On the other side of the trenches

On the other side of the trenches : The Ottoman Empire Display title poster

If you are passing through the corridor adjacent to Cultural Collections in the Auchmuty Library over the next two or three weeks, you will see a very interesting display curated by two students of the Library and Information Services Certificate III at Newcastle TAFE.

This display looks at the history of the Ottoman Empire, the forces of which were on the other side of the trenches at Gallipoli in 1915. It features 14 great posters created by the students, as well as some chosen by them from our collections. There are also many books on various aspects of the Ottoman Empire society and history, and on the Gallipoli and Palestine campaigns.

Looking back at the war

Finally, there are some artefacts from the First World War, some chosen from our archives and others provided by the curators themselves.

Many thanks to the two students for preparing this display – they are a credit to the TAFE!

The Birdwood Flag Conservation Project

The Birdwood Flag After Conservation-2017

The Birdwood Flag Conservation Project
Amir Moghadam, UON

This blog, and the ones that will follow, look back over three and a half years to detail the preservation and conservation measures that returned the restored Birdwood flag to Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral in July 2017.

The posts will be presented as a narrative, relying on my own notes, images and memories and interspersing this narrative with comments from other members of the Birdwood Heritage Committee. The aim is to make an account that includes a variety of perspectives so that community members gain knowledge they can use in their own preservation projects.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…”

The Birdwood Flag’s preservation story is well described by applying Lao Tzu’s quotation above. The first definite steps in restoring the flag were made in November 2013 following a number of comments on the flag in previous years. The reality we faced was thousands of fragments of mostly reddish looking textile stored in a plastic back within a large cardboard box in a damp vault of the Cathedral.

The Birdwood Flag Before Conservation-2013

The other reality was the complete absence of any substantial funding and support that would be required for a major restoration. No group of people who might have the expertise to manage such a project could be identified and the one conservator at the University of Newcastle, myself, was so occupied with other projects, there was no time available, even for discussion or planning. Everything had to be established and negotiated from scratch. As a conservator, I knew this would involve the creation of a strategy for preservation of the flag to gauge the feasibility and practicality of the process. Only then could there be some negotiation between interested groups (including the University and the Cathedral) and then applications for resources, grants or other help through public and private benefactors.

As a principle of conservation, the level of material disintegration of an object is also considered. The Birdwood Flag’s utterly fragmented and delicate state would usually rule it out of consideration for restoration. The time for conservation would be judged as having expired so that any effort to restore it would be seen as pointless or worse still, as endangering the authenticity of the item. Indeed, such conservation would be perceived as blurring the lines between conservation and total re-construction of the item.

However a different principle of conservation argued against dismissing the idea of conservation and labelling the Birdwood Flag as a hopeless case. The significance of an item, be it art-work or monument, argues for or against the dedication of scarce resources to preserve it. Even so, the integrity of the item’s fabric is very important in deciding its significance. An item can only be considered as significant if enough of it remains to show what it is.

There was a Catch 22 involved with arguing the significance of the Birdwood Flag in its disintegrated state. To do this, some assurance was needed that it could be put together and made recognisable as a flag of a particular design, dimension and colour. A bag of confetti does not easily lend itself to such an assurance. Many people engaged in cultural heritage work experience such dilemmas. This is the moment when a project is often abandoned. However the Birdwood Flag was too important to be forgotten. It narrates the sacrifices of soldiers of a nation established only 15 years earlier during one of the most cruel and catastrophic wars in human history. Moreover the flag tells a story above and beyond a tale of WWI. Produced by a community yet official, flown on the battlefield yet returned to the community who built its own War Memorial and ‘laid up’ the flag there, this object provides important evidence for larger historical and social enquiries.

From left: Major Roland Millbank, Birdwood Committee; Dr.Rosemary Barnard, Birdwood Comittee; Dr. Amir Mogadam, Conservator, UON; Mr. Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, UON; Dr. Patricia Gillard, Birdwood Committee; Mr.Julian Bickersteth, Managing Director, ICS.

