Remembrance Day: Rockingham Museum opens special display of World War I including stories of local heroes

The Rockingham Museum will mark Remembrance Day this year with a special display that explores World War I from its prelude to the repatriation of Australian soldiers. Opening this weekend and continuing until November 18, the display offers an insight into how those who went to war were recruited, information about the key battlefields, supporting hospitals and nurses, and details about the local men who signed up to fight for their country. Of the 14 known locals who were sent to Europe, four — Robert Dimond Barter, Frederick William Evans, Raymond John Hanretty and William Ernest Mead — did not return. The district has further connection to the Great War as a place where soldiers camped before their deployment, roughly between where Wellard Road and Anketell Road are now. Nearby radar detection huts on the south side of Wellard Road were associated with this army camp and it is believed the place was a campsite for the military personnel who operated the radar surveillance site. Riflemen made use of the bare sandhills around Warnbro Sound as a practice ground, with unexploded shells discovered there up until the 1980s. The 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment, the only light horse regiment recruited in WA during WWI, camped in the area and made use of the vast space for their horses. Remembrance Day is observed on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice of 1918 which ended World War I. Rockingham Museum, at the corner of Kent Street and Flinders Lane, is open Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 1pm to 4pm.