1914-1918 Victorian Newspapers: commemorating the World War 1 centenary.

The State Library of Victoria  has helped digitise and make available online via Trove,  216 Victorian community newspapers from the Great War period.  These papers can be searched through a portal on the State Library website - www.slv.vic.gov.au/digitised-wwi-victorian-newspapers or through Trove.

These newspapers provide a rich source of information about how our communities lived during the Great War - from reports about how  communities raised funds for the War effort, names of soldiers who enlisted, reports about welcome home functions to reports about the erection of Honour Boards and other memorials.

Here's a list of the papers which covered the Casey Cardinia region:

Berwick Shire News
Bunyip Free Press
Dandenong Advertiser
Koo-Wee-Rup Sun
Lang Lang Guardian
Pakenham Gazette
Reporter (Box Hill - covered news from the Shire of Fern Tree Gully which Emerald was part of)
South Bourke and Mornington  Journal
West Gippsland Gazette

The Age and The Argus, the two state wide dailies, plus the Weekly Times  also include local news.

Here are some early reports on the War from the local papers.

This is from the South Bourke and Mornington Journal from August 6, 1914.

Editorial from the West Gippsland Gazette August 11, 1914

Finally, just to show that for some businesses, a war is a just another marketing opportunity, here's a great advertisement form the Bunyip Free Press!

Bunyip Free Press August 6. 1914.