The Birdwood Flag has been restored and this blog is being published 31 July 2017; the day after the Birdwood Flag was re-hallowed in a special service to mark its return to Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle. The brochure, Two Lives, tells the story of the one hundred years between the first making of the flag and its successful restoration and return. Further blogs will show the steps during three and a half years that brought us to this day.

MEDIA

“Re-Hallowing of the Birdwood Flag Service” Newcastle Anglican (1 August 2017)
http://newcastleanglican.org.au/re-hallowing-of-the-birdwood-flag-service/

“WW1 Flag Returned to Newcastle After Painstaking Restoration” NBN News (20 July 2017)
http://www.nbnnews.com.au/2017/07/20/wwi-flag-returned-to-newcastle-after-painstaking-restoration/

“Australia’s first flag forgotten, found and restored all in 100 years” ABC News (30 June 2017)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/australian-first-flag-found-and-restored-in-nsw/8663158

“Precious WW1 Flag on the Mend” by Mike Scanlon. Newcastle Herald (2 June 2017)
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4700307/precious-relic-on-the-mend/

Launch of Birdwood Flag Restoration Project

Very Reverend Stephen Williams, Dean of Newcastle giving speech at the launch ceremony

On a Friday morning, 22 April 2016, a nationally significant cultural initiative, The Birdwood Flag Restoration Project, was launched at Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle.

The Birdwood Flag in its original condition. [Courtesy of The University of Newcastle’s Anglican Diocese Archives in Cultural Collections A6137(iv)]

Named in honour of General William Riddell Birdwood, the commander of the Australian forces on the western front, the Birdwood Flag Restoration Project aims to piece back together, and restore this highly significant Australian flag that served as the Australian ensign in World War 1. The Birdwood flag is of high national historic significance as it was the first recorded, and officially sanctioned presentation of an Australian flag in the field of war, created by a local community. Moreover, the Birdwood Flag is of outstanding social and historical significance for people of Newcastle since the funds raised for the flag’s creation and manufacture came from a public appeal organised by Miss Dora Sparke and the Newcastle Field Force Fund.

 

The story of the Birdwood Flag dates back a century ago, when a group of women in the Hunter, led by Dora Sparke, gathered the resources to send an Australian flag to fly over the ANZAC troops in Europe. These women took it upon themselves to make the lives of Australian troops a little better. For instance, they didn’t believe the standard issue socks that were provided to troops were of sufficient quality, so they set about knitting their own, that would be of superior quality and comfort. They also decided that it wasn’t good enough that our troops didn’t have a real Australian Flag to fight under, and so they set about manufacturing one, that ensured it was officially sanctioned. The work of the Newcastle community was presented at the General’s headquarters on a battlefield in Belgium, in September 1917, and served as the emblem of Australian soldiers during the war. It was to be passionately guarded until the time of victory.

General Birdwood (Image Courtesy of Australian War Memorial )

It was during his national tour of Australia in 1920, that General Birdwood took the opportunity to offically hand back the Flag to Miss Dora Sparke, at a civic reception held on the 28 April 1920, and with it The Birdwood Flag returned to its cultural home, the city of Newcastle. It was perceived as a “memento of a glorious cause, and we would do all in our power to see that it was placed where no other enemy but Time could destroy it”. Beyond the intentions in its production, the flag is also an interesting symbol of the formation of Australian nationhood. Its use signifies the distinct identity of the Australian soldiers as a significant collective. What makes the flag even more significant is that such a declaration of national identity occurs about a decade after the Federation in 1901 and many years before recognition of the Australian national flag in 1954 under the “Flags Act 1953“.

Fragment from the Birdwood flag, Image Courtesy ABC Newcastle

Following the Birdwood Flag’s rediscovery in 2013 lying in pieces within a shoebox inside a safe in the Cathedral, a meeting was held between the University of Newcastle’s Vice Chancellor, Caroline McMillen  and the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, The Very Reverend Stephen Williams, to see what could be done to restore what was probably the most important cultural relic of the Great War in Australia, in anticipation of the Centenary of ANZAC commemorations. Inspired by the local community’s spirit, an action plan was formulated for the restoration of the rediscovered fragments of the Birdwood flag.

