The Broadmeadow Army Camp is officially opened as the site of the main camp for the reception and training of recruits for the AIF from Victoria.
Pte Frank Kingsley-Norris (Lilydale), 1st Light Horse Field Ambulance: In an excerpt from his auto-biography ‘No Memories for Pain’.
‘From Broadmeadows Station we shambled along in the rain for about a mile and turned into camp. There was only one short metal road in the area, after which we plodded across the sticky black mud to our lines, sited in the most remote corner of the camp. Our bell tents had been erected and, having sorted out our group of ten, we dumped our gear and sat down, sheltered from the rain at last.
There was a trumpet call which someone recognized as ‘cookhouse’ and I picked up my enamel pannikin and eating irons and joined the line. With a generous dollop of stew on my plate, two thick slices of bread and jam and a ladle of tea in my pannikin, I had my first and by no means worst, army meal, sitting in the mud in our tent’.
Douglas Fergus Scott (Mt Evelyn): Leaves his job as a motor mechanic to enlist in the AIF, he is 24 years old.
Arthur Chapman (Wandin): Leaves his job as a clerk to enlist in the AIF, he is 22 years old.
Hugh Wilson (Coldstream): Leaves his job as a blacksmith to enlist in the AIF. He is 25 years old and is the first man from Coldstream to enlist in the AIF.
Henry Hunt (Lilydale): Leaves his job as a grocer to enlist in the AIF, he is 26 years old.
Arthur Sangston (Lilydale): Leaves his job as a mill carter to enlist in the AIF, he is 22 years old.