March to Broadmedows

On 19th August 1914, the men who enlisted in Prahran, placed their kit on baggage wagons and made their way down Commercial Road into St Kilda Road and on to Victoria Barracks. The men were dressed in a mixture of various types of military uniform including some in their Victorian Scottish Regiment kilts, but the majority were in mufti.

After arriving at the Barracks, the Commanding Officer of the Second Brigade, Lt. Col., J W McCay, made a stirring patriotic speech.  Later, the entire Brigade was led by the Citizen Force Band out of the Barracks, at about 9:30am, onto St Kilda Road and through the city.

The city streets were lined with cheering folk as the Brigade made their way through the City towards the northern suburbs for a total of 11 miles on foot arriving at about 5pm. This was an arduous march for many of the men. Their destination was a large paddock on the outskirts of Melbourne owned by a Major Wilson. This paddock was to become the Broadmedows Camp. On arrival the troops were required to bathe their feet in a muddy waterhole. They received an address by one of their new officers on 'discipline' after which they were allocated to their tents (16 men per tent). The tents came equipped with large hessian sacks filled with straw as mattresses and two blankets per man. Tea was served, baggage found and then men retired for the evening.

A.G. Adams was assigned to 'F' company on the 17th August. 'F' company was made up almost entirely of volunteers who had attended public schools in Victoria including Scotch College, Wesley College, Geelong Grammar School and Melbourne Grammar School. There were 18 Melbourne Grammar boys in 'F' Company. Athol would have known many of these men from his days at MGS, perhaps some of these were in Athol's tent on that first night at Broadmeadows.

Later A. G. Adams was transferred to 'D' company.

Some good images can be found at: http://anzaccentenary.vic.gov.au/history/victorias-contribution-wwi/