The Birdwood Heritage Committee (Birdwood Flag Committee) was formed under the leadership of Dr Patricia Gillard, and initial funding secured through the National Library’s Community Heritage Grants to complete the significance assessment phase.  In 2015, a funding application to the Copland Foundation was also successful. As a result of the committee’s efforts the restoration phase of the Birdwood Flag has offically begun since April 22, 2016.

From left: Major Roland Millbank, Birdwood Committee; Dr.Rosemary Barnard, Birdwood Comittee; Dr. Amir Mogadam, Conservator, UON; Mr. Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, UON; Dr. Patricia Gillard, Birdwood Committee; Mr.Julian Bickersteth, Managing Director, ICS.

In this project, the Copland Foundation, Melbourne, International Conservation Services, Sydney, University of Newcastle (Australia) and Anglican Diocese of Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral, are collaborating to put the pieces of the flag back together again and tell the story of the community who enabled an official Red Australian Ensign to represent their troops during World War 1. As part of the ceremony a time lapse movie was screened showing the beginnings of conservation work being carried out by International Conservation Services in Sydney. It was quite an emotional moment to see the original stars of the Southern Cross begin to re-emerge within the fragments of the original flag.

Over many years our communities have become fraught with divisions and fragmentation, with people generally striving to seek their points of difference, rather than what they hold in common. It is hoped that this project is a small step towards bringing Australian communities closer together, as, in reconstructing this fragmented symbol of a local community’s care for its troops, so too it is hoped that the nation will rediscover its fragmented heart, and understand the forces that have shaped Australian national identity and the makeup of its culture and character.

Dr Amir Mogadam, Conservator and Mr Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist.

Call for information

Please help us to identify this event

Crowd at Broadmeadow Station, possibly in May 1916.

It has been suggested that the crowd is farewelling either the 35th or 36th Battalion from Broadmeadow Station, Newcastle, NSW in May 1916.

The Trove references to the above events are:
“GOD-SPEED THE 35TH.” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW : 1876 – 1954) 1 May 1916: 5. Web. 21 May 2015.
and
“GOOD-BYE, 36TH.” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW : 1876 – 1954) 13 May 1916: 5. Web. 21 May 2015.

This image was scanned from a 35mm slide taken by the late Dr John Turner (1933 – 1998), local historian and lecturer.

If you can identify the event in the photo, please contact us by emailing archives@newcastle.edu.au

Rodoni Archive Now Online

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the photographic glass and film negatives of Thomas James Rodoni (1882-1956) have now been digitised and are freely available in high resolution on our flickr site as The Rodoni Archive:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157651638124931/

This amazing collection was donated in February 2014 by Thomas (‘TJ’) Rodoni’s son Bill to the Cultural Collections, UON-Library, with the assistance of family friends Chris and Frances Fussell.  Since Bill’s death in late 2014, other members of the family have stepped in and assisted in donating further negatives, and providing important papers to the University’s Archives. We thank Ian Rodoni and family for his help in the identification of family members and in providing family records to assist in the accessioning and description process. We also thank renown Hunter Valley military historian David Dial OAM for his help in describing the military related photographs documenting World War 1 patriotic recruitment drives across New South Wales, and military campaigns in German Papua New Guinea.

Special thanks has to go to our volunteers Natasha Schroder, and historians Ken Thornton and Dr Ann Hardy for their work on this project. Natasha scanned every glass negative, while Ken and Ann researched the historical background of each image, documenting as much as they could find on the dating, geo-tagging and synthesising information that is continuing to come in through our social media networks.

Dr Ann Hardy (Uni Historian) and Mark Sutherland (Associate Librarian Research and Information Services) (Photo: Naomi Stewart)

The initial upload of the negatives to our flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/ broke all our records with 119,000 hits in a single day. Since then, information continues to stream in from across the communities about the locations, buildings, streetscapes and people captured in the images.

Thanks to the wonderful team at the University Gallery led by Gillean Shaw, the exhibition Australia’s Forgotten ANZACS: Lost Images from Australia’s first conflict: the fall of German New Guinea curated by Gillean Shaw and Naomi Stewart was launched on the 27 March 2015 in the presence of Rodoni’s family and friends. Tess McLeod (nee Rodoni) travelled from Dorrigo to bring Thomas James Rodoni’s war medals to the Gallery so they could be exhibited with his photographs.

