009703 Accession Number: 009703

Description

Land Girls Army. Men from Australia's rural districts have "joined up for the duration" in such large numbers that the production of the pastoral and farming industries was seriously threatened. Country and city girls have helped to solve the labour problem. This series of photos shows three Melbourne society girls at work on a 2000 acre farm near Stawell, Victoria. They are members of the Land Girls' Army, and they also are serving' for the duration. So adept have they become that their employer wishes it were for longer. 6.30 each morning finds Helen McGregor in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the girls. Before the war it would have found her snugly in bed, looking forward to the early cup of tea that the maid would soon bring her. One of a series of photographs taken on 17 and 18 September 1941 at "Killara", near Stawell, Victoria, by the Department of Information which were later used to promote and recruit for the Australian Women's Land Army (AWLA). Three members of the Country Women's Association Land Army (CWALA), Helen McGregor, Carmen Virgoe and Flora Hendy, were working on the property and were depicted undertaking a variety of manual tasks. The CWALA was formed in June 1940.

Details

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945

Places

• Melbourne
• Stawell