Healy”

Handmade postcard sent to Bill Rudd, Mudgeeraba from new recruit Larry Healy of Nerang who was training at Seymour Camp, in 1917. Seymour Camp, situated 105 kilometres from Melbourne, was established as a major army base for training infantry battalions and the famous Light Horse Regiments. Postcard courtesy of Jack Rudd.

16 Dear Mrs Rudd

As I have not received any reply to my last letter about a month ago when I sent you my photo I have concluded that your letter must have gone astray and am just dropping you a PC to make sure. I have had several letters sent to me here that I have not received the mail system here being anyhow (sic). We have not sailed yet but expect to go anytime now. About 2000 sailed last week. I will write a letter as soon as I can at present I am awfully busy. Hoping to hear from you before I leave. Others, like Larry Healy, enlisted as ground infantry. Larry, a saddler from Nerang, enlisted in December Yours sincerely Larry Healy” 1916. At 5ft 5in (165 cm) tall and requiring extensive dental treatment21, Larry was probably accepted for enlistment due to the relaxed recruitment entry standards that had been implemented in the face of declining enlistment. Postcard from Larry Healy sent to Mrs Rudd, 14 May 1917. Postcard courtesy of Jack Rudd. Mrs Ada Rudd, part of the local Red Cross organisation, wrote to Larry and a number of postcards he sent to her survive. They are a small glimpse of the period Larry spent in training at Seymour Camp, Victoria in 1917.

17 Composite photo of the Fulton brothers in military uniforms, circa 1919. Clockwise from the top John Fulton, Thomas Fulton, Alexander Douglas Fulton, George Fulton centre; Hugh Fulton and William Cowan Fulton. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

18 Left to right: George Edward Millen, William James Millen and Robert John Millen. Images courtesy of Jack Rudd.

Some families saw their entire younger generation enlist or volunteer for service in the armed forces. The Millen family were based at ‘Sunnyvale’, Mudgeeraba, and in Southport. The family consisted of George Whitfield Millen and his wife, Sarah Jane (nee Anderson), and their five children: William James, George Edward, Robert John, Margaret Mary and Agnes Hay.22 All the children contributed to the war effort, with the sisters volunteering for local nursing services and all three boys enlisting in the armed forces. William James Millen was 22 when he enlisted in November 1915. His brother, George Edward, was 19 when he enlisted in the AIF in 1915. The youngest brother, Robert John, was 18 years old when he enlisted in February 1916. Agnes and Margaret Millen. Image courtesy of Gold Coast & Hinterland Historical Museum.

19 Women who desired to enlist were accepted in relatively small numbers as military nurses or, after prolonged lobbying by the Red Cross, as members of the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs), working both in overseas hospitals and those in Australia. The VADs mostly consisted of women who were trained in first-aid and home nursing.23 They were not formally trained nurses and worked more as orderlies providing domestic and quasi-nursing duties in hospitals and convalescent homes. There were limited places in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Some women who were unsuccessful with the ANNS travelled to England to join Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) which provided nursing services for British Army hospitals.24 Others joined privately funded nursing groups. Nurses of the AANS had to make their own uniforms, drawing from a uniform allowance, and so were free to tailor theirs to their own needs and tastes. As a result there was a huge variety in nursing uniforms during this period as there was no regulated standard or central source of manufacture. The VADs also experimented with their uniforms, sometimes in reaction to institutional pressure to distinguish Portrait of Linda Gertrude Andrews in her nursing uniform, 1917. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies themselves from the qualified nurses. Collection. Among the nurses who worked overseas was Sister Linda Gertrude Andrews. Born in 1893, she was the daughter of George and Ellen Andrews, of ‘Bushleigh’,25 Southport. Sister Andrews was working as a nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital in 1916, but was soon motivated to join the war effort. At the age of 33, she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service and enlisted in the AIF in Brisbane on 2 June 1917.26 On 9th June 1917 she left on the transport ship, RMS

20 Ladies of the local Red Cross organisation with soldiers. Ladies of the local Red Cross organisation. Ada Rudd is 4th from the left. Image courtesy of Jack Rudd. Image courtesy of Jack Rudd.

Mooltan, as part of a contingent of 300 army nurses. Andrews contracted influenza, and was sick for a month They arrived at Port Suez on the 19 July 1917 and in October 2018 before returning to duty. As the war journeyed by train to Cairo and then on to Alexandria began to wind down, nursing staff numbers began to before travelling by ship to Salonika, Greece. There she be reduced and Sister Andrews returned to Australia on joined nursing staff of the 60th British General Hospital, 17th August, 1919. She continued her nursing career at which was attached to the British Salonika Force, where the Rosemount Military Hospital in Windsor, Brisbane, she spent most of her war service. Apart from taking as matron of the Ipswich Baby Clinic and in Townsville.28 one week of leave in the UK in December 1918, Sister After the death of her mother in 1928, she remained Andrews faced very challenging conditions during her close to and nursed her father in Southport until his time in service. The nurses at Salonika worked mainly death in 1930.29 in tent hospitals, enduring extreme summer heat The nurses and VADs who worked locally included Ada and winter cold, shortages of water, mosquitoes and Rudd of Mudgeeraba, who was involved with the local malaria, and tending large wards of mostly non-English Red Cross organisation. speakers.27 Like so many service personnel, Sister

21 Pacific Cable Board network map, 1903. Johnson, George. The : the annals and aims of the Pacific cable project / edited by George Johnson J. Hope Ottawa 1903.

22 The Southport Cable Station and the Pacific Cable In 1902, at a cost of 2 million pounds, the Pacific Cable linking Australia to Canada and Great Britain was completed. While there were other undersea cables for communication, construction of the Pacific Cable was seen to be an important step for the security of the British Empire during a time of military build-up in Germany. The cable was a huge engineering feat for its time, and as cartographers of the day traditionally coloured British Empire member countries in red, the route became known as the All Red Route or All Red Line. The cable route linked Southport, , , Fanning Island, Vancouver and London with a branch connected to New Zealand. The cable arrived on the Gold Coast at Main Beach on the ship Anglia in 1902. Preparations for the cable landing included the establishment of a temporary cable office on the corner of Heath Street and Brighton Parade in Southport, construction of a small cable hut on the beach and a deep trench for the cable through the dunes of Narrowneck.30 The cable crossed the between the cable hut and the temporary office. Laying the Pacific Cable at Main Beach, 1902. Later, the permanent Pacific Cable Station was Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. established in Bauer Street, Southport and the cable was connected there. The cable station consisted of three buildings constructed in the Queensland vernacular In 1912, a cable from Auckland was extended to style of weather board with corrugated iron roofing. Sydney and for a period after this, traffic for the They were slightly elevated with wrap around verandahs southern States went directly to Sydney from Auckland. and ventilated gabled roofs. Until 1912, Southport was Southport continued to play a crucial role in relaying the receiving station for all international messages into telegraph traffic into Queensland though, including Australia and played a crucial role in communication official messages relating to World War 1 from throughout the British Empire. Melbourne, which was the official seat of the federal

23 Extract from Moreton district map showing the Pacific Cable (noted as submarine cable on map) coming in to Southport. Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Government, 2 mile AG1 series 1906 – 1915 — Moreton district API, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution sourced on 13 October 2016.

24 Pacific Cable Station, Bauer Street, Southport, circa 1918. Cable Station Guards having tea, Southport, circa 1914. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

government at the time. During World War I security of the Southport Cable Station was paramount. Mr Ralph Johnston was the Officer-in-Charge of the Cable Station during this time. He was a local pioneer, well respected Southport citizen and Chairman of the local Johnston and Freeman milling firm. In 1885 he joined the Moreton Regiment and served as Captain in “G” Company, receiving the Queen Victoria medal in 1905 for long service.31 His military skills were honed in local rifle clubs including the Southport Rifle Club and he was a life member, patron and for many years president of the Logan and Albert District Rifle Clubs Union. A contingent of soldiers from the Southport Drill Hall based Commonwealth Defence Force was tasked with guarding the Pacific Cable Station at Southport during World War 1. Despite its great cost Telegram to the Premier of Queensland from , the telegraph network succeeded in its purpose; British Prime Minister of Australia, advising that official information communications remained uninterrupted during the had been received that war has broken out with Germany, First World War. 5 August 1914. Queensland State Archives, Digital Item ID 26715.