Naomi Stewart, one of the curators, at the Exhibition launch 27 March 2015 (Photo: Chris Fussell)

Amir Mogadam (Uni Conservator) and Gionni Di Gravio (Uni Archivist) speaking at the Exhibition launch 27 March 2015 (Photo: Chris Fussell)

Gillean Shaw (Curator) with Tess McLeod (nee Rodoni) and husband Jim Mcleod (Photo: Naomi Stewart)

Tess McLeod (nee Rodoni) travelled all the way from Dorrigo so that her grand father T.J. Rodoni’s war medals could be part of the exhibition.

Ian Rodoni (right), grandson of T.J. Rodoni pictured with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt, Uni Librarian Greg Anderson and Ian’s wife at left (Photo: Naomi Stewart)

One of T.J. Rodoni’s cameras, donated by Ian Rodoni, grand son of Thomas James Rodoni. (Photo: Naomi Stewart)

Thomas James Rodoni was born in 1882 at Hotham East, Victoria, to Swiss and Irish parents. While living in Sydney in August 1914 as a man of 31, Rodoni joined the first Australian Imperial Force that would engage in the Great War: the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force.

T.J. Rodoni’s Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force Discharge Papers 28th January 1915 (recto)

T.J. Rodoni’s Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force Discharge Papers 28th January 1915 (verso)

A week after enlisting, Rodoni’s company embarked on the HMAS Berrima that left Sydney 19 September 1914 and sailed to German New Guinea among a fleet with orders to seize two wireless stations and to disable the German colonies there.

After the fall of German New Guinea, c.1914-1915

Rodoni’s unofficial photographs – many of them “candid” shots, captured in the moment – are a rare glimpse of this pivotal moment in Australia’s history. He has documented the energetic atmosphere of prewar Sydney and its surrounds, from civilian and military marches to battleships docked in Sydney Harbour, with accompanying crowds of people brought together for these special events. His camera voyaged with him on the expedition to the Pacific region, taking images both from the ship’s deck and then again on dry land after disembarking.

Letter to Rodoni from Lillie Searle, close friend of a deceased soldier, Gilfillan, who died of typhoid fever on route from Alexandria to Gallipoli, requesting a copy of a rare photograph, 3rd September 1915.

Letter to Rodoni from Lillie Searle, the close friend of a deceased soldier, Gilfillan, who died of typhoid fever on route from Alexandria to Gallipoli, requesting a copy of a rare photograph of him, 3rd September 1915.

Rodoni was stationed in New Guinea for five months with the AN&MEF after the successful capture of territory from the German forces. His striking images are testament to his ease with the camera, and the ease of his fellow servicemen around this avid amateur photographer. He used his camera to record daily events and significant moments in the expedition, and made several group portraits of the officers and soldiers in his company. Yet his images also suggest a genuine curiosity for the foreign people and places where he was stationed, and a love of the photographic medium in which he practiced during this early period of the war.

New Guinea Tribesmen circa 1914 – 1915

After leaving New Guinea with the AN&MEF and returning home to Australia in January 1915, Rodoni left the force to work in a Small Arms Factory manufacturing munitions for the war. He soon married and settled in Newcastle with his wife, Catherine Annie Wilson, and had four children: Thomas, Mary, Jim and William (Bill).

Group of slightly drunk looking men, three sitting on Tooth & Co., Limited Morpeth Beer Barrels

The wider collection of glass plate negatives – over 500 in total and with many views of Newcastle and its surrounds is an incredible legacy to Thomas Rodoni and his family.

Advertisement in Newcastle Sun 20 May 1919 (Trove)

Rodoni died in 1956 as a result of a car accident in Waratah, Newcastle.

The original negatives are held in Cultural Collections at the Auchmuty Library, University of Newcastle (Australia).

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist

Reflections on the Rodoni Archive
by Dr Ann Hardy

The Thomas Rodoni Collection was donated to the University of Newcastle in 2014 and interpreting the 500+ photographs has been interesting and overall a positive process.  We have needed to be resourceful in finding ways to research and deliver this significant collection to the wider community.

