What The Hills?!

What the Hills is the podcast for the Adelaide Hills. If it's happening in the Adelaide Hills you'll find it here. Subscribe to get each week's episode delivered straight to you. With a new guest each week, we're meeting authors, artists, volunteers, community groups, event organisers, musicians, and interesting people of all kinds. If it's happening in the Adelaide Hills you'll hear it right here. Find us on your social media feeds: Facebook @whatthehillspodcast Instagram what_the_hills Twitter @whatthehillspod

What's her story? Samantha McGrail 05/14/2022

Transcript - What About Something for Mum? 05/07/2022

Transcript - What About Something for Mum? We have a special Mother's Day guest for you this week. I'm talking to Lisa Yates from the Mount Barker Mum's Group on Facebook. We talk about the very beginning of the group, how it's grown over the years, and what it offers to the parents of the Mount Barker district - and much further afield. The group has had a big impact on its members, with support and information being offered on all sorts of topics from nappy rash to surviving the teenage years. So much of an impact that it was recognised in the 2022 Australia Day Awards. And I'd like to say Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums listening, including my own Mum. Have a fantastic day. Voicover: Welcome to what the Hills with a lifetime of living here. We are Adelaide Hills locals just like you. That's why What the Hills is your program for the Adelaide Hills. We focus on the stories from the place where you live. And now here's your host, Kimberley Franklin. Kimberley: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of What The Hills?! It's Mother's Day, so we have a special Mother's Day guest for you this week. I'm talking to Lisa Yates from the Mount Barker Mums Group. On Facebook. We talk about the very beginning of the group, how it's grown over the years, and what it offers to the parents of the Mount Barker district and much further afield, today, The group has had a big impact on its members, with support and information being offered on all sorts of topics, from nappy rash to surviving the teenage years. So much of an impact, in fact, that it was recognized in the 2022 Australia Day Awards. And I'd like to say happy Mother's Day to all the mums listening, including my own mum. Have a fantastic day. Kimberley: Today on What The Hills, I'm talking to Lisa from the Mount Barker Mums Group. Hi, Lisa. Lisa: Hello. Kimberley: How are you going? Lisa: Good, thank you. Kimberley: Great. Before we get started, maybe you should tell us a little bit about yourself. Lisa: I've just turned 42. I've been in the Hills for 40 years. Kimberley: 40 years. Wow. Lisa: I grew up locally, too. My husband grew up in Wistow. So we're very much ingrained in the Hills within the Hills in the community. Kimberley: Okay. So very much locals. Lisa: Yes. Kimberley: And you like living here? Lisa: Yes, we do. Yeah. This is home. It always has been. We left for about four years, but we came back. Kimberley: I think everybody comes back. Lisa: Well there's nowhere else to go for us. Kimberley: That's right. Now we need to talk today about the Mount Barker Mums Group. What is the Mount Barker Mums Group? Apart from the obvious. Lisa: Yeah. So basically we're on Facebook and we're on Instagram now, but only um on Instagram just for the purpose of advertising local businesses. We had a lot of people wanting to come through us to advertise, and we sort of thought a separate space for them would be better. But the Facebook group has been a long process, but it's turned into a beautiful little community support group. And now it's being recognized, which is brilliant. Lovely. Kimberley: So it's a Facebook group. Lisa: It is a Facebook group. Yeah. Kimberley: For mums in Mount Barker for parents. Parents. Now, that was my next question. Who are the members? Lisa: So we're mainly mums and the title is Mount Barker Mums Group. But we do have some dads that have infiltrated Kimberley: well, they do some of the work sometimes Lisa: They do. But the dads that we do have on there are brilliant. And they don't, I guess, inject themselves too much into conversation. They more sort of just watch those are difficult conversations. They sometimes put their words in. But we're mainly mums. Kimberley: And is it just in the township of Mount Barker, or how far afield do you go? Lisa: We've got people actually members from all over the world. Kimberley: All over the world. Lisa: Yeah. Kimberley: How does that happen? Lisa: I know. How does it happen? We actually have had members just move away and it's that simple. They've just moved interstate or overseas and they've just stayed a part of the community because they love it so much. When you apply to become a member, we have got just information saying that we're in Mount Barker in South Australia, because obviously there's a Mount Barker in WA as well. And are you from the general area? Because there are a lot of