FARMERS WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM Yallaroi and District - ANZAC Day

The release of a beautiful and poignant pictorial history book in honour of the Service Men and Women of Yallaroi and District will be a feature of this year’s ANZAC Day at Yallaroi. The publication, entitled Farmers who Fought for our Freedom, has been compiled from the records, stories and photograph albums held by the families and relatives of the forty-six Men and Women from Yallaroi and District who served in World War I and World War II.

The book acknowledges the sacrifice and courage of the sons and daughters who left their family farms and served their country, and reveals and enshrines their stories. Stories of brothers leaving their father to run the farm in WWI to use their rifle skills and horseback prowess on the battlefields of Beersheba, and other brothers enlisting together in WWII, leaving their widowed mother to lease the farm out until their return. Stories of the sons of neighbours tragically never to return to work their father’s soils, and the dedication of the daughters who served as nurses, caring for the sick and wounded. The book also tells of two generations of the same family serving in WWI and WWII.

- Submitted by Marion Fitzgerald

Since the mid-1800’s the Yallaroi District has held a rich history of agriculture, with dramatic changes in enterprise productivity occurring after twenty-two World War II Returned Servicemen settled there in 1957. Many of the new arrivals had spent years in the malaria-infested jungles of New Guinea, Bougainville, Malaysia and Borneo, some serving in Egypt, some defending Darwin and two held in Prisoner of War Camps. The task that lay ahead of these new settlers, as they took up their farms and became part of the district, bonded them together as comrades and mates, just as they had been as Servicemen. This book recognises the hardy grit our farmers possessed in keeping our country safe during the War years, and their mettle in keeping the farming spirit alive.

Farmers who Fought for our Freedom will be available for purchase at Yallaroi on ANZAC Day, and afterwards at the Warialda Visitor Information Centre. The ANZAC Day Service commences at 8.30am in the Yallaroi Hall, with the Ode and flag raising at the Memorial Rock. Morning tea will follow for which you are kindly asked to bring a plate –the foundations of great country hospitality!