A Personal History of Wool and War
From the late nineteenth century to the 1950s, large number of wool buyers from the Flanders region of France and Belgium emigrated to Australia with their families to establish careers here as buyers for the woollen mills of Europe. Although originally they had no intention of remaining here permanently, many families decided to stay, establishing a prosperous and vibrant French community in a distant land.
A peaceful period of business building ended suddenly in 1914 when the Flanders men of Australia returned to the defence of their homeland. The villages, towns and fields of Flanders became the site of some of the worst killing of World War One. They fought and died in battles all along the Western Front and alongside the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
Jacqueline Dwyer's grandfather came to Australia in 1889 and her father, Jacques, saw action with both French and Australian units in World War One. It is through the life of this family that this story of immigration, commerce and war is brought vividly to life.
