Josh & I went to Blackboy hill today to photograph the War Memorial. Here is some information on the memorial taken from http://www.warmemorials.net
At the outbreak of WW1 the government needed a camp to provide basic training for those volunteering for the Army; Blackboy Hill was unoccupied, covered in light scrub and close to the railway in Midland. In the first instance a tented camp was established but this was all but destroyed in a storm so in 1915 a more permanent camp of timber huts with concrete floors was built with the assistance of workers from the Midland Railway Workshops. During the war period some 32,000 volunteers did their training here. After the war the camp was used for a time as an isolation Hospital during the Influenza epidemic and then fell into disuse until the depression of the 30s when it was occupied by unemployed men, it was not used in WW2; the huts being dismantled and used elsewhere. In the 1950s the West Australian Govt. decided to develop the site for housing, the RSL asked for a site to be set aside for a Memorial to the men who had trained there. Today, apart from the Memorial, there is no trace left of the Camp, the whole area being a housing estate with a school.
This Memorial comprises four steel arches in a landscaped area of about half a hectare. The apex of the four arches are aligned on the axis of the Sun as it sets every April 24th (the last sunset before the Gallipoli landing) and represents the spirit that arose amongst the soldiers that trained here, as the afternoon lengthens the shadow from the arches impinges one upon the other until the whole is shaded. A sunset service is held from 5.30pm 24th.April followed by a night vigil and dawn Service on Anzac Day.
