'THE BEST SYSTEM OF TRENCHES IN AUSTRALIA': THE WRITING

Mark Butz  

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‘The best system of trenches in Australia’: World War I training site, Duntroon Trench Warfare and Bombing School, Jerrabomberra Wetlands Nature Reserve, Canberra  Mark Butz   ISBN 978-0-9945748-0-0   Published 2017 by Learnscapes and the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust, Canberra Read more about this book

  

Duntroon Trench Book – background to the writing  The book about the trench system was a natural progression from the discovery, or re-discovery of the Duntroon instructional trench system site.  That arose in 2014 when the Jerrabomberra Wetlands Board of Management wanted to update what was known about the area.  There was a big gap in knowledge about the area’s cultural heritage, so I began a desktop study of available sources.  Sylvia Curley’s memoir of Duntroon and Mugga Mugga talked about military training on Mill Flat during the Great War and about visible remains of trenches.  Pursuing this hint, I found other references to a trench system used to train officers in trench warfare and bombing, to prepare them for the kind of warfare being waged on the Western Front. After some confusion about the location of the trenches, old aerial photographs showed us that the site was on the left bank of the Molonglo, directly opposite Duntroon.  Piece by piece - and with increasing excitement - we unearthed archival records, and a 1920 map that included the label ‘old trenches’, and a series of other references that left no doubt at all.  Most of the site lies within the Jerrabomberra Wetlands Nature Reserve.    It is a rare privilege to discover a story or a place that has been largely lost to memory.  I say largely because I did get to talk to a venerable Canberra resident, Max Hill, who remembers playing in the trenches when he was a child, around 1929-30.  That was another privilege. We now had the location – by that time a fairly rough riverside paddock – but we did not know how the old trenches below ground would relate to the surface features we can see today.  And we did not know whether the trenches would be visible even if we were able to dig down to find them.  Fortunately in mid-2015 we got funding to do some archaeological work with the ANU.  This showed that trench lines are still visible below the surface, and we were able to get a reasonable fix on where the trenches run under today’s surface.  The excavation attracted a lot of attention and interest, including international coverage.   A Heritage Grant through the ACT Government enabled development of public access to the site and interpretation of the system.  The Woodlands & Wetlands Trust then started trench tours, which have proved very popular with visitors keen to share in the excitement of the find.  This has helped to open up a whole new awareness of Jerrabomberra Wetlands, and has brought many new visitors to discover its cultural heritage values.  I like to say of the Wetlands: ‘Before there were birds there were bombs’.   A rich background story emerged from the research to develop the interpretation, and the kinds of questions being asked by participants in tours.  The Governor-General at the time described the Duntroon system as ‘The best system of trenches in Australia’.  We now knew that it certainly was not the only instructional trench system in the nation, we knew what factors made it ‘the best’, and we knew that it appears to be the only remaining trench system site to be publicly accessible.  This information and a new understanding of the significance of the place grew into a small book about the training, the site, and some of the people who had experienced training in the system. This has been a remarkable opportunity.  My background is in environmental science, and despite a lifelong interest in the past I have not delved much into military history.  I have, however, been aware of family members who served in the First World War, and of the grief resulting when some of these young men were killed in service.  I had grown up with these stories of courage and loss, as close to me as my grandmother’s much-loved brother Oscar who died aged 27 at Pozières in 1916.  Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial to the Missing.   So, I felt it was important that the book have a human face, beyond design technicalities and chronology.  I already knew trench warfare was particularly brutal, and exacted a heavy human toll.  I found that about 1000 soldiers would have received training in the Duntroon trench system and that, despite the training, a quarter of them would not have come home and most of those who did return would have been damaged.  The book contains pocket stories of just a handful of these soldiers.  The writing has been intermittent over two years, and  just when we thought the book was ready to go to print (April 2017) a new source was located.  Dene Fry's Wartime letters home and notebook drawings brought a great deal to the book and more than justified the 'stop press' action.     The exciting - and sobering - process to research and write the book has recovered a lost story and has found a new historic site in Canberra, in time to mark the centenary of the trench system.  Released for Remembrance Day 2017, the book is dedicated to soldiers of the AIF who were engaged in trench warfare and to the memory of those who did not return.  Some stories just should not be forgotten.  Mark Butz December 2017

 

Read more about this book   All proceeds from the sale of this publication benefit the work of the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust Available for purchase from this page Read more about making the Trench Trail and about how you can take part in Trench Tours

About the author   Mark Butz trained as an environmental scientist.   He has a particular interest in what we can learn from the past to enhance our understanding of the present and our choices for the future.  This reflects a lifelong interest in history and archaeology, and in the power of story.   He has lived in Canberra since 1980, and now works as a freelance consultant, facilitator and writer.