25 Life at home during the war As a mostly rural district, the Gold Coast was able to contribute to the war effort through rural production. Its main products of timber, dairy, sugar and other From initial knitting circles, the scope foodstuffs were all needed to support both the home of Red Cross support expanded rapidly front and the imperial forces. Great Britain relied to include teaching handcrafts to heavily on its empire for raw materials and foodstuffs, with British troops surviving on rations of tinned meat convalescent soldiers, mending hospital and vegetable stew known as Maconochie, tinned clothes and providing food and other corned beef (bully beef), hard army biscuits made by necessary supplies to local and overseas Huntley & Palmers, cheese, tea, jam, sugar, salt, rum military hospitals. So strong was the 32 and condensed milk. Like their British counterparts, mobilisation of Red Cross ‘kitchen ladies’ Australian troops had a similar diet which included bully that in addition to providing food for the beef, rice, jam, cocoa, tea, some bread and above all hard tack, also known as “Anzac Wafer”, or “Anzac Rosemount, Kangaroo Point and Lytton Tile”33. These were made by Arnott’s and could last military hospitals, they were also able to a very long time. Although the civilian populations of supplement food to asylums, orphanages, Europe and Great Britain suffered food shortages and and public hospitals.” 35 food rationing, this was not so evident in Australia where most people still undertook some backyard The Red Cross also formed the Voluntary Aid vegetable growing and livestock keeping. However Detachments (VADs). VAD members worked mainly as supporting the war and the national population were orderlies carrying out domestic duties such as cleaning tested during the early years of the war due to droughts and helping with patient care. They were not employed from 1911-16 which affected large parts of the country, in military hospitals, except as ward and pantry maids; including the Gold Coast. rather, they worked in Red Cross convalescent and rest homes, canteens, and on troop trains.36 The VAD Other forms of support for troops came from the proved to be an invaluable resource on the Gold Coast. YMCA, Red Cross and Australian Comfort Funds which were the three official charitable organisations allowed To raise funds and provide comforts for the three official to accompany the troops overseas. The Australian aid organisations, a seemingly infinite number of local, Red Cross primarily cared for the sick and wounded; state and national schemes arose. These included the Australian Comforts Fund offered morale building National Council of Women (which comprised 41 other gifts and articles of clothing like socks; and the YMCA societies), the Queensland Soldier’s Comfort Fund, organised social and recreational material such as the Babies of the Allies Clothing Society, the Women’s books and games.34 Mutual Service Club, the Soldier’s Pastime Club, the Queensland Patriotic Fund and the Christmas Box The Australian Red Cross was formed nine days after the Fund.37 Local organisations, like the Southport Sock declaration of war, and as historian Brian Rough notes: and Comfort Fund and the Mudgeeraba Patriotic Fund,

26 Ladies of the Red Cross, Mudgeeraba, circa 1917. Image courtesy of Jack Rudd.

27 Article in the Brisbane Courier regarding the establishement of the Mudgeeraba Patriotic Fund, 1914.38

were branches of state-wide or national schemes.39 The Stanthorpe and Innisfail.42 Money and goods were Courier Mail newspaper also ran its own comfort fund pledged by organisations as well as individuals, with the and the Mudgeeraba Patriotic Fund, established in South Coast Dairy Co., for example, being a particularly September 1914, contributed regularly. active contributor to the Red Cross Kitchen for home hospitals.43 Typical charity events included gift sales, Collectively these funds covered all aspects of the war balls and concerts, such as the Southport School of Arts crisis, including supporting wounded soldiers, funding concert held in 1918 in aid of the Comforts Fund.44 The of motor ambulances, nurses, travelling kitchens, bands, Southport School of Arts was also where the Southport aeroplanes, and giving aid to the war-torn populations Show was held, and during the war the proceeds were of Europe.40 donated by the Show Society to the Red Cross and the The social and economic value of such voluntary work Southport Military Hospital.45 was considerable, and the Gold Coast was an active The importance of this charity work, as well as the contributor. Some of the initiatives were specifically letters and postcards between families at home and driven by men, such as the Tallebudgera Mens’ Auxilliary, men and women serving, cannot be overstated. The Tallebudgera and District Men’s Help Circle and the AIF soldiers were not as well-equipped or supported Tallebudgera branch of the Oddfellows.41 However it as Australian soldiers today, and they faced abysmal was in voluntary organisations that women made their conditions at the warfronts in Europe and the Middle most significant contributions to the war effort nationally East. They needed every bit of assistance from the and locally, for they played a critical role as organisers Australian community, however modest. A glimpse into and donors. In 1917, for instance, the women of those conditions, and the significance of regular parcels Tallebudgera were noted as contributing goods to the and letters, is given by an extract from a letter to Miss Queensland Soldiers’ Comfort Fund as well as helping Maude Burrows, of Tweed Street, Southport, from her with street collection for funds for erecting Schools of brother, Corporal J.R. Burrows, who was in France: Arts or libraries at the soldier settlements at Beerburrum,

28 Corporal J.R. Burrows Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

It is some time since I wrote to you, but I really haven't had the chance. I have received several letters from you, and I cannot tell you how pleased I am to know that you are receiving my letters. We have done some moving about the last two months. Just now I have a cold; it is a common thing this weather. One has to be careful not to get frost bite. I watch my feet pretty closely. We were lucky enough to get some socks from the comforts fund. They are things we need. It is almost impossible to keep dry feet, and as we move so much one cannot carry a good supply of socks. I am doing pretty well at present. We have had one fall of snow, and there is plenty of ice about. It was a funny experience walking on the frozen mud first time, but now we are used to it. We were in the line for a time, and then out about 10 days. We have been in again, and are now out again for a few days. The weather here is very much up against us. The mud is so deep that it is impossible to get the transport through. Pack horses have to be utilised. The work is hard on the horses and soon knocks them out. I saw one bogged; he had been dead some time. It was almost out of sight so you can understand how deep the mud is. The ground is ploughed up so much with the heavy shelling and with the continual rain that it soon becomes a bog. It is fun to see a man get bogged. I have experienced myself; I didn’t feel pleased about it. In fact, I said hard things about the mud, of course, that’s what we enlist for. Although in Australia we have no idea of what it is like here.”46

29 France April 21st 1917 A card to let you know that I’m quite alright up to the present. And so far have managed to dodge Fritz. I am just beginning to feel well again after the winter hope to goodness we’re not to put another one in here and reckon that I’ll not be able to stick it if we do. Things going great guns here at present, Geof (sic) and Fritz is getting particular hell and there is a lot worse in store for him as soon as the weather takes up and we can get things going again. The boys are all in great heart now that there (sic) getting a bit of their own back. I could fill a writing pad with very interesting news but worse luck we are allowed to say next to nothing from here so I’ll have to say ta for the present and with kind regards to Mrs Rudd and Billy. I’ll remain yours obediently J. Cole”

Another example of letters home. Easter postcard to Geoff Rudd from J. Cole, April 1917. Postcard courtesy of Jack Rudd.

30 Local German settlers By the beginning of the 20th century, with an estimated population of around 100,000, people of German background comprised Australia’s largest non-British immigrant group.47 The main centres of German settlement were South Australia, where they pioneered that state’s famous wine regions, and Southeast Queensland, where they were instrumental in growing sugarcane and developing mixed farming. The Southeast Queensland German community emerged in the 1860s through the efforts of the Reverend John Dunmore Lang, the German missionary Pastor J.G. German School building, Alberton, circa 1919. Haussman and the immigration agent John Heussler, Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. who organised the mass migration of German families.48 These families settled along the Albert and Logan Rivers, and as far west as Fassifern and Marburg. Early southern hinterland areas were the Schmidt family, who German immigrants were notable for their high level began dairy farming at Mudgeeraba in the 1890s; the of social cohesion and mutual support, settling in Sehmish family, loggers and farmers at Bonogin; the family groups held together by strong religious, social Hinze family who had a farm at what is now the Hinze and cultural ties. Drawing on these bonds, they soon dam;52 and Henry Schneider, partner of the Birribi sugar displayed an ability to prosper on small land holdings plantation at Nerang.53 and under adverse conditions, and inserted themselves into the local economy mostly as small-scale farmers.49 Across Australia anti-German prejudice was to escalate On the whole they integrated well with their Anglo- towards the end of the 19th century with the growing Irish neighbours, while also keeping a distinct cultural competition between the British and German empires identity through the maintenance of German social in world affairs. When war was declared in 1914, clubs, the German language and Lutheran churches. German communities suddenly became the target of suspicion and distrust. The Federal Government, under In the Gold Coast region, relations between the the leadership of Prime Minister Hughes, engaged in German and Anglo-Irish settlers appear to have been an active campaign to eliminate German economic largely amicable, with intermarriage and cooperation interests and cultural identity from the country, ensuring occurring,50 although tensions flared occasionally during the nation remained staunchly British. This hostility this early settlement phase, often due to jealousies over was not only aimed at recent German arrivals, but also German success.51 German families were extensively at those who had married Australians and become involved in sugar production in the northern areas of naturalised citizens, and those who were Australian Pimpama, Alberton and Beenleigh. Notable families by birth, sometimes second and third generation.54 included Heck, Rehfeld, Kleinschmidt and Huth. In the Despite calls to intern all Germans, this was not feasible.

