Author(s): Martin Davey

LOCAL HISTORY

These Victorian war stories span its history¿and span the state from end to end:
¿ The first war fought in Victoria was over its richest land¿the south-west corner where thousands of Australians had been living for thousands of years. When these people realised that whitefella wasn¿t a visitor but an invader desecrating their country, they fought with iron spears until a bitter, venereal end.
¿ The battle over conscription was fought in the public spaces of Melbourne about sending hundreds of thousands of young men to fight and die in a terrible conflagration on the other side of the world.
¿ The next was part of greater World War II was fought by Victorian generals in an utterly unnecessary manner in a jungle using kids against the best jungle fighters in the world.
¿ The fourth story concerns the wars fought by four leading citizens of Victoria, who, to say the least, did not distinguish themselves in World War II service.
¿ The last war played out in the corridors of fabrication in Canberra over a monstrous visitation on the country of far East Gippsland.