other mums groups that we sort of don't want to take away from either. Like there's a Strath mums group that is apparently a really good source for the Fleurieu. Oh, there's also a Nairne parenting page, which is really good for that area as well. So we sort of just say you're from the area where you're from, but all through the Hills. I think 80% of our members are through the Hills, and there's that 20% that are sort of in the city or overseas or moved away temporarily. Yeah, that's right. Kimberley: So how did the group get started? Lisa: I started it back in 2013. Kimberley: That long ago. Lisa: Yeah. Kimberley: You're coming up to your 10th. Lisa: I know. Yeah. So it was June, I think, 2013. My nine year old was four months old when I started it. And it was back when Facebook, buy, swap, sell groups were quite big in the Hills. Kimberley: They were. Lisa: Yeah, they were quite popular. So there was a baby and kids page, which I think is still going now. And I noticed that a lot of the mums were asking sort of just generalized questions like what nappies do people buy? And that sort of stuff. And I was sort of within that sort of bubble of motherhood as well. Just being at home with the baby and not really having much social life. Kimberley: It can be limiting. Lisa: Yeah. And I missed out on my CAFHS group because she was um my second, so I wasn't able to go to a CAFHS group. So I did miss that sort of village of being a mum. And with my first, I was a young mum. With my second, I wasn't. So I was a bit more confident. So I just asked a question on that page, does anyone want to hang out? Let's meet up for a coffee and actually have some FaceTime. And there was quite a large response on that page. So someone said, you should probably create a group, and that's exactly where it came from. So I just started a group and it pretty much grew overnight. We grew really quickly. I think within the first two months it was over 1000 members. Like, it grew really, really quickly. So I chucked it on secret for a little while because it just got too big and I couldn't find anyone to help me run it. There was a few mums that sort of put the hand up, but it was taking up a lot of time. Kimberley: It does. The bigger it gets, the more admin power you need. Lisa: So we actually run nine admin now. Kimberley: Wow. Lisa: For four and a half or almost actually 5000 members we've got now, it doesn't sound a lot compared to other local pages because I know they're almost around 20,000, but we also have I think it's about 48 we've got now, but four and a half um thousand of those members are interactive. Kimberley: Okay. Lisa: So they're all really present, whereas with other local groups they probably have run at about 60% active. So while they have the members, they don't have the interaction or the comments. I think I looked at January stats and in the space of um 28 days, we had something like 600 posts and almost 7000 comments. And we're just mums. This isn't our job. It's our volunteered hours. So we obviously can't monitor every single comment. That would just be ridiculous to expect us to monitor every single comment that comes through. So we do rely a lot on the mums to sort of regulate themselves or kind of flag things and go, hey, this isn't right. Look, over the years, it actually rarely happens. Now. I think we've sort of grown a culture that the mums kind of know what spaces they can sort of say things and what's a bit too far. We keep to the boundaries of this is our boundaries. We can't sort of go anywhere else. Kimberley: No, that's fair enough, too. You've got enough to talk about. So the journey for the group must have been an interesting one for you. You started when your daughter was four months old. She's nine now. Lisa: Yes. Kimberley: How has it grown and how has it been part of your life as it's grown and changed? Lisa: Yeah. So personally, I've met some just phenomenal women through our group, and they're people that I wouldn't have probably been friends with any other way but through the group. And that happened for me really early on. And I've actually still got some very close friends that we've helped raise each other's kids, and that was exactly what I wanted out of the group. But I also wanted that for other people as well. So very early on. and now I love it when people make posts and say, let's meet up or let's create our own little mother's group of 5, 10, 200, because it's those little groups that really do give you that village feel that you've got a group of friends that you can move about in. And that's really special. And at the core of it, I think that's all I really wanted for the group creating it was just to see those little friendship groups pop up. Amazing. That's why I put in hours and that's why I've put in my daughter's whole life. Just give me a second, Mommy's just got to check her messages, things like that. Mummy is just helping um another mummy because I do get um a lot of mums messaging, me saying, what do I do in this situation? Or