31 Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 - 1954), Sunday 30 January 1916, page 9

"SAUERKRAUTS" Authorities undertook selective targeting of prominent SUGAR SNORT. business and spiritual leaders, as well as others deemed to pose potential security risks; in total 6890 people, mostly Germans and Austro-Hungarians, were sent to concentration camps in Australia.55 The closest camp to the Gold Coast was the Enoggera internment camp, located next to the existing army camp. It housed nearly 140 internees, including the non-military officers and crew of civilian German ships docked in Brisbane after the outbreak of war. The camp was closed in August 1915 and the internees were transferred to the Holsworthy camp in New South Wales.56

BEENLEIGH, June 13, 1908. meeting Southern Queensland Millers' Association Saturday afternoon. present: Messrs. A of(president), the Sugar wasKleinschmidt(Steglitz), held in the ShireHall on KIeinschmidt Therewere H. Heinemann G. F. Dauth (JunctionMill),O. W. Heck (RockyPoint),A. (AlbertRiver),C. F. W. (Alberton), (Eagleby), (Gramzow), Kleinschmidt (secretary). Under the War Precautions Act 1914, those Germans Rehfeldt A. Herse,senr. and junr.,and W. Pinnow Musch and W. It was agreedthat association Government, assistance the shouldapproach the Germanlmperial throughthe GermanConsul,to see what they wouldget to transfer their mills and belongings to German possessions.—News item. not interned had to register at the nearest police CHORUS OF FRAUS (TO QUEENSLAND): "VE DON'D VONDTO BLAY IN YOUR YARD." station and comply with certain restrictions, such as not owning motor vehicles and renouncing shares in Southern Queensland Sugar Millers’ Association cartoon from Truth newspaper, January 1916.59 public companies. German cultural institutions were also targeted, with the closing of German clubs being a prime example. Prior to the war the Department of move to restrict or erase German communities even Education allowed German children to spend one day extended to German place names, many of which were of their schooling week attending Lutheran churches to replaced with non-German names. Locally, Steizlits receive both religious instruction and German language (Steglitz) was changed to Woongoolba in 1917.61 lessons. In 1915 this privilege was rescinded with an Although German people were extensively persecuted instruction sent to all German schools advising that in various parts of Australia during the war, the attendance at lessons given by a German pastor was Gold Coast area appears to have been much more no longer a valid excuse for absence from school.57 accommodating of its German population, and Anti-German feeling led to a Queensland Cabinet extreme forms of harassment did not eventuate.62 In direction in 1916 that people of German or Austrian part this may be due to the more lenient attitude of birth could not be employed in the public service National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203037241 the federal government towards German farmers, who if there were British nationals available. At the time were seen as more useful and less of a potential threat there were 65 police officers of German background in than industrialists and businessmen. The economic Queensland, and although they were not dismissed, importance of the German farming community to they were heavily monitored.58 The Queensland police the Gold Coast, especially the northern sugar district were also required to keep a close eye on the Turkish, around Beenleigh and Alberton, was well established. A Syrian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Italian communities in the considerable amount of the farming in this area was in state and provide assessments of the moral character the hands of old German families and all the sugar mills of soldiers’ wives who were receiving assistance.60 This were under the control of the Southern Queensland

32 Sugar Miller’s Association, which was run exclusively by Germans.63 Occasionally, this ownership caused local concern as reflected in the article published in the Brisbane newspaper Truth in 1916 regarding sugar prices and labour on farms (see cartoon page 32).64

The strong position of the local German community was reflected in leaders such as Otto Kleinschmidt, Carl Rehfedt and Wilhelm Heck, who all served on the Beenleigh Shire Council throughout the war. They demonstrated their loyalty to Australia by being involved in forming a local war council to assist in the war against Germany and participating in Patriotic Day parades.65 Despite this greater level of tolerance, the local German families could not avoid being touched by the wider sense of discrimination sweeping the country. The Lutheran church schools at Beenleigh, Pimpama Island, Alberton and Norwell were among those in the state affected by the clampdown on German religious and language instruction.66 Almost all the German people interned, even if natural- born Australians, were deported to Germany after the war. This would have had an emotional as well as cultural impact on all German communities as many deportees were business and spiritual leaders. The war saw the virtual cessation of German immigration to the Gold Coast district and eroded its position as a flourishing centre for German culture. Some German families stopped maintaining their language and assimilated even more closely into mainstream Henry and Mary Thomasine (nee Cooper) Schneider, circa 1880. society. People even changed their names, like Henry Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Schneider, who changed his surname to Carlton a year before his death in 1917 ‘on account of the annoyance and inconvenience it had caused his children since the beginning of the war’.67

33 Repatriation and convalescence at home In 1915 the Queensland Government established the As the war progressed, the focus increasingly turned Queensland War Council (1915-1932), which was chaired to the repatriation of soldiers, and the Queensland by the Queensland Premier.68 Its role was to recruit and War Council established the Queensland Repatriation coordinate the funding and initiatives for employment, Committee and associated fund in 1916.76 Again, medical care and settlement of returned soldiers as local branches formed including the Coolangatta well as assist the families of those killed or disabled. Repatriation Committee who noted in their formation Local War Council Committees were also established meeting that the duties of the committee were most including Beenleigh,69 Coomera,70 Coolangatta/ important and that it was their privilege and duty to Tweed Heads,71 and Southport72. Local War Councils look after returning soldiers.77 The Queensland War had various agendas, political and otherwise. The Council and its local committees were the primary Coomera War Council was sarcastically reported by force in the repatriation of Queensland soldiers until newspaper, the Daily Standard, as a ‘remarkable War the Federal Government took over the role in early Council’ in 1916 when they decided to send a petition 1918. Key measures that needed local and state to the Commonwealth Government concerning the coordination included land and financial assistance Defence of the Realm Act 1914. They petitioned that for which returned servicemen could apply under inciting workers to strike during war time should be the Queensland Government’s Discharged Soldiers an indictable offence under the Act. The move was Settlement Act 1917. Another measure to support criticised by the paper as unworkable and that ‘only returned servicemen was the preferential employment martial law will deprive men of the right to strike against scheme adopted by the Public Service Board. oppressive economic conditions’.73 The Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League The Southport War Council was involved in discussions of Australia (RSSILA) was also intimately involved in about the 1916 Anzac Day commemorations. At the repatriation. Formed in 1916 it was the precursor time the Southport Shire Council thought that as the of today’s Returned and Services League (RSL). It War Council was in touch with the military, and had two established various local branches, with a Tweed ministers of religion on its committee, that it would be Heads sub-branch being active by mid-1919,78 and better able to deal with arrangements for Anzac Day a sub-branch forming in Southport in the same year commemorations.74 Eventually it was decided to ask the to represent the soldiers of Southport, Nerang, religious bodies to hold services in the churches. Other Mudgeeraba and Coomera districts.79 By the 1920s the typical War Council activities included social functions Tweed Heads branch had become the Tweed Heads like the one held in 1918 at the Empire Theatre in and Coolangatta RSSILA,80 and in 1933 a sub-branch Tweed Heads, which, under the auspices of the local formed in Burleigh.81 Soldiers Recognition Committee, welcomed home The high casualties inflicted on the Allied forces at trooper Ernie (Pat) Powell, and farewelled new recruit Gallipoli from 25 April to 20 December 1915 sent Mr JC Cunningham.75 a shockwave through the nation and presented

34 Military personnel recovering at Staghorn Hospital, Southport, 1916. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

the alarming prospect of having to deal with many Initially designated No. 3 Auxiliary Hospital, it later wounded evacuated soldiers coming home. To help changed to No. 8 Auxiliary Hospital, but was more meet this urgent medical need, military hospitals commonly referred to as Staghorn Hospital. It was and convalescent homes were hastily established by located within the newly released Staghorn Estate, converting existing houses and government facilities. Labrador, and had capacity for 50 beds. The facility Hospitals were established at Enoggera, Rosemount was equipped and run with the assistance of the Red House in Windsor, in Toowoomba, at the Kangaroo Cross and the Southport Wounded Soldiers Fund.84 Point Immigration Depot, and on the Gold Coast.82 With The local community were also very supportive of the its beaches, ocean and mild maritime climate, the Gold hospital. Among the items donated to the hospital were Coast became an ideal locale for restoring the health of bamboo blinds, a gramophone, books and magazines, convalescing soldiers, a role it performed during both cigarettes, tinned and fresh food, and baked goods.85 World Wars. Another hospital was established in Surfers Paradise On the Gold Coast a military hospital was established in in the old Main Beach Hotel at the river end of Cavill mid-1915 in a rambling old house known as Staghorn, Avenue. This had been purchased by Mr H.S. Bere of previously the residence of former Queensland ‘The Hill’, Southport, as a holiday house. Mr Bere, the Governor, Sir Henry Norman, and at the time owned by secretary of the Southport Wounded Fund, offered the Mr D.J. Abercrombie.83

