Jade Jungwirth
Last July, two local residents chanced upon a World War I diary written by a young Australian soldier among the belongings of a World War II journalist.
Living in Yapeen during the height of the pandemic, Karen Nancarrow and David Darcy, took to attending online garage sales and auctions to keep their spirits up.
When the pair purchased a vintage suitcase from a Castlemaine auction they soon found themselves enthralled by its contents.
Inside the case they found personal letters, draft newspaper articles, and artefacts from a bygone era. Tucked in among flip notepads, full of shorthand, was a small pocket diary from 1915.
David, who works in environmental compliance and enjoys historical artefacts and maps, and Karen, a nurse of 25 years who has a love of people’s stories, cancelled their plans and began transcribing the contents.
“At first we weren’t sure what would come of it, we had lots of ideas,” Karen said.
“But we knew that we wanted to honour this stranger. We had taken a journey with him and people needed to hear it.
“He was just an ordinary man, who had an extraordinary story.”
Since their discovery last year, Karen and David have started a podcast ‘108 Years Later’, following the young soldier’s journey through readings of his diary entries on the date they were written – 108 years later.
“One of my favourite entries is January 18 when he says, ‘I have no inclination for death at sea’,” Karen said.
“It’s a story of a young, 22-year-old man who is embarking on an adventure. There are some spelling and grammatical errors, but then there are sections of beautiful, poetic descriptions and moments of classic Australian humour.”
The pair enlisted the help of a local tradie, Tom Bunting, who gives a strong Australian voice to the soldier, volunteering his time each week to reading the diary entries.
“Tom doesn’t know the end yet, so the story is unfolding for him too,” Karen said.
Karen and David have spent many hours researching the young soldier and have managed to confirm his identity, however, given they have been unable to locate any decedents or close relatives, they have chosen to keep his identity a secret thus far.
“I have spent a lot of time researching ancestry websites, but so far, we haven’t been able to locate a photo of him,” Karen said.
“I have learned so much I didn’t know about Australian history throughout this process, scouring the Australian War Memorial archives and talking to military historians, and I’m planning a trip to the Canberra War Memorial later this year.
“I can’t say what the timeline is, but I can say that it goes through until ANZAC Day,” Karen revealed.
Follow the soldier’s journey @108yearslater on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, or visit: www.108yearslater.com to subscribe and receive daily email updates.
