Clarke, Patricia & Niki Francis
‘Canberra women in World War I: community at home, nurses abroad‘, Women Australia, December 2015
An essay about the role played in the Great War by the women of Canberra – the town was one year old when the war began – as nurses (lots of material on this), mothers and sisters and beloveds of soldiers, community organisers (difficult in an area that was still quite remote and mostly rural) and campaigners for (and against) conscription. The article also mentions Indigenous women of the district and interned women. There are some familiar Canberra surnames here and there, plus a mention of Miles Franklin and her war work, which Diane Bell recently wrote about in Honest History.
The essay has lots of notes and links to photographs, archival references, and short biographies of the women mentioned. The work was supported by the National Foundation for Australian Women, the University of Melbourne and the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program and was published by the Australian Women’s Archives Project.