35 Newspaper article in the National Leader about the appointment of a German manager to Staghorn, November 1916.86

Newspaper article in the National Leader about men who have not served being given jobs at the local hospitals, December 1916.87

36 ‘Staghorn’ converted to the No.3 Army Auxiliary Hospital, mid-1915. Image courtesy State Library of Queensland.

building to the military as a convalescence facility and at a cost of £219 (approximately $21,000), which it was turned into the 50 bed No. 2 Auxiliary Hospital, accommodated a donated billiards table and where later No. 7 Auxiliary Hospital.88 concerts were held.91 Both hospitals were lit by gas and had wide verandahs Both hospitals were initially managed by warrant-officer with easy chairs for patients to take in the sea breezes. Nickel, who was based at Staghorn Hospital and had a Activities were also organised for the convalescing staff of one sergeant, one sergeant cook, one corporal soldiers and included games and outings. Mr Bere and three privates at each hospital. Nickel was later placed his motor launch at the disposal of Staghorn replaced by Sergeant-Major Goode. Staffing fluctuated and boat trips were run two to three times a week.89 over the course of the war, with contentious appointments Christmas was a particularly busy time at Staghorn, with at times, such as the replacement of Goode by a man of the Red Cross and local community coming together to German background in late 1916. This caused tension and provide Christmas lunch and entertainment.90 was reflected in the National Leader newspaper reports of A recreation room was eventually added to Staghorn, the appointment (see page 36).

37 Church of England Soldiers Rest Home, Coolangatta, circa 1919. Light-horsemen in front of the Church of England Rest House, Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Coolangatta, circa 1918. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

Another official was dismissed from Staghorn following the Church of England, which opened in January agitation from the Brisbane-based National Leader 1918.95 It was run by committee which relied heavily newspaper when it was revealed he had not seen active on public donations of food, goods and money and service; the newspaper believed employment within the provided holiday accommodation to soldiers being home service, which included the auxiliary hospitals, treated at the military hospitals as well as returned should be reserved for returned servicemen and also soldiers in general.96 Returned soldiers wishing to objected to a non-serving man being employed as the stay at the home had to apply to the Anzac Club caretaker for the Main Beach Hospital and the driver of in Charlotte Street, Brisbane. By late 1918 the rest the Staghorn motor ambulance.92 home had 30 beds, but by early the following year it had doubled its capacity to 60 beds and was able to Officially the two hospitals had the capacity to offer accommodation for large numbers of returned accommodate up to 100 men, but it is unclear if that servicemen. The Daily Mail noted that here ‘in healthful number was ever reached because the Main Beach recreation, in the company of old comrades, and Hospital appears to have sat empty for a time in 1916, and administered by gentle women, they have been able the main fundraising and other activities were primarily to win back much of the health and vitality which they focussed on Staghorn.93 In 1919, after the end of the had spent in the service of the nation.’97 Although war, Staghorn was closed and all the Red Cross property, the original building has long been replaced with a including the recreation room, was disposed of.94 The Old modern facility, the rest home continues to provide Main Beach Hotel was demolished in the 1920s. accommodation to service personnel to this day. The other main convalescent facility was the Coolangatta Soldiers’ Rest House, established by

38 The Soldiers’ Rest Home feature in The Queensland Pictorial, 1919. Image courtesy State Library of Queensland.

39 Peace Day parade in the Pimpama district, circa 1918. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

40 An unquiet peace The news of the Armistice in 1918 was welcomed with a range of public celebrations. Peace parades were organised by communities all over the Gold Coast and held from Coolangatta in the south to Pimpama in the north. They were an opportunity for people to publically celebrate the end of World War 1. While hostilities officially ended on 11 November 1918, life in Australia did not return to how it had been prior to 1914. Most historians now agree that the war left the nation shattered, divided and profoundly changed.98 Response to the war had initially been an enthusiastic demonstration of loyalty to empire, but as hostilities dragged on and the casualties mounted, rifts opened in the social and political fabric of the home front. Questions began to be asked about the point of the war. Anti-war campaigns and peace councils formed, and were targeted by the federal government. Communities became divided along many lines, including families who lost men and women and those who had not, and between capitalists and labour supporters. Men who appeared capable of fighting, but for various reasons did not, were, along with their families, shamed and ostracised. Flagging enlistments led to two bitterly fought referendums in 1916 and 1917 over introducing conscription, and these saw competing propaganda campaigns heavily aimed at the emotions of mothers to either support or reject the sending of sons into battle. The conscription bills were defeated but focussed sectarian animosity against Irish Catholics (who generally argued strongly against conscription). The ill treatment of those members of the community classed as enemy aliens, especially those of German background, left Cover of a commemorative booklet for Armistice Day featuring Australia both less tolerant and less multicultural. Into King George V, Southport, 29 November, 1918. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. this mix came returning soldiers, many of whom were physically sick and disabled and suffering from what we

41 Peace Day procession through Mudgeeraba, 1919. Peace parade, Nerang Street, Southport, 1919. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

know today is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many returned soldiers, parents, widows, fiancés and In the long term, many veterans emerged as deeply children were financially cut adrift and plunged into damaged members of society who found it difficult to grinding poverty. The often rigid and mean-spirited adjust to life back home. Numerous cases appeared of bureaucracy of the early Department of Defence war veterans disrupting their families and communities could make it difficult for families to access war through drink and violence, falling victim to mental pensions, especially when death or disablement of a illness, and ultimately resorting to suicide. These provider occurred some years after the end of the war, traumas and rifts did not end with the war but lingered or could not be conclusively related to injuries incurred into the 1920s and 30s until subsumed into the hardship during service. of the Great Depression and then a second world war. There are many local stories to be examined which The Gold Coast witnessed its share of post-war illustrate different impacts on the returnees and the difficulties. There was the grief of loss, which in many families of those who served. cases was intensified by a lack of closure because The Millen family was to lose two of its three sons. under British military policy the dead were buried George Edward was killed in action in France in August where they fell. The bodies of many soldiers were 1916 and Robert John, after being twice wounded in never recovered from foreign soil and returned home. action, was killed in July 1917. He was interred in the Then there was the economic impact on the men who British Cemetery, Villers Bretonneus, France. returned invalided, as well as their families, which was The third son, William received a serious gun-shot especially severe for those on the land who relied so wound to his hip. While his treatment was favourable heavily on able bodies to undertake manual labour. he was no longer able to fight. He was discharged as an

42 Dear Madam, Upon enlistment the late No. 181 Private G.E. Millen…recorded you as next of kin but it is noted from the file that his father is living…according to the instructions under the “Deceased Soldiers’ Estates Act 1918” which prescribes that these items must go to next of kin in the following order of relationship unless good and sufficient reasons for varying the procedure are stated for the consideration of the Minister: …father, mother, eldest surviving brother, eldest surviving sister…”

Letter from Defence Department to Miss M. Millen regarding the allocation of G. E. Millen’s war medals etc. National Archives of Australia: B2455, Millen GE.

43 invalid, returned home in 1919, married and moved to New Zealand. The war exposed rifts within this family. George Edward did not leave a will and after his death his sister Margaret, to whom he was very close and had named as his next of kin, entered into a dispute with their father for George’s medals and gratuity. The result was that Margaret received the gratuity payments and his father received his war medals. Southport born Christopher Reginald Andrews, brother of Sister Linda Andrews, was a 21 year old engineer when he enlisted in the AIF on 24 December 1915.99 He was assigned to the Australian Flying Corps as a private and worked as a fitter and turner. Initially based in Egypt, he was soon transferred to England where he achieved the rank of lieutenant and graduated as a pilot. He subsequently saw service in France and Belgium where he was wounded in action, and admitted to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds including to the right eye, right ear, both legs and feet, and right buttock. The lower body wounds were severe and he was discharged as an invalid and returned to Australia in January 1919. After the war Christopher Andrews returned to Southport and joined the RSSILA. Lt. Christopher Reginald Andrews. He later married and moved to Mount Tambourine, Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. where he and his wife had a daughter in March 1924.100 Sadly, not long afterwards, on 30 June 1924 he died as a consequence of his war injuries.101

The Fulton family of Springbrook was to lose three of its sons. In 1917, the youngest boy, Private Alexander Fulton wrote to the Assistant Adjunct General Australian Imperial Force (A.A.G.A.I.F) and requested to be returned home as he was the sole support for his aged parents. He noted that at least three of his brothers, William, Thomas and George, had already died in service and one, Hugh, had been returned to Australia disabled.102 At the time he was not sure of the whereabouts of his other brother, John. Alexander was

44 Letter to the A.A.G.A.I.F from Alexander Fulton requesting he be returned to Australia for family reasons. NAA: B2455, FULTON A D.