what do I do in that situation or Help! This has just happened to me. Can I ask this question? There is a lot of contact with the mums and it does come with a sacrifice. I've had to put things off because of the group. I've had to miss out on things because of the group. And that's what you do. Kimberley: I guess whether we do it on purpose or by accident, it sounds like you did a little bit. We all commit to a volunteer role somewhere and that means that, yes, we have committed to it. And there are things, like you said, that you need to put off or miss out on. And if that's the vacuuming, who cares? Lisa: That's right. And also I've had plenty of opportunity to pass the group on as well, just to say I've had enough, you guys can look after it now. But also I haven't wanted to handle that burden to anybody else. I created this. So the good and the bad, I want to be responsible for that because there are more involved admin than other. And I don't want the more involved admin to have the burden of putting the hours in that I would have been doing. So I guess that's part of my motivation. And still running it and still putting it in as much as I do. Kimberley: Sounds like it's a really social group where, as you said, people can say, we want to start a group or does anybody want to catch up for coffee or play dates for kids, that sort of thing. Have you found that's been one of the main things for the group? Lisa: I think so, up until about two years ago. So when the pandemic started, there was quite regular meetups and it was good for mental health of our mums to have that face to face contact. And that was really one of our main motivations. Kimberley: And the thing that gets you out of the house, actually, because otherwise if you don't have someone saying, we're having coffee at eleven, yeah, you could be stuck in the house. Lisa: You and I know how important that is just to have that contact of somebody else, especially if your partner is away daily or even weekly like mine is. And you might not have um spoken to an adult in person for a couple of days. Kimberley: It's not about the caffeine. Lisa: That's right. No, it's not. It's really important. And then unfortunately, pandemic came here and we again became an important resource because we were just some contact. So there was a lot of, especially at the beginning and up until quite recently, actually, there's a lot of confusion everywhere about rules and regulations and things like that. So we've had to be very careful because we're not a health source. So as much as we do want to have posts up about certain things to do with covid and all that sort of stuff, we have to deny some and say, you have to actually ask the health authorities about this. Kimberley: Refer to SA Health 100%. Lisa: Because we can't have conspiracy theory. Kimberley: No. They don't help at all. Lisa: No. And we can't have people go, I think it's this, but I'm really not sure there are some situations where they do actually have to have proper information and it's dangerous for us to provide a platform for people to sort of give out um not very good advice. Kimberley: So was that a really busy time? Well, has the last two years been a really busy time for the admin, keeping a handle on that? Lisa: Yeah, absolutely. And it's been confusing for us as well because there are so many different rules and regulations to do with covid. So we even don't know a lot of the things. And we try and keep our finger on the pulse of it. And there are, like I said, there's nine of us. So we all sort of have um a bit of input with what's going on. We update each other. I think there was a Press conference today. I noticed that admin were chatting and saying, oh, they're saying this now. They're saying that now. And it's not because we're interested or we want to have this conversation. It's because if somebody wants to post to the group and say what's happening here or what's happening there, we can actually just message them and say, look, you need to contact this resource or we can't really have a discussion about this because it could get into dangerous territory, especially with people's health. That's something that you can't really play around with. Kimberley: No. Lisa: Which is quite dangerous on mums groups especially. We have to be careful with health advice, even with things like temperatures and any medical advice. Kimberley: How much Panadol to give? Lisa: That's right. Kimberley: What brand, how high is the fever? What do we do about nappy rash? Lisa: Yeah, that's right. And people can say what works for them, uh but what works for them and their family will not translate to working for other people and other people's family. So, yeah, we have to be really careful. So anything to do with health advice or medical advice, we do refer. Kimberley: Okay. Lisa: Um or we allow and just kind of have a bit of a warning. Just be careful not to offer too much medical advice or call this number if you have any questions or things like that. Because