About the 'Blackboy Hill is Calling' Book

'Blackboy Hill is Calling'


Select members of the KSP Writers' Centre in Greenmount, together with a volunteer support group of researchers and historians, and a group of year seven students at Greenmount Primary School, have embarked on an ambitious project to commemorate the history of nearby WWI military training camp, Blackboy Hill. We have recently confirmed funding from Lotterywest to proceed with publication of the book for the 2015 Anzac Centenary.


The finished book on Blackboy Hill will offer a lively snapshot of camp life during the years 1914 - 1918, and will contain photographs, soldier profiles, and insightful social history stories. 

In 1914, when the War broke, Australians were called to fight and the Blackboy Hill Military Training Camp was born. Soldiers were called to enlist - and this 'calling' could be heard throughout Western Australia. Women, shopkeepers, entertainers, the press; all patting our boys on the backs for their bravery: the call was strong.

Today, the call to remember the War and our soldiers is just as strong. An evening and dawn Anzac service is held at this official commemorative site every year, to allow reflection on those devastating years, and to honour the fallen.

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

WHY THIS PROJECT IS IMPORTANT

Blackboy Hill in Greenmount was the birthplace of the Australian Imperial Force in Western Australia and approximately 32,000 Western Australian men trained there before heading overseas to fight in World War I.

The history of the camp is now in danger of being lost. PUBLISHED MATERIAL ON BLACKBOY HILL IS CURRENTLY MINIMAL and there is NO BOOK dedicated to the history of the site– we aim to change this and preserve this important period of WA history.

This book, to be launched early in 2015, the Centenary of Gallipoli, will be a commemoration of those Australian soldiers and a detailed social history of the Greenmount training camp. It will argue that Blackboy Hill training was instrumental in installing the indefatigable strength and spirit of the Anzac soldiers that ultimately won the Great War.

Topics we will cover include:

-          Early history prior to the camp  - (Aboriginal history and colonial years 1829-1914)
-          Outbreak of WWI and establishing the camp
-          The first recruits – the 11^th Battalion
-          ‘You’ll be sorry, mate’ – (the next recruits and reinforcements)
-          Drills and marching – (training the men)
-          ‘Bloody stew’ – (feeding the men of the camp)
-          Training the medical corps
-          Social life
-          The YMCA Social Centre
-          Letters home
-          Portraits – stories about selected soldiers, including VC winners, John Simpson Kirkpatrick  and other ‘personalities’
-          Hugo Throssell – a Gallipoli VC and husband of Katharine Susannah Prichard
-          The poets, painters and writers
-          The last recruits
-      The women of Blackboy
-      Conscription and changing attitudes to war
-          Amusing or unresolved incidents – (there are many of these)
-          Camp Souvenir and Christmas Book 1915
-          The Camp Chronicle – the soldiers’ newspaper produced weekly at the camp

Want to learn more, contribute to or sponsor the project?
Would you like to be added to the Blackboy Hill Project mailing list?

Please email Shannon at kspf@iinet.net.au  or visit the KSP Writers' Centre website (the link is on the right) and look under 'Blackboy Hill Book Project'.