45 discharged and returned home in April 1918. John also returned home later the same year, disabled. Another story illustrating the tragic impact of the war is that of Frederick Alexander Anderson.103 Frederick Anderson was born and educated at Mudgeeraba, the second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Anderson. An unmarried man, before enlisting he worked as a teamster, was well respected in the community where he was noted as being quiet and very unassuming, and possessed a significant amount of land in the Mudgeeraba district. On 16th September 1914, at the age of 35, he enlisted in the 15th Battalion, and was sent to Egypt, where he completed his training. He was then deployed to Gallipoli on April 25th 1915, and was killed in action on the morning of May 18th. His body was buried at Shrapnel Gulley by Colonel Reverend F. Wray on 20 May 1915. His death had an enormous impact on his family, particularly his two aged parents, and five siblings (an older brother and four sisters) who had cruelly heard of his fate in the newspaper rather than through official channels. The subsequent correspondence with the Department of Defence104 Military portrait of Frederick Alexander Anderson, 1914. reveals first their anguish and determination to be Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. provided official confirmation of Frederick’s death, and then their desire to be sent his personal effects and a photograph of his grave. The photograph could not be provided, but his meagre personal possessions, which included a diary, dictionary, fountain pen, knife, Roman Catholic token, silk handkerchief and postcards, were returned to his parents in two anonymous brown paper parcels. These stories are typical of the burden of grief the parents, siblings, friends and community had to bear as they lost their young men and women overseas.

Receipt for delivery of Frederick Anderson’s personal effects to his family. National Archives of Australia: B2455, ANDERSON F A.

46 Lettergram from nearest station

J. Anderson Rose Hill Mudgeeraba

Regret inform you newspaper announcement correct report was wired to military commandant Brisbane thirteenth instant to inform father cable containing report was dated ninth June date of death not known

Defence 21/6/15”

Lettergram from Defence Department to J. Anderson confirming the newspaper report of his son’s death. National Archives of Australia: B2455, ANDERSON FA.

47 Another impact of the war was the establishment Plains (Darling Downs), Coominya, El Arish and Ubobo. of the Soldier Settlement Scheme. Under the There was also a settlement across the border from Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act 1917 and Coolangatta at Bilambil in Tweed Shire. While no associated regulations, land was resumed in all settlements were officially established on the Gold states and subdivided into small farm blocks. Coast, their presence was still felt with the Gold Discharged members of the armed forces and their Coast communities actively involved in fundraising to dependents could apply for these land grants and provide the settlements with assistance. In 1920, for financial assistance to build a house. The primary instance, the Coolangatta Peace Loan Committee and purpose of this Act was to open new agricultural the local Returned Soldiers’ League were involved land for settlement while at the same time providing in a national campaign to raise money for loans to a livelihood for the thousands of returning soldiers. soldiers to assist them in becoming farmers.105 The While laudable, the scheme was plagued by some residents of Coolangatta and district were particularly critical failures. One was that it was not extended involved in the affairs and welfare of the nearby Soldier to Indigenous soldiers and their families. In some Settlement at Bilambil. cases was used to further dispossess Indigenous Into the 1920s and 30s a number of returned soldiers communities by carving up mission reserves, (on to and their families settled land on the Gold Coast which Colonial policy had originally forced them), through later Depression Relief Schemes, particularly for the settlement of white soldiers. Other problems as farmers were encouraged into the area through included farms that were often too small or infertile the subdivision and release of selections for banana to be viable, returnees lacking farming experience cultivation. Austinville, upper Mudgeeraba, was and the often fragile mental and physical condition founded in 1934 as a banana settlement to provide of returned soldiers, which left them unsuited to employment to families in the Great Depression.106 rural labour. With the onset of the Great Depression, However the community struggled with bunchytop the economic feasibility of many of these holdings virus, heavy frosts and isolation.107 Families soon began deteriorated further, with numerous returned soldiers deserting and the school closed in 1939.108 More and their families accruing large debts or walking off sustainable banana farming areas were established their land altogether. around Tallebudgera, Burleigh Heads and the New In Queensland the main Soldier Settlements were South Wales border. at Amiens, Atherton Tablelands, Beerburrum, Cecil

48 Arrival of banana settlers at the Mudgeeraba Railway Station before heading to Austinville, circa 1930s. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

49 The influenza pandemic Another major post-war impact on the Gold Coast was the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. Nicknamed the Spanish Flu, this particular virus began to infect troops and communities in Europe during the war. Its spread was greatly assisted by the close quarters and massive troop movements. The return home of infected personnel after hostilities ceased resulted in a global pandemic that killed over 50 million people – more than the war itself. In Australia it is estimated that in excess of 12, 000 people, including young healthy adults died as a result of the influenza pandemic.109 Queensland deaths totalled 830.110

One of the measures undertaken by authorities to Quarantine tents erected as a result of the influenza pandemic stem its spread in Australia was the closure of the at Coolangatta, circa 1918. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Queensland/New South Wales border. This caused the Libraries Local Studies Collection. sudden isolation of the Gold Coast’s southernmost town, Coolangatta, from its neighbour Tweed Heads, located on the other side of the state boundary. Although surveyed in 1883, Coolangatta had largely developed as a residential satellite of Tweed Heads, which contained most of the essential services and infrastructure; hence the common name for the two being the Twin Towns. In January 1919, when the border was closed, people found themselves stranded on both sides of the border and unable to return to their homes or employment. An isolation camp was established next to the Coolangatta Rest Home as well as along the border to quarantine people travelling from New South Wales.111 Some 1300 to 1400 people had passed through the Coolangatta camp by March 1919. 112 Men exchanging money over the Queensland - New South Wales border during the flu epidemic of 1919. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

50 Stranded Queenslanders outside the Post Office, Tweed Heads, February 1919, during the influenza pandemic. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

51 Coolangatta State School following its first extension, Queensland, circa 1925. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

Another impact of the border closure was the need to duplicate services across the two towns, including the establishment of a school in Coolangatta. A temporary school was established behind the Coolangatta Municipal Council office on 10 February 1919 while a permanent school building was being built on Kirra Hill. The new Coolangatta State School opened in early 1920. While the border closure only remained in place until May 1919, it set in motion the development of Coolangatta as a distinct township.

Opening of the Coolangatta State School, Queensland, 1920. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

52 Coolangatta State School pupils at the opening of the school, 1920. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

53 Mudgeeraba and Springbrook Memorial Hall, circa 1923. Image Mudgeeraba District Roll of Honour, World War 1. The roll of courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. honour was originally housed in the Mudgeeraba Railway Station, but was moved to the Mudgeeraba – Springbrook Memorial Hall when it opened in 1922. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

War Memorials During the course of the war a strong community need added. 113 In following years, honour boards were also to honour those who served emerged and was carried erected in various public buildings including the Upper through subsequent decades. This was the first war to Coomera School of Arts, Pimpama School of Arts and touch Australia as a federated nation and impact all its the Mudgeeraba-Springbrook Soldiers Memorial Hall communities. A common way of commemorating the – which had been built in 1922 as a memorial to those Great War was the placement of honour boards and who had served. the building of monuments and memorial halls. Prior Construction of war memorials on the Gold Coast also to World War I Queensland had few civic monuments, happened quickly at the end of the War. One of the but after the war there was a flurry of monument and earliest memorials on the Gold Coast was the Pimpama memorial building to mark the devastating effect the and Ormeau War Memorial, erected by local residents conflict had on society. Indeed, even before the war in the grounds of the Pimpama Uniting (formerly had finished some memorials were already in place. Methodist) Church in 1919. The masons were A.L. Petrie An honour board to those who had served in the war of Toowong and the project cost £154 (approximately was unveiled at the Southport School of Arts in 1916. $14,000), which was raised by public subscription from At the time of the unveiling, it was noted the board the local community. The War Memorial was erected in carried the names of five members of the Whelan family, remembrance of the six local Pimpama men who lost and that the names of others, including F. Spencer, their lives in World War I. BE. Stevens and Miss May Greer, were still to be

54 War Memorial and war trophies at Anzac Park, Southport, circa 1924. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

Memorial soldier and Pimpama and Ormeau Honour Roll, Pimpama, circa 1919. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

55 Coolangatta War Memorial in Griffith Street, Coolangatta, circa 1929. Avenue of Commemorative Trees, 2011. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection. Image courtesy City of Gold Coast.

