Wagga’s spectacular Kangaroo March banner is one of just three known World War I recruitment banners held in museum collections. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
“It really was a kind of a Holy Grail moment,” said curator Michelle Maddison as she reflected on the day a priceless local artefact arrived at the Museum of the Riverina.
“I mean, you just don’t know what people have stored away in their attics!”
When a local walked into the museum carrying a length of PVC pipe and asked Michelle to take a guess at what they had inside, her curatorial spider senses started tingling.
“I looked at it, and I said, ‘It’s not the Kangaroo March banner is it?’, which actually shocked them as much as me because it just popped into my head,” she laughed.
“During the centenary of World War I it was something that we were looking for … so when it turned up, it was just one of those incredible days that was just so exciting!”
The item in question is the remarkably well preserved Kangaroo March banner that was carried on the famous recruitment drive from Wagga to Sydney in the December heat of 1915.
The hand-painted swallow-tailed banner was placed on display at the museum ahead of Anzac Day this year and is one of only three known World War I recruitment banners held in museum collections.
“The Kangaroos just became such an iconic piece of our history,” Michelle explained.
“And it’s not just a banner, it’s really the stories of these men that marched that are woven into the story of Wagga.”
The Kangaroo March was one of many held across Australia to boost flagging enlistment numbers in the face of the horrific death toll from the Gallipoli campaign.
So-called snowball marches involved a troop of local enlisted men making their way from their home towns to major recruitment hubs in Melbourne or Sydney and picking up volunteers along the way.
The ‘Men of the Riverina’ marching in their locally issued dungarees and white hats. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
An account from The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) of 2 December 1915 boasted that “The men from the Riverina, The Kangaroos” would start off “100 strong”.
The day became an unofficial holiday as thousands flooded into town where “Wagga’s main thoroughfares, Bayliss [sic] and Fitzmaurice streets, were lavishly decorated with bunting, festoons of laurel leaves, and the flags of the allies, the Australian flag being very much in evidence”.
The Wagga Recruiting Association’s Major Heath declared that this “would be the longest march Australia had witnessed” and Wagga Mayor Hugh Oates added that it would be a march “to Berlin via Sydney”.
“The mayor then bade farewell to the men, and presented them with a banner and a Union Jack and the Australian ensign,” the SMH reported.
“This flag symbolises the work the contingent is undertaking. On the front are two kangaroos, and blazoned across in letters of gold is the call, ‘For King and Country,’ and a boomerang, on which is written, ‘I go out to return’, while below are the words, ‘Courage and Faith’.
“On the overside is the map of Australia, while on the north-western coast a wireless signal is flashing S.O.S., and in a prominent arc the words, ‘Hear the Call'”.
The Kangaroo banner was painted by local Wagga signwriting firm Wetten and Weaver. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
Decked out in their makeshift uniform of “dungarees and white hats”, the 88 recruits were cheered down Fitzmaurice Street, across Hampton Bridge and through North Wagga.
“Girls linked their arms with those of the soldiers, and trudged along with the men through the dust and heat and flies,” the story concluded.
“Here and there a returned soldier stood proudly at the salute.”
With such a precious artefact now back on public display, the team at the Museum of the Riverina is on a mission to ensure that it is preserved for future generations.
“It’s in amazing condition for something that is over 100 years old and the colours are just beautiful,” said Michelle, explaining that the museum is seeking public support to cover specialist conservation.
“With textiles you have to treat them carefully to make sure that they don’t deteriorate and you can’t keep them out on permanent display.”
The delicate item will remain on exhibition at the Botanic Gardens site until 26 July and the community is encouraged to get behind the Kangaroo March Banner Appeal.
