One hundred years ago this month newspaper headlines were reporting
on the political crisis surrounding the new nation’s first-ever double
dissolution. A political assassination in the far-away Balkans in late June
seemed barely worthy of mention.
The Prime Minister, Joseph Cook, and the leader of the
Labour Opposition, Andrew Fisher, were busy preparing for a federal election.
Neither they, nor other Australian politicians could foresee the terrible consequences
of the diplomatic failures that were unfolding in Europe.
When Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August,
Australia, like the rest of the Empire, was also at war. The news was greeted with
nationalistic fervour by crowds in the streets of Australia’s major cities.
Australia’s reaction to news of the outbreak of hostilities is
the subject of a talk to the Ku-ring-gai Historical Society this Saturday, 16
August, by eminent historian
DR MICHAEL
McKERNAN. Michael is a
former Deputy-Director of the
Australian War Memorial, a radio commentator and author of many books charting
the effects of war on Australian society.
Within a week of the outbreak of war, both of Australia’s political
leaders having pledged immediate and unconditional support, recruitment was
underway with a force of 20 000 men promised for the defence of the empire.
Thousands of young men enthusiastically rushed to enlist
with, perhaps, little understanding of what was involved, and no foreboding
that this conflict
would drag on for more than four years and cost millions of
lives.
The first shot fired by Allied forces came from an artillery
battery at Pt. Phillip heads to prevent the departure of the Norddeutscher
Lloyd cargo ship SS Pfalz just after
midnight on 5 August, 1914.
On 18 August a Naval and Military Expeditionary Force left
Sydney to capture wireless stations used by the German East Asia Cruiser
Squadron and which represented an urgent threat to merchant shipping. During
the first fighting at Rabaul in German New Guinea four Australians were killed.
Among the casualties was Capt. Brian Pockley, a twenty-four
year old medical doctor of Wahroonga and one of the more than 1300 men and
women with links to the Ku-ring-gai municipality who served in what would
become known as the Great War.
Ku-ring-gai Historical Society is commemorating the service
of these men and women by researching and writing their stories to ensure that
they will not be forgotten. Volume 1 of Rallying
the Troops, containing the war stories of those beginning with names A to F,
was recently launched by Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the AWM.
Copies are now available from the Society (
www.khs.org.au or 9499 4568)
Members of the public are cordially invited to attend the 16
August talk by Dr McKernan. It will be held in the Meeting Room, old Gordon
Public School building adjacent to the Library
, corner of
the Pacific Highway and Park Avenue, Gordon. The meeting starts at 2pm and will
be preceded by the AGM. Afternoon tea will be served.