another thing that we do like, is when people do ask questions, feel a bit funny about it. So we kind of just want, I guess everybody to know that whatever you're going through, whether it's mental health, medical, family situations, anything like um that, there's almost 5000 mums out there. Kimberley: We've all done that. Lisa: Chances are that someone's either been there, done that, or they're going through it right now and they're thanking their lucky stars that somebody have the guts to post on a community page or parenting forum so they can actually go, okay, I need to go here or that's really good advice, or that makes me feel better because somebody else is going. Kimberley: So you're not the only one reading the answers to your question. There's other parents out there who are saying, oh, thank goodness they asked that, because I really wanted to know. Lisa: And we actually have a reach thing. So each question asked, we have a little number off to the side. And generally each question that's asked on the page gets a couple of thousand reaches, which means that a couple of thousand people have seen your posts. So that's not even interactions. it's how many people have read it, have stopped, have clicked into it or read it. So each post does get quite a lot of reaches. And that doesn't mean that people are ignoring you. It just means people are interested to see what the answer. Yes, that's right. Kimberley: Along with the social, there's all the support that parents get, like you said, from knowing that someone else has gone through this before or someone else is going through it right now, is that something that you find happens a lot in the group? Lisa: It does. And about three or four years ago, we um actually had quite a few local professionals realize that we were there and whether or not they were wanting to use us as a resource as well. But I do notice that there's quite a few local professionals, like counselors or real estate agents or lawyers or whatever it is. They either put their information on a post or they'll just say, that doesn't sound right, let's have a chat. Or in the case of a lawyer, someone will say, no, this isn't correct. And here's another resource for you to go to. So we do actually have quite a lot of support within our membership. It's not so much admin anymore. It's more than members, supporting members, which is that's fantastic. Kimberley: Yeah. Really good to see. And good to see people who, like you said, lawyers, real estate agents, counselors, that sort of thing, who can pick up on a question and say, well, actually, I actually do know something about that. And I'll message you. Speaker UNK: Yes. Kimberley: And make sure that things are going okay for you. Lisa: Yeah, that's right. We're really actually quite lucky that I guess there's this stigma around mother's groups in particular and parenting groups. And I do understand why a couple of years ago, I joined probably ten or 15 worldwide and Australia wide parenting groups and mothers groups in particular. And some of them are like the Wild West, honestly. They shoot each other down. And I learned a lot from these groups. What not to do 100%, but what to do as well what works for those groups. I've also implemented into the mum's group with our twist on it as well. I think having that stigma around mum's groups can kind of harm us as well, because there is a bit of like, oh, they're so judgmental. I've never been a part of mums groups, blah, blah, blah. And I know there are quite a few mums in the Hills that do have that feeling because I have had negative experiences in these other groups. And I'm not going to say we're different, but we have some, I guess, more control over. What we always say to our members is that the Hills is a small community. As big as it's got, it is still a small community. And if you're rude to this member on our Facebook group, chances are you're going to see them down at Coles doing the shopping or you're going to see them at the next parenting group or you're going to see them at school pick up. Because as much as the population has grown, people still know people who know people. Kimberley: We do. Lisa: And I guess that kind of brings down that whole anomaly of Facebook in particular. People feel like they can sort of comment whatever. They can comment behind their screen. They kind of can't do that in our group. Kimberley: They can't hide. Lisa: They can't hide from their opinions. So you better make sure that your opinion is a nice one or at least supportive and true, at least supportive. Yeah. And that's really what we ask for as admin. Even if you disagree with them, just say, Look, I don't agree, but we're still friends. You don't have to be rude if you don't agree with what somebody is saying. And that's being an adult and we're all adults on the page, there's no kids on there. So, yeah, that's pretty much what we've tried to sort of encourage in our group and the culture of our group. So whether or not we pull it off is another thing entirely. We'll leave that to the members out of our hands. Kimberley: All right, time to get into some nitty gritty. Got any stories to share about things that have happened in the group? Lisa: We have helped a lot of mums at a stage in their life where um something incredibly tragic has happened in losing a child or losing, a baby, being pregnant. So those moments are probably one of the most meaningful because at times,... /episode/index/show/what-the-hills/id/23038364

