The Irwin District and World War I

C Company leaving Belmont Camp 3/10/15
C Company leaving
Belmont Racecourse, Perth, 3rd October 1915.
12th Reinforcements, 16th Battalion. Taken at Belmont Racecourse.
12th Reinforcements, 16th Battalion.
Belmont Racecourse, Perth, 16th December 1915.
Military Hospital, France, 1917
Post Card of a Military Hospital, France, 1917. (IRME0047).
Inscribed: "This is another card of France but it is somewhere you may know when you see it by the look of it by the nurses standing outside. They have got the ward that I am in decorated so it looks real well flowers of all kind, roses and one thing and another they are the first that I have seen I left home that is twelve months ago it seems ages since I left there but I still live in hopes of seeing you again some of these days. It is Christmas eve now while I am writing this to you so I will write you a letter later I will tell you all then. I got a Christmas box today Love from Wally "

Men and women from the Irwin District who served in World War I are being documented by the Society.

Our researcher, Anne Jefferys, has now disovered 130 men and women who enlisted 41 of whom were killed. Australia lost about 60,000 men in World War I,about 1.3% of the population.

The Irwin District's population was about 400 in 1914, so the loss of 40 lives of young men and women, which amounted to 10% of the population, took a huge toll on the community.

The Society is preparing an exhibit to document the life of the widows and spinsters of the Irwin District through the story of one of them.

The stories of the 1915 volunteeers are here..
The 1916 volunteers are here.
The 1917 volunteers are here.
The 1918 volunteers are here.

1914/1915

1916

1917

1918