Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories:
It may be hard to believe today, but the humble pigeon played a heroic role as messenger in World War I, braving heavy artillery fire and poisonous gas to deliver messages between the front line and headquarters.
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights:
Our Library has a vast collection of material relating to World War 1 including many original diaries and photographs. Two notable diaries were written by (Victor) Rupert Laidlaw and Alice Kitchin. Both were eyewitnesses to history and their diaries speak eloquently of their experiences, and reflect the horrors of the conflict.
Anzac Day is often a time when people think about the wartime experiences of their ancestors, and may contemplate researching them.
During World War I Jessie Traill spent five years serving as a British Voluntary Aid Detachment. Her war experience is recorded through photographs, sketches, written accounts and letters to friends.
Guns on the Western Front fell silent one hundred years ago, at 11am on 11 November 1918, bringing to an end what we remember as the First World War.
With the announcement of the World War I armistice on 11 November 1918, many soldiers felt both joy and disbelief. Stretcher-bearer Percy Samson captured it in his diary.
This ANZAC Day we remember some Bendigo soldiers who are included in the Vincent Kelly photographic archive.
The Battle of Passchendaele has come to symbolise the horrors of the Great War, largely due to the photographs taken at the time
‘Pongo’ was a term used by Australian troops in World War One to refer to the common foot soldier of the infantry battalions. The songs, stories, art and verses of the pongos tells us much about the Australian soldiers who fought in the Great War.
On Saturday 3 July 1920, the play Advance Australia was staged at the Princess Theatre in Bendigo. Written by a local Catholic priest, John Joseph Kennedy, it would create a national furore.