What about something for Mums 05/07/2022

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What's going on at St Andrew's? 05/04/2022

What's her story? Rebekha Sharkie 04/30/2022

What Happened to Charlie? (Transcript) 04/23/2022

What Happened to Charlie? (Transcript) This week on What The Hills we present a special Anzac program. For me as a kid growing up in a service family I've seen Anzac day dawn services all over the country. At military bases, in major cities, in tiny country towns, and at the beach. I've seen the popularity of attending the services swell leading up to the centenary of the 1915 landing at Gallipoli, and it's been heartening to see so many young people attending, either with their families or independently. This year, I have a story to share with you. Over the past few years I've been slowly researching the history of my great great uncle Charlie: Charles Roy Stanbridge. Along the way I've learned about not only Charlie, but his group of mates, named in the newspapers of the time as the Gallipoli Die-Hards. We all have a story of a service person in the family. Whether it's as old as that of Charlie and his mates, or it's someone serving today, all the stories deserve to be told, and to be heard. Charles Roy Stanbridge was born on 1 December 1894 to Charles and Mary Ann Stanbridge of Wolfram Street Broken Hill. He had a lot of siblings including his brother George and sisters Florrie, Una, Nina, Gertie, Chrissy and Ivy. Dad, Charles senior was into a lot of sports, was a member of local community groups, and ran a bit of slightly illegal bookmaking on the side. Mum Mary Ann was busy wrangling all her offspring - and they were an energetic lot. The Stanbridge kids were active in school, in sport and at church. When Charlie was six years old there was a fire in the kitchen out the back of the house, but the neighbours quickly brought it under control before too much damage was done to the house. The family's financial situation made repairs difficult, but somehow they managed. Charlie attended Broken Hill District School, and was an average student. In fact it's probably fair to say that academic pursuits weren't of much interest to him. Charlie's siblings were also into sports, and his sister Nina was a member of the Bonnie Thistles hockey team which was the centre of a vicious on-field brawl against a visiting team, with the story making it into the local paper. By the time he was ten years old Charlie was well into sports, following his father's footsteps into any sport around. He joined the army cadets, and also at the age of ten was entering shooting competitions. By the time Charlie was sixteen his sisters had begun to marry and move on to their own lives, although young Nina went on to a long career as a nurse. When Charlie finished school he went to work at Humphries & Sons and then at Tregoning's, working in the warehouse and driving a horse & cart. On the 18th of August 1914 the call went out in the local newspaper, the Barrier Miner, that local men should be ready to undertake a medical and travel by overnight train to Morphettville for enlistment. On 20 August Charlie was one of hundreds of men who answered the call and showed up to be given a medical check. The story from the Barrier Miner, 21 August 1914 describes the scenes in Broken Hill that night. BROKEN HILL MEN FOR ACTIVE SERVICE.LAST NIGHT'S LEAVETAKING. ENTHUSIASTIC SEND-OFF TO EIGHTY MEN. At 6.25 last night Sergeant Major Hansom ordered his squad to attention, and Broken Hill's volunteers for the Australian expeditionary force were on active service. Prior to this the local military authorities had been busy throughout the day examining and making final selection of the men who were to leave by the express the same night. The A.M.C and Engineers contingents were drafted without much difficulty; it was known that 20 of the former and 43 of the latter were to go, and these were rapidly selected from the large number of volunteers who had enlisted in response to the call to arms. A little after 6 o'clock the Engineers' drill hall in Crystal-street presented a busy appearance as Sergeant major Ransom lined up his 43 men and gave them a few preliminary instructions. He paraded the squad, about 10 of whom were in uniforms, in two lines, and earnestly appealed to them to "play the game" on the journey down and not get up to any pranks or rough horseplay which would annoy other passengers on the train and give the squad a bad name right at the very outset of its active career. He then initiated the men into