Another early memorial is the Southport War Memorial, organisations, erected memorials to those who had which was built of Helidon freestone and unveiled in died as well as those who had served during the Great 1922.114 Its original location was on the foreshore end War. Most memorials were constructed by local masonry of Nerang Street in Southport. Like the Pimpama and firms, although some were by artists or imported Ormeau War memorial, it is a digger statue supported from overseas. Memorials produced by masonry firm by a plinth. A.L.Petrie and Son of Toowong were the most prolific. They were the largest masonry firm in Queensland at One of the few obelisk-style memorials is the this time and were responsible for many First World Coolangatta War Memorial, erected in 1926 at the War memorials throughout the state. In Queensland intersection of Griffith and MacLean Streets and later the soldier statue was the most popular choice of moved to Queen Elizabeth Park. It is an obelisk topped memorial whereas the obelisk predominated in the with a funeral shroud, symbolizing those who died. southern states. Researchers posit that this may be due Crossed rifles on the front suggest the soldiers are now to the stronger working class traditions of Queensland, at peace. with which the digger image struck a chord through These memorials were extremely important to those its embodiment of ideal Australian virtues of the time: families who had lost members overseas, for they loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The served as a place of remembrance much like a grave. digger was also more common due to the fact that in They also became the centre of general community other states the design of memorials was overseen by commemoration and reflection. Across the Gold Coast advisory boards of architects and artists115 who tended communities banded together and through public to regard the digger statue in an unfavourable light. On subscription and, with the assistance of local RSSILA the Gold Coast, memorial design was in the hands of the local community.

56 Australia’s Govenor-General Lord Forster at the official opening of Southport Anzac Memorial Park, 1922. E H Foreman, photographer. Image courtesy of City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

57 A less expensive way of memorialising those lost He was then transferred to Sydney and in April 1918, during the Great War was through the planting of left for the Australian Camp at Suez as Acting Sergeant. commemorative trees. This was done by both individuals Here he faced the poor sanitary conditions of camp and communities. World War 1 commemorative life and quickly succumbed to diarrhoea and was plantings survive at Latimer’s Crossing, Numinbah hospitalised for sixteen days. After being discharged Valley. This avenue of fifteen Hoop Pines (Araucaria from hospital he was transferred to Alexandria, cunninghamii) and one Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) Southampton and then France, during which he reverted was planted around 1920 by Joseph Hinde, a teamster to the rank of gunner. On 4 February 1919 he was from Numinbah, in honour of his brother Thomas Hinde evacuated to the Group Clearing Hospital, Sutton Veney, who was killed in action in France in 1918. Wiltshire, England, after contracting the influenza virus. John recovered from the illness and was granted leave Thomas Hinde was a 23 year old farmer from Gilston. without pay to return to Australia. He returned at his He enlisted for service in March 1916 with the AIF. He own expense via the United States, where he took the was appointed to the 20th Reinforcement, 9th Battalion opportunity to cross the country by motorbike. and despatched overseas. Private Hinde served for two years in Belgium and France and was wounded in action John quickly resumed his old life as a beekeeper at a number of times. On the 19th September 1918, he Mount Tambourine, married, started a family, moved was again wounded in action and admitted to the 55th to a farm at Benowa and became a prominent figure General Hospital in Boulogne with a gunshot wound to in the apiary industry. He was profoundly altered by the head. He died of his wounds on the 21st September his wartime experiences and became a self-educated 1918 and was interred at Terlincthun British Cemetery.116 free thinker deeply concerned with the betterment of Some of the trees originally planted in the avenue are human society. The ideals of socialism intrigued him no longer extant and those that remain are entered in and he stood for election in the 1949 local elections the Gold Coast Local Heritage Register. as a candidate for the . He also emerged as a leader of the Queensland Peace The Great War also gave rise to the modern peace Council and member of the Australian Peace Council, movement, which began during the war years and was contesting the 1951 federal election as an independent continued through the subsequent conflicts of the peace candidate and actively campaigning against 20th century. One Gold Coast individual who became nuclear armaments during the Cold War period.118He involved in this movement was John Hall Rosser. He also became an early environmentalist, champion of was a 24 year old, unmarried beekeeper living with free education and wrote prolifically to the newspapers his mother at Mount Tambourine when he enlisted for on a wide range of intellectual and utopian issues. service on 19 March 1917.117 Like many other men of the Towards the end of his life, his philanthropy led to his area, he travelled by train to Brisbane and was accepted granting approximately 6.5 acres of his farm land for the into the field artillery. Soon after enlistment he had to creation of the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens. apply for leave to return home to see his mother and arrange for a man to care for his beekeeping business.

58 Anzac Day memorial service on Marine Parade, Coolangatta, circa 1930s. Image courtesy of City of Gold Coast Libraries Local Studies Collection.

59 End notes 1 Wikipedia. “World War 1.” 20 May 2016, en.wikipedia. 12 “WHY SHOULD I FIGHT?” The Brisbane Courier org/wiki/World_War_I#Allied_victory:_summer_1918_ (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 23 December 1914: 8. Web. 1 Sep onwards. 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20004027.

2 Australian War Memorial. “Enlistment statistics, 13 Australian War Memorial. “Enlistment statistics, First World War.” 20 May 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ First World War.” 20 May 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/. encyclopedia/enlistment/.

3 Australian War Memorial. “First World War 1914- 14 Australian War Memorial. “Indigenous Australian 1918.” 14 June 2016, www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/. servicemen.” 10 October 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ encyclopedia/aborigines/indigenous/. 4 Wikipedia. “Australian Army.” 25 May 2016, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Army. 15 Australian War Memorial. “Anzac Diveristy.” 10 October 2016, www.awm.gov.au/education/schools/ 5 Australian Military History of the Early 20th Century. resources/anzac-diversity/. “Desert Column Forum.” 25 May 2016, alh-research. tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_ 16 Kennedy, Alastair. Chinese Anzacs: Australians of id=1104177. Chinese descent in the defence forces 1885-1919 / Alastair Kennedy A. Kennedy] [O’Connor, A.C.T 6 Wikipedia. “First Australian Imperial Force.” 26 2012, p. 13. May 2016, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Australian_ Imperial_Force accessed. 17 “SOUTHPORT SHIRE COUNCIL.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 15 September 1916: 7 Wikipedia. “First Australian Imperial Force.” 26 9. Web. 25 Aug 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- May 2016, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Australian_ article20096064. Imperial_Force accessed. 18 “Anti-Conscription Fighting Fund.” Worker 8 “Country Volunteers.”, The Brisbane Courier (Qld: (Brisbane, Qld. : 1890 - 1955) 20 December 1917: 1864-1933), 22 March 1915:7. Web, 18 Aug 2016 15. Web. 22 Aug 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20051097. article71040827. 9 “SOUTHPORT SCHOOL.” The Brisbane Courier 19 “The Referendum” The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 11 December 1917: 8. Web. 22 1872 - 1947) 31 October 1916: 5. Web. 22 Aug 2016 Aug 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20202057. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article176377763. 10 Australian War Memorial. “Enlistment statistics, 20 “LIGHT HORSE ALLOWANCES.” Daily Mercury First World War.” 20 May 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ (Mackay, Qld. : 1906 - 1954) 30 January 1914: 7. encyclopedia/enlistment/. Web. 23 Aug 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 11 Australian War Memorial. “Enlistment statistics, article171498190. First World War.” 20 May 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ 21 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, encyclopedia/enlistment/. Healy L 685

