Still Going Strong - The Story of the Moyarra Honor Roll

[ChrisC]

This is a book I picked up while in Melbourne on business. The book, which won last year's State of Victoria local history prize is, in my opinion a masterpiece of its type.

The book deals with the 28 men named on the Honor Roll which is dispayed in the old school house in the remote and tiny Victorian community of Moyarra. Of these 28, 8 men did not return, 1 died 2 weeks after his return and most of the rest were wounded.

Jillian Durance is to be praised for her painstaking work in investigating every one of the men who went to the Great War and painting a wonderful picture, not only of the men themselves but also the society and the time from which they came.

The book, 181 pages including notes is very well written and is an easy read. It is not concerned with grand strategy or even tactical deployments but solely about the 28 men from Australia aged between 18 and 43, who left between 1914 & 1918 to fight for "God King & Country". She makes the names live and has ensured real remembrance for at least one group of "ordinary" men.

I'm no literary expert, but to me it would be hard to better this work in the class it represents - the investigation of the names on the local war memorial.

The book is available from the offices of Information Victoria, 505 Little Collins Street Melbourne at $AU 27.

Chris C