the mysteries of "form fours, "stand at ease," "attention," and other simple orders, all of which, within a few minutes, the men were able to perform rapidly and correctly. A short spell at "ease," and then came the first active service order :"Squad, 'shun Right turn. March! "The kettle-drums provided a smart beat and the men squared their shoulders and marched away four abreast via Sulphide-street and Argent-street to Oxide-street, where they halted and stood at ease in front of the entrance to the Skating Rink. In front of the Skating Rink a band formed of instrumentalists from the Broken Hill, Broken Hill City, and the Salvation Army bands, took the lead. A huge crowd of people was assembled here, but there was no demonstration as the volunteers once more put their best feet foremost and commenced the march to the station. Just after rounding into Argent-street, however, there was a loud cheer, which was repeated again and again before the men got to Sulphide-street, while there were frequent calls from the spectators, who recognised friends among the men, of "Good luck, lad," "Good-bye, Jack," At the railway station an immense crowd of thousands of people had assembled to witness the departure of the troops. So congested with people was the platform and all the approaches thereto, that it was with difficulty that the men got through the booking hall and across the intervening space to the train. There was some minutes to spare before the departure of the express, during which goodbyes were uttered; not entirely without wet eyes, pathetic speeches, and clinging embraces, though these were few and far between. On the whole the last words of farewell were cheery and lively. Here and there women, some with babies, in arms, struggled through the tightly packed crowd towards friend or relative among the departees, while some sought in vain for those whom they wished to see but who were hidden from view among the crowds in the carriages or on the platform. Those of the volunteers who could get to the windows or on the end platforms of the carriages talked with friends or joined in the singing of popular songs. Just before the whistle went for the train to draw out, the scene became still more wildly enthusiastic. Cheers mingled with the calling out of goodbyes and the names of friends. A great cheer from thousands of throats rent the air, and a forest of hats and handkerchiefs waved farewell. The demonstration continued until the last carriage had crossed over Bromide-street. The total number of the troops who left last night was 77, making 123 who have so far departed. From the Barrier Miner 21 August 1914 Charlie's family were among those lining the streets and the train platform that night. I can imagine that with three of his fond sisters to see him off, as well as his parents and brother, Charlie wouldn't have been able to get away without quite a few hugs and kisses and maybe a few tears. Charlie was in good company though. He was surrounded by his mates. Local lads who he'd grown up with, and who would now venture into the unknown at his side. Some of the names heard again and again alongside Charlie Stanbridge are Jacky Meade, Curly Richards, Doc White, and Sandy Glades. When they got to Morphettville they met up with Jack Macarty, who had spent some time in Broken Hill, and was soon part of the group. The day after boarding the train, the young men arrived in Adelaide and marched from the train station to the camp at Morphettville. Charlie was assigned the serial number 297 and the rank of Private in H company, part of the 10th Battalion, 3rd Brigade. You'd think that all the bustle of new men arriving every day to be processed, enlisted, supplied, trained, and prepared would be enough going on, but thousands of people visited the camp every day to see what was happening. Even the Governor visited on 1 September. Some time during all of this busyness, Charlie found time to have a studio portrait taken in his new uniform. It shows him so young, not yet twenty years old. He was tall and fit and proud to be doing something for king and country. He sent the picture home to his mother. Three of Charlie's older sisters lived in Adelaide, and it's a good bet that they were among the visitors to the Morphettville camp as well. I wonder, did they bring some comforts of home, maybe a cake to share with his friends? Did they take him out for a meal? Were they proud to see him in his uniform? What did they say to him during that long goodbye? On the 20th of October 1914 Charlie and his mates boarded the Ascanius at Outer Harbour. They sailed at 4.30pm, with a total of 1004 on board, made up of 31 officers, 969 men, two sister nurses, 1 YMCA representative, and somehow one man more than they had expected. I'm a little curious about this extra individual who was noticed when they counted heads. A photo taken in the camp once they arrived in Egypt shows that someone managed to get a kangaroo on board. Five days later, after a very pleasant voyage, they arrived at Fremantle