60 22 Information for Margaret, Agnes and Robert Millen 30 “PREPARATION’S FOR THE PACIFIC CABLE.” The verified through Queensland Births Deaths and Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 11 March 1902: Marriages. 6. Web. 23 Aug 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article19161596. 23 Australian Red Cross. “100 years of women’s service to Red Cross.” 25 June 2016, www.redcross.org. 31 “ANOTHER LINK SEVERED” South Coast Bulletin au/100-years-of-womens-service-to-red-cross.aspx. (Southport, Qld. : 1929 - 1954) 18 April 1951: 9. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 24 Australian War Memorial. “Blog: Australian Army article225634325. Nursing Service.” 29 June 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ blog/2014/05/14/australian-army-nursing-service- 32 Express. “The battle to feed Tommy: new exhibition 1914-15-outdoor-dress/. looks at the diet of a WW1 soldier.” 25 May 2016, www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/502452/The- 25 Other references give the Andrews family address as Battle-to-feed-Tommy-The-diet-of-a-WW1-soldier. East Knoyle, Southport. 33 Australian War Memorial. “Make hard tack.” 25 May 26 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, 2016, www.awm.gov.au/education/schools/resources/ ANDREWS L G. hard-tack/. 27 State Library of Queensland. “Nurse Jane McLennen 34 YMCA. “World War One a National Presence collection digitised @ SLQ.” 14 June 2016, blogs.slq. Emerges.” 25 May 2016, www.ymcabrisbane. qld.gov.au/ww1/2015/08/04/nurse-jane-mclennan- org/150/stories/world-war-one-a-national-presence- collection-digitised-slq/. emerges.html. 28 “WOMAN’S WORLD.” The Brisbane Courier 35 Queensland State Archives. “Stories from the (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 20 May 1920: 11. Web. 13 Oct archives: the Queensland home front during the First 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2041506; World War.” 15 June 2016, “SOUTHPORT.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2014/06/10/the- - 1933) 25 March 1925: 19. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http:// queensland-home-front-during-the-first-world-war/. nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20900087. 36 Australian War Memorial. “Voluntary Aid 29 “WOMAN’S WORLD.” The Brisbane Courier Detachments.” 5 October 2016, www.awm.gov.au/ (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 20 May 1920: 11. Web. 12 Oct encyclopedia/vad/. 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20415065; “SOUTHPORT.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 37 Queensland State Archives. “Stories from the - 1933) 25 March 1925: 19. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http:// archives: the Queensland home front during the First nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20900087; “SOCIAL.” The World War.” 15 June 2016, Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 30 June 1927: blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2014/06/10/the- 19. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- queensland-home-front-during-the-first-world-war/. article21853304.

61 38 “MOVEMENTS IN THE COUNTRY.” The Brisbane 9. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- Courier (Qld: 1864 - 1933) 8 September 1914: 7. Web. article214364304. 1 Sep 2016 nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19982166 47 Fischer, Gerard, ‘Fighting the war at home: the 39 “QUEENSLAND PATRIOTIC FUND” Daily Standard internment of enemy aliens in Australia during (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936) 2 February 1915: 2 World War 1’, 2011, pp. 17 – 45 in Helmi, Nadine. (SECOND EDITION). Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla. and Fischer, Gerard. The enemy at home : German gov.au/nla.news-article181407087; “SOCK AND internees in World War I Australia / by Nadine COMFORT FUND.” Darling Downs Gazette (Qld. : Helmi, Gerard Fischer ; with contributions from Beth 1881 - 1922) 6 November 1915: 5. Web. 12 Oct 2016 Hise, Stephen Thompson, Mark Viner UNSW Press http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article182686515.40 The Kensington, N.S.W 2011. Brisbane Courier, 18 August 1915, p. 7. 48 Jones, M. A. Country of five rivers, Albert Shire 1788- 40 “COURIER” PATRIOTIC FUNDS.” The Brisbane 1988 /Michael Jones Allen & Unwin Sydney 1988, pp. Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 18 August 1915: 7. 43, 186-190. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 49 Jones, M., pp.128-181, 189-190. article20033005. 50 Howells, Mary. and Johnson, Darren. and Logan (Qld.). 41 “COUNTRY MOVEMENTS.” The Brisbane Courier Council. Tinnie Trail : a heritage trail (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 15 December 1915: 10. Web. 12 along the Logan River / by Mary Howells ; illustrated Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20062461; by Darren Johnson Logan City Council Logan City, “PATRIOTIC WAR WORK.” The Brisbane Courier Qld 2003, pp. 70.51 M. Jones, p. 123, 190. (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 13 March 1918: 8. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20216279. 51 M. Jones, p. 123, 190. 42 “PATRIOTIC WAR WORK.” The Brisbane Courier 52 City of Gold Coast oral history collection, Doreen (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 4 October 1917: 8. Web. 14 Sep Kropp and Jean Groves oral history, 2013. 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20190938. 53 “PERSONAL.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 43 “WAR FUNDS.” The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933) 28 February 1917: 11. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http:// 1903 - 1926) 26 December 1916: 2. Web. 14 Sep 2016 nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20154864. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article215513016. 54 Fischer, G., pp. 20-21. 44 “OUR NEIGHBOURS.” The Queenslander (Brisbane, 55 Fischer, G., p. 24. Qld. : 1866 - 1939) 13 April 1918: 16. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22360153. 56 National Archives of Australia. “Enoggera (Gaythorne), Queensland (1914-15 and 1940-46): 45 “SOUTHPORT SHOW.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. World War 1.” 28 June 2016, www.naa.gov.au/ : 1864 - 1933) 29 September 1916: 8. Web. 14 Sep collection/snapshots/internment-camps/WWI/ 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20125012. enoggera.aspx. 46 “[?]MUD, FROST. AND TANKS” The Daily Mail 57 Queensland State Archives Item ID2036412, (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903 - 1926) 8 February 1917: Correspondence.

62 58 Queensland State Archives. “Stories from the SHIRE COUNCIL.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 archives: the Queensland home front during the First - 1933) 25 February 1916: 9. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http:// World War.” 15 June 2016, blogs.archives.qld.gov. nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20057748. au/2014/06/10/the-queensland-home-front-during- 66 Queensland State Archives, Item ID1623126, the-first-world-war/. Correspondence. 59 “SUGAR “SAUERKRAUTS” SNORT.” Truth (Brisbane, 67 “PERSONAL.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - Qld. : 1900 - 1954) 30 January 1916: 9. Web. 5 Oct 1933) 28 February 1917: 11. Web. 13 Sep 2016 http:// 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203037241. nla.gov. au/nla.news-article20154864. 60 Queensland State Archives. “Stories from the 68 Queensland State Archives. “Stories from the archives: the Queensland home front during the First archives: the Queensland home front during the First World War.” 15 June 2016, blogs.archives.qld.gov. World War.” 15 June 2016, blogs.archives.qld.gov. au/2014/06/10/the-queensland-home-front-during- au/2014/06/10/the-queensland-home-front-during- the-first-world-war/. the-first-world-war/. 61 “PUGH’S ALMANAC.” The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. 69 “RECRUITING COMMITTEES.” The Brisbane Courier : 1872 - 1947) 20 March 1917: 2 (SECOND EDITION). (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 22 January 1916: 5. Web. 14 Sep Web. 13 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20057673. article176437088. more in this article. 62 Jones, M., p. 197 70 “THE COGITATIONS OF COOMERA.”Daily 63 “SUGAR “SAUERKRAUTS” SNORT.” Truth (Brisbane, Standard (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936) 18 July 1916: Qld. : 1900 - 1954) 30 January 1916: 9. Web. 5 Oct 4 (SECOND EDITION). Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla. 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203037241. gov.au/nla.news-article179857827.

64 “SUGAR “SAUERKRAUTS” SNORT.” Truth (Brisbane, 71 “TWEED HEADS AND COOLANGATTA” Tweed Qld. : 1900 - 1954) 30 January 1916: 9. Web. 13 Sep Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 4 October 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203037241. 1918: 2. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla. news-article191049893. 65 “BEENLEIGH SHIRE COUNCIL.” Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936) 26 October 1917: 3 72 “SOUTHPORT SHIRE COUNCIL.” The Brisbane (SECOND EDITION). Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla. Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 16 June 1916: 9. Web. 14 gov.au/nla.news-article179427709; “BEENLEIGH Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20117393. SHIRE COUNCIL.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 73 “THE COGITATIONS OF COOMERA.” Daily - 1933) 26 February 1915: 8. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http:// Standard (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936) 18 July 1916: 4 nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20012988; “RECRUITING (SECOND EDITION). Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov. COMMITTEES.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 au/nla.news-article179857827. - 1933) 22 January 1916: 5. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http:// nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20057673; “BEENLEIGH

63 74 “A SUGGESTION FROM SOUTHPORT.” The Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 10 June 1915: 7. Web. 13 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 13 April 1916: Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20010771; 9. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- “AUXILIARY HOSPITAL AT SOUTHPORT.” The article20106712. Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 18 December 1915: 7. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 75 “LOWER RIVER” Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : article20076799; Australian Army Medical Corps files 1914 - 1949) 2 September 1918: 2. Web. 14 Sep 2016 (Tait collection) 1914-18 War:] AAMC units in Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191055000. - Convalescent homes and Auxiliary Hospitals in 1st 76 “TWEED HEADS AND COOLANGATTA” Tweed Military District - No.7 Australian Auxiliary Hospital Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 4 October “Old Main Beach Hotel”, Southport Qld - No.8 AAH 1918: 2. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla. “Staghorn”, Southport Qld - No.9 AAH “Finchley”, news-article191049893. Toowoomba Qld.

