During the First World War, in Melbourne and communities
throughout Victoria, schoolchildren knitted socks for the troops serving in
Gallipoli, the Middle East and on the Western Front. Their families
set up Red Cross branches to support the 91,000 Victorian servicemen and women
overseas.
Victoria at War records the achievements of the states soldiers,
nurses and their families including the Whitelaws from Gippsland with six
sons enlisting, Bert Jacka, the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria
Cross in the First World War, and commander Sir John Monash. Bestselling
military historian Michael McKernan commemorates the generosity, devotion,
sacrifice and spirit of a community pushed towards breaking point through
stories from the home front and battlefront.
