The Kurrajongs

This work is a mixture of fact and fiction (faction). Much of the story is true and historically accurate. The remainder is the product of the author's imagination.

In January 1916 a group of 114 men left the northern New South Wales town of Inverell to fight in the Great War. They were known as The Kurrajongs.

In the Olympic year 2000, one of the men is still alive. Stanhope Callinan. His granddaughter and great-grandson visit the old man. Go and sit in the sun with old Stan, learn a little of his boyhood. Join him aboard The Kurrajongs train. Meet his friends. Why did they volunteer? Travel across the oceans with them. Stay a while in England before heading to France just in time to enter the trenches during the coldest Winter in 40 years.

March and fight, laugh and cry with some of The Kurrajongs. Who survives the carnage of the Western Front? How many of the group return to Australia? How has the war changed those who came home?

Ian Small uses his passion, patriotism and master writing skills to bring this tale to life. The Kurrajongs brings the real lives and stories of soldiers from nearly a century ago to life, giving readers of any nationality a true and closely accurate account to what any soldier in any war goes through.

A story full of humour, honesty and interests, it shows both the highs and lows of a soldier's life and what Australian soldiers were well known for - camaraderie.

"Great love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Every night, a light burns brightly on Redman's Peak.
Guiding the lost boys home.