In this ANZAC centenary year, the Rodoni collection is celebrated 100 years on, in an exhibition at the University of Newcastle (25 March- 11 April 2015), curated by Gillean Shaw and Naomi Stewart.  The focus has been on the WWI photographs in the collection, however the collection is diverse tracing Thomas Rodoni’s life from Sydney to Lithgow, and then to Newcastle between the decades 1910 to 1930s. There are many photographs of industrial work spaces and machinery, later works show his wife Catherine Annie and their four children, as well as friends and acquaintances.

Researching the Rodoni collection has included collaborating with the wider community, consisting the Rodoni family and friends, volunteers of the university, academic and military historians.  This collaborative approach has been particularly effective because of the limited information that was available about the collection, and the relatively short time to research and make the collection available to the public by April 2015.

This community research project was led by University Archivist Gionni Di Gravio. One of the first priorities was to conserve and safeguard the collection, this was done by Conservator Amir Mogadom who worked on the glass and film negatives to carefully preserve them and make ready to be digitally scanned. Natasha Schroder scanned the entire collection over a 3 month period, and Historian Ann Hardy researched photographs in consultation with family and colleagues. Historian Ken Thornton researched in more detail the history of the WWI New Guinea campaign, providing context to the photographs taken by Rodoni during the lead up to WWI war and his time in New Guinea. A ‘Slide show’ presentation of the collection was shared with family and friends and their responses recorded, similarly historians were also invited to a ‘slide show’ and their feedback regarding the WWI photographs were noted. Because of the high number of industrial related images we may run in the future a ‘slide show’ with industrial heritage groups to help to identify machinery and the location of workshops and factories.

A community approach has enabled research of the collection to occur fairly quickly. There are still many gaps in the ‘history’ of individual images, however the general context of the collection has been established well enough to be able to present the entire collection to the community via Flicker.

Community engagement will be ongoing. The local community approach already started will continue, and now that the collection is on Flicker further information provided by a global community will help to build new knowledge about this significant collection.

Ann Hardy
– 27 March 2015

Three men throwing a bottle in the air. c1910s

Local Treasures: The Rodoni Glass Negatives

Troops posing for a comical photograph after fall of German Papua, 1914 (Digitised from a Thomas James Rodoni Glass negative by Chris Fussell)

Day Shift – 19/08/2014 – 02:10 PM
Presenter: Nick Gerber
Interviewees: Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, University of Newcastle (Australia)

Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist of the University of Newcastle discusses plans for the recently donated glass negatives of the late Thomas James Rodoni that documented Australia’s first military conflict of the First World War, the fall of German New Guinea. The Collection also contains images from the lead up to the Great War, including what appears to be recruitment drives across Sydney and Newcastle. There are also images believed to be taken at places around Lithgow and Newcastle. We would appreciate any further information relating to the selection of images below

Broadcast Notes:

In February 2014 Bill Rodoni, son of the late Thomas James Rodoni donated all his father’s original glass negatives held in his possession to the University of Newcastle’s Cultural Collections (Auchmuty Library).

Close family friends Chris Fussell and his wife helped Bill organize the transfer of the Collection to the University, Chris, being a photographer, also kindly provided some of the digitized images he was able to make of the glass negatives that were in good enough condition.

Chris Fussell (left) with Bill Rodoni (right) son of the late Thomas James Rodoni

Some of these images were featured in the recent 5th August 2014 Newcastle Herald story here: http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2466630/hunters-first-wwi-volunteers-in-action-in-new-guinea-photos/

At present, there are nine or so images up on the Herald website to accompany the story. The newspaper print edition featured two images.

We collected around four archival boxes worth of glass plates. Some (i.e., around 2 boxes worth) of the original glass negatives were in relatively good condition, and another two archival boxes worth (that lay in Bill’s downstairs garage) were in a very terrible condition, water damaged, moldy, dirty and most stuck together.

