Dinner time at Broadmeadows Army Camp

Assembling the ‘camp kitchen’. From a stereographic slide by Geo. Rose.  Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.  

Here we are again at Broadmeadows Camp and judging by the swaying trees in the background (conifers, I think), this photograph was taken on the same day as the tent city photograph of my previous entry 'Broadmeadows Camp, a city of tents'. So it’s likely to be late August 1914, a feeling strengthened by the fact that many of the men are only in partial uniform. I can see peaked caps, hats of all varieties, men out of uniform altogether or in partial uniform.

There’s a very long fire pit in the centre of the photo and I’m pretty sure that those are coals I see under the two pots still balancing on the long poles that extend along the length of the pit. No one’s eating yet, but the food’s there, steaming hot and waiting for the hungry hordes to descend. I wonder what was for tea – stew and spuds, perhaps. I notice that the chap kneeling with dog on leash and cigarette dangling from his lips has a tin cup in his hand – a cup of strong, black tea perhaps?

And now that I look at the image a little more closely, I can make out a dozen or so horses, one of them with nose in a feed bag, so grub’s up for everyone, it seems. I wonder what the dog ate?