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Brightly coloured recruitment posters encouraged young women to join up and more than 66,000 of them enlisted in the three services – Army, Navy and Air Force. They made up just under 7% of the nearly 1 million Australians who served. Thousands of young Australian women left home to join the new women’s auxiliary services, the: Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service (RANNS) Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) Source: www.ww2places.qld.gov.au/homefront/women-in-the-war

More than 24,000 women joined the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) after it was founded in 1941 to free up men to join fighting units, marking the first time women were permitted to serve in the military. Women who were British subjects aged between 18 and 40 were eligible to enlist and were paid two-thirds of the equivalent male wage for their service. While it was initially thought women would be confined to roles such as typists and cooks, AWAS members ended up serving in army ordnance, artillery, intelligence and signals corps. They carried out clerical and manual work, maintaining transport and equipment crucial to the war effort and driving everything from cars to amphibious vehicles. In 1945, members of the AWAS became the first women to serve overseas in non-medical roles when a posting of 385 women sailed to New Guinea aboard the MV Duntroon. Source: www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2019/03/12/h...

Coalstoun Lakes National Park Rising 200m above a broad cultivated valley, Mt Le Brun contains two large craters which occasionally fill with shallow lakes. The crater lakes are protected in Coalstoun Lakes National Park. Formed more than 600,000 years ago, the mountain is one of the youngest volcanic formations in Australia. Melaleucas and blue gums fringe the lakes which are sometimes completely dry and covered in sedgelands. The vine scrub covering the crater sides is one of the few dry rainforest remnants in this area. Bottle trees, crows ash, leopard ash, and other trees tower over the dense vine scrub The lakes were named after Coalstoun in Scotland by Wade Brun, manager of nearby Ban Ban Station. Source: driveinland.com.au/biggenden/

Nikenbah is a widespread suburb in Hervey Bay lining the backside of Urraween and Kawungan stretching along Booral road, most popular for the famous Ghost Hill. Over time Nikenbah has had many changes, especially when it comes to its name. Originally known as Aalberg that was named by Danish settlers during the 1800s. It was later changed in 1883 to Nikenbah which means “Emu Place” in the Kabi language of the aboriginal people. Source: www.discoverherveybay.com/nikenbah-queensland/

Cricket Club, not only for the love of sp[ort but a social meeting place, especially for men of past times.