A Land Fit for Heroes?

Is a dinkum digger better off?

Alec Ward’s Block was in the Parish of Darbyshleigh and Bundarra, County of Hardinge and in the Inverell Land District.

On 17 November 1921, he applied for the £625 Advance which he believed he was entitled to.  When applying he stated that, ‘he had never received any benefit through the repatriation committee and that he was one of five soldier brothers’.[1] He asked, ‘Is a dinkum digger better off borrowing money through the Repat or through the G.S. Bank’.[2] Ward also asked for an extension of his lease for a 28 years term.[3] He was advised that as soon as this was completed his application for an advance would receive further attention.  In October he again requested an extension of his lease which was due to expire on 31 December 1927.  By the time of writing this letter in October 1922, he had still not received his advance.  The money was needed to stock his block.[4] Ward worked in a butchering business in town and was it not for this outside income the farm would have been completely unviable.  Delays in processing requests for an advance blighted the slender prospects of many soldier settlers.

Footnotes

[1] SRNSW: Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers loan files; [12/7299 No. 8333] Alec Swales Ward to the Director of SS, 17 November 1921.

[2] Ibid, 29 June 1922.

[3] Ibid, A.A. Watson to A.S. Ward Bundarra, 11 July 1922.

[4] Ibid, Alec Ward to Director of SS 2 October 1922.

Sources used to compile this entry:

State Records NSW: Lands Department; NRS 8058, Returned Soldiers Settlement loan files; [12/7299 No. 8333] Alec Swales Ward.

National Archives of Australia: B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers (Alec Swales Ward) online: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=8361701&I=1&SE=1