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Researching WW1 diggers and nurses

from Sunshine Coast region of Queensland


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2014 was the centenary year of Australia's first deployment of soldiers to Europe to fight in the First World War.

The purpose of the Adopt a Digger Project is to commemorate the centenary by honouring the men and women from the (current) Sunshine Coast region of South-east Queensland who fought in World War One either with the Army, Navy or Airforce. Criteria for a soldier's inclusion is either that he was born in the district, or his next-of-kin was resident in the district, or he enlisted in the district or he is commemorated on a local honour board or memorial. This same criteria applies to our nurses. Since the inception of the project we have decided to include the settlers who took up land at Beerburrum Soldier Settlement from 1916 as the Settlement is such a significant piece of the region's WW1 history. Our criteria dates are 1914 to 1925.

The aim of this website is to create a database which records each soldier's WW1 military history and a brief personal history. This database will be a valuable source of reference for historians, researchers, descendants and school students, and will be a significant contribution to the social and historical military records of Australia, and particularly the  Sunshine Coast region.

We held an exhibition in April 2015 to commemorate the Anzac Centenary and to remember and honour "our boys".

ernest-millar-A great resource for finding photographs of people and places is through National Library of Australia's new website TROVE.

Whilst randomly searching www.trove.nla.gov.au, "Pictures & photos" I typed in 'Palmwoods'.

There were several photos of places but one came up of one of our diggers ERNEST ALBERT MILLAR, Service No 854. This then took me to the Australian War Memorial Photo Catalogue where the photo was displayed with the following information:



Studio portrait of 854 Private Ernest Albert Millar, D Company, 42nd Battalion, of Palmwoods, Qld. A teamster prior to enlistment, Pte Millar embarked from Sydney, NSW, on board HMAT Borda (A30) on 5 June 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal (L/Cpl) on 2 September 1917 and he was a Lewis gunner for his platoon. He was killed in action on 12 August 1918 during an attack at Proyart, France. L/Col Millar was 21 years of age and he is buried at Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, France.
AWM Ref. cas.awm.gov.au/item/P08978.001

 

So don't be timid about random searching. You never know what you may find. And now Ernest Millar has a photograph on his page!