scone.com.auMurrurundi Remembers the Great War
By Des Dugan
A world conflict that killed 10 million, had 65 million men in battle, resulted in 21 million wounded and seven million civilian deaths ended on this day one hundred years ago on the 11 hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
The news was carried to Australia via the Pacific cable.
Melbourne, then the nation’s capital, received the message that Monday at 7:20pm.
There were no radio stations and most homes lacked a telephone while in Murrurundi, there was also no electricity.
They had to wait for the next “paper train” to arrive.
Today we get the news as it happens through the internet and we face a different foe; challenges to the fabric of our society, failing Christianity and minority governance along with populist and shallow leaders.
Murrurundi gathers in the shade on Remembrance Day.
This morning around 80 people celebrating the event 100 years ago with their only worry, the approaching midday sun, no water and no swimming pool.
Councillor Joshua Brown read out the list of those who did not return from The Great War while Jaiden Summers from Murrurundi Public School read out “A poem for Remembrance Day”.
The first line reads “Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?” which was bit ironic because there were no poppies handed out in Murrurundi, the only semblance to the poem was some flower pots available at the ceremony for you to grow your own poppies.
Council contributed 3,000 poppies to RSL branches in the Shire for Remembrance Day, but none saw the light of day in Murrurundi.
Why the poppies? the child asks in the poem and the mother replies because “men fought and died in the fields where the poppies grow”.
A nice touch to the ceremony was a number of hand-written stories by the local children on Remembrance Day concerning the importance of the day.
Unlisted in the events for the celebration was a presentation by Del Ross on “The Horses Stay Behind.”
With a small contingent of the Light Horse at the ceremony, Ms Ross reminded almost all the horses that went over to carry the troopers into battle, were shot because the cost of bringing them home: “was more than they were worth.”
The soldiers of course did not agree and the unknown writer was quoted in the Perth Sunday Times on December 28, 1919: “During the war we have at times indulged ourselves with the dream of going home with our horses . . . but it could not be.”