Fromelles, finally
Sunday 6 October, 2024. I'm standing on a dirt track running between two paddocks. From my years farming, this situation is a familiar one to me and the freshly harrowed ground is rich black soil. Good farming country, I think. But what I have come to look at is the far view across the paddock, to the village of Fromelles, rising on a gentle slope about 400m away. I move away from the tour group - I want to be with my own thoughts. Fromelles. A place which has lived strongly in my imagination for the past eight years. I remember the day vividly. A hot February day in 2016, the first meeting for the year of the Canowindra Historical Society. I'm the society's president, and this is our planning meeting for the year ahead. Our resident honorary historian, Dorothy Balcomb, asks the meeting : "What are we going to do to commemorate the centenary of Fromelles?" I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. "What's Fromelles?", I asked, voicing the...