77 “TWEED HEADS AND COOLANGATTA” Tweed 83 “For Our Wounded Boys” The Queenslander Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 12 October (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939) 19 June 1915: 40. 1918: 4. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article191050055. article22298174. “FOR OUR WOONDED.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 30 July 1915: 78 “R.S.S.I.L.A.” Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 7. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 1954) 20 June 1919: 7. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla. article20027214. gov.au/nla.news-article92994632. 84 “FOR OUR WOONDED.” The Brisbane Courier 79 “R.S.S.I.L.A.” The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903 (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 30 July 1915: 7. Web. 14 Sep 2016 - 1926) 5 April 1919: 4. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20027214. gov.au/nla.news-article215143004. 85 “AUXILIARY HOSPITAL AT SOUTHPORT.” The 80 “COOLANGATTA AND TWEED HEADS.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 18 December Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 30 May 1925: 1915: 7. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 16. Web. 14 Sep2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article20076799. article20930841. 86 “ALIENS AGAIN.” National Leader (Brisbane, Qld. : 81 “BURLEIGH R.S.S.I.L.A.” The Telegraph (Brisbane, 1916 - 1918) 3 November 1916: 7. Web. 1 Sep 2016 Qld. : 1872 - 1947) 5 June 1933: 5 (CITY FINAL LAST http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132394108. MINUTE NEWS). Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/ nla.news-article181195084. 87 “SOUTHPORT MURMURS.” National Leader (Brisbane, Qld. : 1916 - 1918) 15 December 1916: 82 “HAVEN BY THE SEA.” The Daily Mail (Brisbane, 6. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- Qld. : 1903 - 1926) 1 February 1917: 3. Web. 13 Oct article132395537. 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214365801; “FOR OUR WOUNDED BOYS.” The Brisbane

64 88 “AUXILIARY HOSPITAL.” Tweed Daily Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 16 (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 20 October 1915: April 1918: 2. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/ 4. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- nla.news-article190157716.; “TWEED HEADS AND article191039295. COOLANGATTA” Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949) 4 October 1918: 2. Web. 13 Oct 2016 89 “OF INTEREST TO WOMEN.” National Leader http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191049893. (Brisbane, Qld. : 1916 - 1918) 10 November 1916: 6. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 97 “AT COOLANGATTA.” The Daily Mail (Brisbane, article132394024. Qld. : 1903 - 1926) 3 January 1919: 7. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220549176. 90 “No. 3 AUXILIARY MILITARY HOSPITAL, SOUTHPORT.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 98 For a detailed account of the impacts of the Great 1933) 1 January 1916: 6. Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla. War see Evans, Raymond: Loyalty and disloyalty. gov.au/nla.news-article20077345. Social conflicton the Queensland home front, 1914- 18, Sydney; Boston 1987: Allen & Unwin. 91 “RED CROSS SOCIETY.” Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936) 17 October 1916: 2 (SECOND 99 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, EDITION). Web. 12 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla. ANDREWS CR; Queensland Times, 19 February news-article181084106. 1930, p. 8.

92 “SOUTHPORT MURMURS.” National Leader 100 “RETURNED SAILORS AND SOLDIERS’ IMPERIAL (Brisbane, Qld. : 1916 - 1918) 15 December 1916: LEAGUE.” Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and 6. Web. 1 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 - 1947) 8 August 1919: article132395537. 6. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article152605097; “Family Notices” Queensland 93 National Leader, 15 December 1916, p. 6. Figaro (Brisbane, Qld. : 1901 - 1936) 1 March 1924: 94 “RED CROSS SOCIETY.” The Queenslander 6. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939) 1 March 1919: 6. article83679980. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- 101 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, article22370002. ANDREWS CR 95 “SOLDIERS’ REST HOME AT COOLANGATTA.” The 102 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 17 January 1918: FULTON A D 7. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article20207206. 103 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, ANDERSON F A. 96 “AT COOLANGATTA.” The Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903 - 1926) 3 January 1919: 7. Web. 13 Oct 104 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220549176; ANDERSON FA “COOLANGATTA SOLDIERS’ REST HOUSE.”

65 105 “Peace Loan Campaign.” The Week (Brisbane, news-article20254606. “SOLDIERS’ C. OF E. HELP Qld. : 1876 - 1934) 20 August 1920: 18. Web. 14 Sep SOCIETY” The BrisbaneCourier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article186527534. 28 February 1919: 4. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov. “TWEED HEADS.” Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW au/nla.news-article20249182. : 1914 - 1949) 27 August 1920: 2. Web. 13 Oct 2016 112 “FROM THE BORDER CAMPS.” The Brisbane http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191741777. Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 7 March 1919: 7. Web. 14 106 “AUSTINVILLE” Warwick Daily News (Qld. : 1919 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20276904. -1954) 2 June 1934: 5. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla. 113 “SOUTHPORT SHOW.” The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : gov.au/nla.news-article177506736. 1864 - 1933) 29 September 1916: 8. Web. 5 Oct 2016 107 “COUNTRY NEWS” The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20125012. Qld. : 1933 - 1954) 27 July 1935: 8. Web. 13 Oct 114 “SOUTHPORT EVENT.” Queensland Times (Ipswich) 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36756987; (Qld. : 1909 - 1954) 27 April 1922: 7 (DAILY.). “GLEANINGS FROM THE COUNTRY” The Courier- Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) 24 April 1937: article110005604. 7. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article36900451. 115 ABC Radio National. “The digger image and Australian war memorials.” 30 October 2016, 108 “STRAWBERRY OUTPUT RIBBON TO” The Courier- http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) 22 June 1939: 4 saturdayextra/the-digger-image-and-australian-war- (Second Section.). Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov. memorials/6460948. au/nla.news-article40852031. 116 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, 109 Curson, P and McCracken, K., “An Australian HINDE T 6266. Perspective of the 1918 – 1919 Influenza Pandemic”. Department of Human Geography, Macquarie 117 National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, University. In NSW Public Health Bulletin, Vol. 17., ROSSER JOHN HALL. No. 7-8., p. 103 – 107. 118 “MR. ROSSER” South Coast Bulletin (Southport, 110 Office of Economic and Statistical Research, Qld. : 1929 - 1954) 30 April 1947: 11. Web. 13 Oct Queensland Government. “Queensland Past and 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article188790215.; Present: 100 Years of Statistics 1896–1996”. Office “JOHN ROSSER” South Coast Bulletin (Southport, of Economic and Statistical Research, Queensland Qld. : 1929 - 1954) 25 April 1951: 5. Web. 13 Oct Government. 1998. Chapter 8, Health, Section 4, 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225634453.; pp. 254-263. 5 October 2016. www.qgso.qld.gov.au/ “FEDERAL POLICY CRITICISED” South Coast products/reports/qld-past-present/qld-past-present- Bulletin (Southport, Qld. : 1929 - 1954) 18 April 1951: 1896-1996-ch08-sec-04.pdf. 4. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news- article225634300.; “People Given Choice of Peace 111 “SOLDIERS’ REST HOUSE, COOLANGATTA.” The or War”” Warwick Daily News (Qld. : 1919 -1954) 24 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) 18 February April 1951: 2. Web. 13 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla. 1919: 7. Web. 14 Sep 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla. news-article190441560.

66 Disclaimer The materials presented are made available by City of Gold Coast as an information source only. City of Gold Coast makes no statement, representation, or warranty about the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of any information contained. Any use of this information is at the user’s own risk. City of Gold Coast disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs that might be incurred as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way for any reason. City of Gold Coast disclaims all liability for any damages arising from your access to, use of, or downloading of any material or part thereof from their publication or internet site.

Acknowledgements Researched and written by Dr Kevin Rains and Jane Austen (City of Gold Coast Office of City Architect, Heritage Unit); Kyla Stephan (City of Gold Coast Libraries, Local Studies) and Josh Tarrant, (Queensland Museum). Graphic design by Nicole Howell (City of Gold Coast). Valuable information and assistance has been provided by: Lesley Jenkins (Oral Historian); Jack Rudd; Gold Coast Australia Day Foundation and Albert Battery; Queensland State Archives and John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland). Special thanks to local small museum project partners; Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Museum Inc., Mudgeeraba

Southport Military Museum, Southport

Gold Coast and Hinterland Historical Museum Inc., Bundall

67 This exhibition explores the effect of World War I on the Gold Coast. World War I had a profound impact on all of Australia, and while there are many national stories about the war, there are also those particular to individual communities. From Cables to Commemoration: the Gold Coast home front 1914 – 1918 looks at some of the key themes and stories which emerged from this tumultuous part of the region’s history.

Proudly supported by This project is proudly supported by the Queensland Government.