A circa 1960s Greetings from Albany ,Western Australia , souvenir wall hanging incorporates dried WA wildflowers pressed against a photograph of the city . Albany intends to open a National Anzacs Centre in November of this year to mark the fact that convoys carrying troops off to World War 1 gathered in King George Sound .
In October 1914 ships carrying the AIF and NZEF, which were later to become collectively known as the Anzacs hove to . Merchant ships carrying troops from New Zealand, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria departed from Albany on 1 November 1914, together with three cruisers – HMA Ships Melbourne and Sydney and the HMS Minotaur.
They were joined at sea two days later by two ships carrying troops from South Australia and Western Australia, along with the Japanese cruiser, HIJMS Ibuki. [As previously pointed out by Little Darwin , the Japanese - to the surprise of many readers- were our allies in that conflict and actually protected North Australia . The late historian Glenville Pike provided this blog with the rare April 1915 photograph of Darwin volunteers marching to the wharf , a Japanese flag flying , near the rear , in the procession .] A second convoy departed in late December 1914.
