Farewell to Dave Hunter, citizen and soldier of Australia

Well-wishers, some holding paper streamers connecting them to men on the ship, on the wharf prior to the departure of HMAT Anchises.

For some, the streamers connecting the troops on the Anchises with their friends and family on the dock at Port Melbourne would be their last link with home.  Gus Stelling, en route to Gallipoli two months later, told his parents that they had not yet received any letters from Australia.  Gus died within days of arriving at Gallipoli in October 1915.  His friend Dave Hunter, who left by the same ship, survived two months on the peninsula, returned to Egypt for further training, and then travelled on to France with 22 Infantry Battalion.  Rod Martin tells the story of David Hunter, a woolclasser from Kensington, in his usual compelling fashion.