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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".

You might have noticed that our numbers to be adopted have almost doubled since the beginning of our project in November 2010. A major reason for this is the addition of the settlers from the Beerburrum Soldier Settlement. One of the largest soldier settlement schemes in Australia, about 600 returned servicemen took up land from 1916 and this is a significant part of our region’s war history. It is also the first time that the names of these settlers have ever been categorised.

As the project becomes more well-known in the district and more family members are contacting us wishing to be involved,

I feel it is timely to remind you that anybody can adopt one or more diggers. In particular, if your relative is on our database and has been adopted already, do contact us to see how you can share in the research and possibly take over the adoption yourself if you so wish.