Our Blackboy Hill Site Tour

Last Saturday 9 November, 2013, our troupe of writers and editors braved the threat of bull ants and sunburn and headed out to visit Blackboy Hill following our second project meeting.


Bill Gaynor of the Blackboy Hill Commemorative Site Committee, former President of the WA RSL and headmaster of Greenmount Primary School, met us there well prepared with a wide-brimmed hat (which not all of us remembered...!) and, after the obligatory photo that I forced upon them all - 'Say Blackboy Hill!' - sat us on the Commemorative bench facing the iconic Blackboy Hill ellipses monument.


The tour lasted about 1 hour and took us through a brief history of the site. Bill stressed that it is not to be referred to as a 'War Memorial' but as a 'Commemorative Site' that honours and celebrates the bravery of the 32,000 Anzac soldiers who trained there.


We wandered around the grounds, which is only a portion of the original site. It would have been all state housing if not for the efforts of Bill and others, who lobbied the state to have a section preserved. It is now a heritage-listed place.


There are few remnants left from the training camp, and one of them is the original ablutions block. The slant of the land helped the waste travel down the hill... innovative. And nose-wrinkling.

We were thrilled to discover a plaque for our sentimental favourite VC, among 12 in total who trained at Blackboy Hill, Capt. Hugo Throssell (Katharine Susannah Prichard's husband).

 

It was an inspiring day. Our group left feeling re-invigorated and honoured to tell the tales of this significant site, and preserve

its history for future generations. 

 

 

Welcome to the Blackboy Hill Project!

Select members of the KSP Writers' Centre in Greenmount, WA, and associated organisations have embarked on an ambitious project to commemorate the history of Blackboy Hill. We are working on compiling a book which will be launched on Anzac Day 2015, the centenary of Gallipoli.

Authors and supporters of the project will be posting on this blog, telling tales of their research, sharing photos, links and interesting bits of information found along the way.

Never heard of Blackboy Hill or know very little? This is what we aim to rectify!

BBH in a nutshell and why this project is important:

Blackboy Hill in Greenmount was the birthplace of the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) in Western Australia and approximately 32,000 Western Australian men trained there before heading overseas to fight in World War I. It is now a commemorative site and each year an evening and dawn service are held there for Anzac Day. PUBLISHED MATERIAL ON BLACKBOY HILL IS CURRENTLY MINIMAL and there is NO BOOK dedicated to the history of the site– we would like to rectify this. KSP is proposing that a book be written and launched to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac Day in April 2015. The book will be a compilation of articles, photographs, stories and samples of the soldiers’ poetry, and will ultimately preserve this important period of WA history.

Following the second meeting of the Blackboy Hill Project on Saturday 9 November 2013, the goals and overall vision for the book have been clarified. It will be a COMMEMMORATION of the Australian soldiers of Gallipoli and a detailed social history of the Greenmount training camp, combined with an argument that Blackboy Hill was instrumental in installing the indefatigable strength and spirit of the Anzac soldiers that ultimately won the Great War.

Want to learn more, contribute to or sponsor the project? Please email Shannon at kspf@iinet.net.au .