BIG SACRIFICE FROM A SMALL TOWN

Image: First Class steam travel on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

In 1914 settlers at Koo Wee Rup in Victoria were focused on draining the swamp, football and building their fledgling community.

But when war came in August of that year 44 men from this struggling farming community and surrounding districts were amongst the first to volunteer for the Great War. The majority never returned and others were never the same.

Their memory has been honoured by the Koo Wee Rup RSL Sub-Branch with help from a $11,750 grant from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The RSL has installed individual plaques and an honour roll at the Koo Wee Rup Avenue of Honour.

It is just one way these farmers are being remembered. Koo Wee Rup was just one out of hundreds of struggling farming communities that gave of their best men to the Great War.