at 8am on a Sunday morning. They stayed in Fremantle for a few days. During this time two more nurses and two chaplains joined the ship The Governor, Major General Sir Harry Barron and Lady Barron came on board to visit for a couple of hours, and enjoyed lunch with the officers. On the first of November they set sail for Egypt. Just over a week later the wireless operator intercepted a message from Cocos Island - an SOS to say that the Australian Navy Ship HMAS Sydney was in trouble. The Ascanius at once steamed to the rescue. Four hours later another message was received "The Emden is beached and done for". This was received with great enthusiasm and cheering from all on board. The Ascanius resumed its journey northward. Captain Müller of the Emden had taken his ship to raid the Cocos Islands, where he landed a contingent of sailors to destroy British facilities. There, Emden was attacked by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914. The more powerful Australian ship quickly inflicted serious damage and forced Müller to run his ship aground to avoid sinking. Out of a crew of 376, 133 were killed in the battle. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner. On the 21st of November, in the early hours of the morning, those on board had a rude awakening when the Ascanius collided with the troop ship "Shropshire". The collision alarm was sounded, and everyone reported to the top decks with their life belts. The officers had loaded revolvers in hand. Soon they were instructed to move to the boat deck in case they needed to evacuate, which they did in complete silence, staying there until 5.30am. An inspection showed that the damage was above the waterline, and the sea was calm, so everyone returned to their normal duties while repairs were carried out. Finally, on the 6th of December, five days after Charlie's 20th birthday, and more than five weeks after they left Adelaide they arrived at Alexandria in Egypt at 4pm. They immediately began unloading the ship. The next day they disembarked and boarded an electric train for Cairo. The company finally reached the training camp at Mena at about 4am. From then on it was training day after day as they waited for word on when their active service would commence. They learned and improved all the expected skills needed, including marching, setting up camp, digging trenches I have a photo of Charlie and a lot of other young soldiers posing in front of the Sphinx. Imagine the culture shock of these young men, who travelled from their homes and jobs and families, joined the army, sailed across the world for weeks on end, and found themselves in the middle of Egypt, within sight of the pyramids. And the great unknown of war ahead of them. Christmas day was celebrated in camp. And boys will be boys - In February of 1915 Charlie, along with his friend George "Curley" Richards, was AWOL from night parade and confined to barracks for 4 days. Whatever they were doing that night proved to be their last hurrah before history overcame them. Many of the men were becoming very aware of what they were about to face. They wrote up hurried, and usually very short, wills with instructions for what was to be done with their worldly possessions. On the 28th of February 1915 new orders came in. The company left Mena by road and marched to Cairo. From there they travelled to Alexandria where they boarded the "Ionian" at 8am on Monday 1st March. The next day they left Alexandria and sailed to Lemnos. From there they expected to leave for the Dardanelles within a few weeks. During the afternoon of the 24th of April they arrived near what is now called Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We all know what happened before the sun rose that morning. Australian troops landed on the beach, facing an almost impossible struggle to establish and defend a position inland. A letter published in the Advertiser on 15 July 1915 tells the story of the landing at Gallipoli, from the point of view of Charlie's mate Jack McCarthy. LETTERS FROM THE FRONTHOW PRIVATE STANBRIDGE DIED. "Just a short note to let you know how Charlie Stanbridge met his death. As you know, we had to land on Gallipoli Peninsula against an enemy strongly entrenched. The 10th landed first, being the covering party. We landed early in the morning with machine gun fire and shrapnel shell flying about us everywhere. We lost heavily, but we pushed the enemy back with the bayonet about one and a half miles. They were then too strongly entrenched for us. We were on open country, and had to dig ourselves in under heavy artillery, machine gun, and rifle fire. Several of our chaps went under. You know, I expect, by now who suffered. We are not allowed to give particulars. Just a few of us shifted back hundreds of our enemy. Poor Charlie was right up in the front line. He got hit through the head, dying instantly. He was a game boy and died doing his duty for his country. No man can do more. He always played the game and was every inch a soldier and a man. No one can