Out of Nowhere

[CINDERS]

This little place is off the beaten track that I was told about on a new road we have found for our motor cycle riding on weekends.
It is next to a small wooden hall on the Thompsonsbrook road which meanders through small farming areas that dot the landscape like 000's of others across Australia.
In the shade of a very large oak tree my wife and I took a pause to pay our respects to those of this area that did not return to this peaceful setting we stood in.

When WWI erupted there were just under 5 million souls in Australia and this little community answered that call like so many across our country.
Now as a stark reminder these eternal names etched into these memorials dot our countryside’s across Australia in far away areas not often frequented but never forgotten.
At the end of hostilities there were very few families that the tragedy of this war did not touch whether KIA or wounded or shell shocked.

416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. The latest figure for those killed is given as 62,000.(23.12.2020)
During the period 4 August 1914 to 11 November 1918, there were 59,357 deaths. On average, 38 members of the Australian armed forces died per day during the 1,560 days of the war. At 64.8%, the Australian casualty rate (proportionate to total embarkations) was among the highest of the war. The AIF members were all vollunteers.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Sorry but I included our bikes so Ovidio could gaze at one of Italy's proudest exports.

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