Unseasonably Warm Autumn
With the temperatures in the next few days to climb into the 30s, you could be forgiven for thinking that not only did the clocks get wound back over the Easter weekend, so may have the season. Even the trees seem a little confused with those that line the streets of Gunning which usually wear a deep burgundy autumnal blaze only showing very early sings of the colour change.
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With the nights remaining very mild, few fires have been lit making the days very dry and clear. Is it ‘climate change’ or just a freak of the weather? The arrival of Anzac Day is often the start of the shift to true winter. All would be forgiven if some rain arrived to dampen the dust and dryness.
- Has autumn come to your street yet? If so, send us a photo of trees on the turn. Just click here.
Mobile Reception a Community Issue
Gunning is close to the Hume Highway with a significant local population. Having limited reception on any of the major mobile networks seems unbelievable. Having to walk about the main street to get additional reception seems even more difficult to accept.
Business owners located in the older shop fronts often have no reception in the majority of their premises with phones or mobile devices being left in an exact location to even work.
It might be easy to dismiss this as being an attribute of some local environmental factor. Not so, as most locations in the village struggle to get more than 2 bars of reception with sending and receiving emails a difficult process. Being 70 kilometres from Canberra and on the Hume Highway, this situation needs urgent review.
At This Time in the Great War
With Anzac Day looming, it is timely to reflect on the Great War and the home front.
On the front, the season was spring. The Germans had just launched the second phase of the offensive “Operation Georgette”. The Battle of the Lys begun on April 9 and the fighting would continue in various battles in April. The offensive quickly took British held positions on both sides of the Lys River in Flanders. Early in the offensive the situation was serious for the Allies forcing a tactical withdrawal back to positions more easily defended giving up gains from 1917. As the end of April approached, the Allies held their ground and the offensive was blocked.
The Goulburn Evening Penny Post of Tuesday, April 9, 1918 has an article entitled “Provision for Returned Soldiers” which set out new terms of repatriation for returning soldiers stating their entitlements, to take effect the following Monday.
It was a situation loved ones and returning soldiers in Gunning, Dalton, Collector, Breadalbane and Jerrawa struggled with after the fervour of the Kangaroo March recruitments. They faced a coming winter of limited support often with physical and emotional scars.
The papers in the following days in 1918 also held notices of a recruitment drive urging mates to join up. The Great War was still not won but the high costs were already being paid.