realise what we have gone through. Australian people were always giving us (in Broken Hill) a bad name. I would like some of our critics to be here and see what we are doing. The Australians are the bravest lot of men that ever one would wish to meet. They have no fear of death: in fact, they do not know what death means. They will go anywhere. This game is good, but I think the next army I join will be the Salvation Army. We are right on a sea frontage, but do not have a swim very often. My boots have not been off for two weeks, but we don't mind as long as we beat these black devils."Advertiser 15 July 1915 But the story doesn't stop with Charlie's death. He was survived by some of his friends. Another letter from Jack McCarthy was published in the Barrier miner on 18 May 1915 We have been in the trenches three weeks. It is our home now: we never leave, them. It is a strange life, but we are quite used to it now. We make our trenches as comfortable as possible. We get splendid food, tea three times a day, and are as happy as Australians always are. Shrapnel is bursting around us all day, and the Turkish snipers are always busy. We fought against fearful odds; we were in the open country, and at the mercy of the enemy's artillery. If we could have entrenched ourselves we would have been all right, but we had to lie down flat. If we raised our heads it was good-bye. It was two days before I was under cover. We landed at 3o'clock Sunday morning, and it was Wednesday night before we got relief. I had only one bottle of water and one tin of beef the whole time. We were always thirsty, but never hungry. We were being attacked the whole time. No sleep, only watching and waiting for the Turks to rush us. We were all exhausted, and had to be taken out of the trenches. Our minds seemed dazed, and it was a week before we got over it. We had a splendid lot of officers at our head. No one will ever know what good work they did. There were only 57 men in our line of trenches, and we kept hundreds of Turks at bay. We mowed them down as quickly as they came up. The only orders we received were "Hang on, hang on; these trenches hare got to be held while there is a man left." We landed first, and pushed the Turks in about a mile. Our work was to keep them back while the rest of the Australians landed. If they broke through our lines we would have all been swept into the sea. . It would have been good-bye to all of us then. The Turks, though they said in their paper they had us, we had them surrounded, and are slaughtering them in hundreds. They said "the Australians know they are doomed, but are too stubborn to give in. We are now giving the Turks all they want - we are getting our own back; they will know pretty soon whether we are beaten or not. We have our artillery landed, so that they get plenty of shrapnel now. They are lying all over the country in front of us, and I can assure you the dead bodies don't smell too pleasant. Now and again our men sneak out and bury them, but very few in front of the firing line are buried here. I have not changed my clothes for three weeks; sometimes I think I am lousey, other times I am sure of it. We manage to wash once a week. If we go into the sea for a bathe they shell us, so we remain dirty. Captain Shaw is our commander. He is one of the gamest officers we have struck. We will follow him wherever he leads us. I suppose the Australian papers hare twisted a bit now, and instead of running us down are giving us a little praise. I would like some of those wowsers and long tongues who were continually running us down to have been with us the first week on the Turkish soil. They would have seen then what sort of stuff Australians are. We never once retreated. The Turks were given to understand that we were a lot of wasters, and they were going, to wipe us off the face of the earth. Poor Jack Turk got the shock 'of his life when we started on them. If we had more men with us I think the Turks would have been in Constantinople by now. We were only a handful, and they were in hundreds, or I should say thousands. This may be my last letter. We cannot get paper, and are only allowed two cards a week. We are right in the wilder- ness, amongst scrub: not bad country, but a little too Turkish: I feel splendid ; was never better in my life, and I am only waiting my chance to get right I in amongst these Turks again. God help them when we get loose amongst them again; we have got to avenge our dead comrades. We will all be glad when we are home again. Tell Frank to dig me a trench in the backyard. I will never be able to sleep on a bed again. You would laugh if you could see us cooking. We get onions and potatoes. I was cook, and got the sack first day. They said I could not boil eggs without burning them. Our officers will not let us send much news. We get no news of the world what-ever; we don't know anything about the war; we seldom get a paper. I would he glad if you would save the papers, so if I am... /episode/index/show/what-the-hills/id/22884806