Rodoni Glass Negatives upon arrival at University of Newcastle

All these glass negatives are now in the hands of our conservator, undergoing a thorough conservation and preservation treatment involving documenting their condition, cleaning, carefully separating the damaged plate, and then re-housing all of them in new archival quality boxes.

Once this phase is done, we will commence the digitization of them all, and have secured the University Gallery for an exhibition next year running  from March 2015 as the University’s contribution to the Anzac Centenary Commemorations.

Dr Ann Hardy, a University historian, has also said she would be prepared to volunteer her time to research Thomas James Rodoni’s life and trace the subject matter of his photographic works in the collection for the Exhibition. Gillian Shaw, University Gallery Curator, has booked the University Art Gallery from March 2015 next year to present large reproductions of these Rodoni slides as part of our contribution to the Centenary of Anzac Commemorations.

The collection is rare as there are few wartime collections taken by non-official photographers during the World War I.  The collection depicts Australia’s first military engagement of World War 1 being the transfer of power from German New Guinea in 1914 to the Australian Forces. This engagement also witnessed the first Australian casualties of First World War.

Biographical information relating to Thomas James Rodoni is scant, but have identified a moustachioed man  (in the selfie pictured below) and in a number of images as Thomas Rodoni.

The moustachioed man we believe to be Thomas Rodoni

Military Parade – Leichhardt Marchers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Military Parade – Farmers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Plumber Gas Fitter Gladesville (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Bagpipes and Highland Dressed (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Street Parade – Domain Artillery Off to the Front (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Lithgow – Parade Opposite Walters and Son Undertakers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Newcastle Beach Crowds Military (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

The Australia in Sydney Harbour – View from Boats (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

The Australia in Sydney Harbour (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Soldiers with Coconuts (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

G.M.P. Madang NG 1914

Soldiers and Papuans (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Company of Soldiers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Lineup of soldiers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Officers in White (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Rodoni photographed with glass plate [?] (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Newcastle – Unveiling of Newcastle Post Office Cenotaph (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Freidman’s Carrington Hotel (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Diving at Newcastle (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Newcastle – 2HD Mayfield (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Interior – Unidentified Engineering Workshop (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Unidentified workers (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Photograph taken of Newcastle Customs House, from second floor of Great Northern Hotel at 10 minutes to 1 PM date unknown (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Wer (sic) Are We [?] (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

Two Ladies on Shore at Sunrise or Sunset (Thomas James Rodoni Original Glass Negative, digitised by Chris Fussell)

 

Name: Thomas James Rodoni

Born: 1872? (according to Bill vaguely) but actually born in 1882 in Victoria (sourced and confirmed by Lyn Keily via Ancestry.com)

Married: 1915 in Sydney to Catherine Annie

Occupation: Toolmaker

Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force document (Signed 28/1/15):
Certificate of Discharge of No. 534
(Rank) Private Name Rodoni T.J.
(Regiment or Corps) Aust Naval & Military Expedition
at or near the Town of [Hoth—?] Melbourne
in the State or Country of Victoria.
Attested at Sydney on the 18th August [1914] for the Australian Military Expedition Regiment or Corps at the age of 31 Years.
He is discharged in consequence of June expiring
Service towards completion of engagement 164 days
Service Abroad 164 days.
Discharge confirmed at Sydney.

New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways document dated 12th August 1915 from the Office of the Chief Commissioner Sydney states that Mr. T. J. Rodoni wrote to them on the 3rd August 1915 requesting desire to temporarily leave department to enter the Lithgow Small Arms factory to assist in manufacture of munitions for war.

Department of Defence document dated 23rd June 1916 certifies that T.J. Rodoni was employed in the Small Arms Factory Lithgow between 4th August 1915 and the 22nd June 1916 as a CUTTER GRINDER and that his conduct and character was GOOD.

A Government Dockyard, Newcastle document dated 4th March 1919 states that he was currently employed there on work connected with the engines for the Commonwealth Ships as a tradesman.

Died: 25th January 1956 (Mayfield) Killed in Waratah according to Bill while getting the newspaper he was involved in car accident, and died at the Mater a few hours later.

We welcome any further information that anyone can shed on Thomas James Rodoni and his collection of glass plate negatives.

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist
18th August 2014