AWAS on Rottnest - WF95347 WILLIAMS IH
Documentation relating to the AWAS service of WF95347 Gunner Ida Hazel Williams of East Fremantle
Details
Details
The Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) was formed in late 1941, two years after the outbreak of World War 2. Australian women had been agitating for some time for the chance to join the War Effort. They wanted to do “real work, not knit sock for the men.” The primary aim of AWAS was to release men from some military duties so they could be deployed in fighting units.
Initial recruitment was for duties associated with “women’s work”, clerks, cooks and typists, still being done my male soldiers. Beginning in early 1942 as invading Japanese swept through the South West Pacific towards Australia, many more military trades were opened to women including signals, weapons plotting, drivers, which involved close contact with the coast defence systems on Rottnest.
This collection brings together the stories of women in the Australian Women’s Army Service who were deployed on Rottnest Island as part of the defences of Fortress Fremantle from 30 September 1942 onward. The content is based on a “Saluting Their Service” exhibition developed by the Rottnest Voluntary Guides on the 80th Anniversary of this deployment. The exhibition was presented at Kingstown Barracks, Rottnest Island from 8-9 October 2022 and at the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia from 9 – 17 November 2022
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Nearest geotagged records:
- AWAS on Rottnest - WF96313 CLARK (married KEEN) (0.25km away)
- World War 1, Australia, Western Australia, 3480 MAXWELL, 10 Light Horse (0.28km away)
- World War 1, England, 1056 GODFREY, 28 Battalion, 1915 (0.41km away)
- World War 1, Western Australia, FORDHAM, 16 Battalion, 1916 (0.42km away)
- World War 1, Australia Western Australia, GODFREY, 28 Battalion, 1915 (0.51km away)
- World War 1, Australia, Western Australia, 3468 MYERS, 10 Light Horse (0.69km away)
- World War 1, Europe, DOONAN, 1917 (0.73km away)
- Photograph - Canning Road, Bicton, 1934 (0.84km away)
- World War 1, Australia, Western Australia, 2257 UPSON, 10 Light Horse (0.9km away)
- World War 1, Australia, Western Australia, MORRIS, 10 Light Horse (1.09km away)
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Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
Other items from Australian Army Museum of Western Australia
- AWAS on Rottnest - WF90105 WOOLCOTT
- AWAS on Rottnest - WF96637 WOOLLEY (married MALCOLM)
- AWAS on Rottnest - WF90410 WORMALD
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- Pre 1914, Magazine Lantern, Fremantle, Fort Arthur Head, 1910
- World War 1, Roll of Honour - Blackboy Hill Officers' Mess
- Exhibition Catalogue - "Wartime Archies"
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