Notes: “The Allies”, said the editor of the Blue Mountains Echo of 13 August 1915, “can make no further progress in the Dardanelles until reinforced with troops. Our own men there are calling for assistance.” One response to the desperate need for reinforcements originated in Gilgandra in October 1915 with 26 men, the brain wave of local plumber WT (Bill) Hitchen, captain of the Gilgandra Rifle Club and his brother Richard. Named The Coo-ee March, it was the first of many privately organised recruiting marches of the time; they gathered recruits as they progressed and became known as snowball marches

The Coo-ees entered Springwood on Monday morning 8 November through the smoke from nearby bushfires and bearing their banner with the motto “First Stop Berlin”, accompanied by an escort of four mounted policemen, a piper playing stirring highland marches, a squad from the Springwood Rifle Club and cheering school children. “Hitchen’s Own” then made camp on the Homedale Estate.

A thousand people from Springwood and surrounds attended the evening open-air concert and recruiting meeting where more young men joined up. A local reporter wrote: “How well Springwood entertained is best told in the words of a lady who helped, ‘It was the biggest wash-up that I ever heard of,’ she said, and that is saying something coming from the sex that reckons life is one wash-up after another.” The next morning at nine o’clock with the piper again in attendance the Coo-ees marched out of town.

The large building on the left is Springwood School of Arts. Beyond that is Edward James Ashcroft's Model Butchery, which he operated 1909-24. The shop was built in 1897 and demolished in 1984.

Format: B&W photograph by Joe Booker

Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons

Repository: Blue Mountains City Library <a href="http://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/library/" rel="nofollow">www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/library/</a>

Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS836