A DUBBO couple with a passion for military history has created a website as a memorial to the 263 men who answered the call "Coo-ee come join us" during the First World War.
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Macquarie Regional Library technical services cataloguer Helen Thompson and her police sergeant husband Stephen have long felt a connection to the 1915 Gilgandra to Sydney march that snowballed into the creation of recruiting committees in nearly every town throughout Australia.
They met in 1987 when a re-enactment of the Coo-ee March passed through Dubbo.
Helen went to see the marchers and noticed "a nice young man" carrying the banner.
"I thought I'd like to know more about him," she said. "A work colleague encouraged me to send Stephen a letter using one of the commemorative envelopes Australia Post produced for the re-enactment.
"The letter was delivered when the march reached the Blue Mountains. Stephen wrote back and then decided to telephone."
Drawn together by shared interests, they were engaged in less than a year and married 13 months later.
Helen has Coo-ee engraved under her wedding ring and Stephen's Coo-ee hat was placed on their wedding table display.
The 1987 re-enactment was organised by Brian Bywater, Kim Templeton and the late Robert McLean. Stephen participated through Army Reserve connections.
"It was a wonderful event and we were keen to be involved when Brian and Kim decided to arrange another march for the 100 year celebration," Helen said. "There was never an official list of the men who stepped forward along the way and I began thinking about the shadowy Coo-ees. I thought it was important to try and research as many of them as possible.
"When John Meredith wrote The Coo-ee March in 1981 he had names for about 100 of the marchers.
"We've been able to find 263 names plus a few extras. It's a matter of confirming them and tying them together. We are creating individual entries for all the Coo-ees who enlisted based on their service records and information obtained from newspaper articles and other sources.
"A roll of honour is being created for those who died, based on where they were born."
A scrapbook put together by Alex Miller, the secretary of the 1915 Gilgandra Recruiting Association, has been a wonderful research resource.
The book of newspaper clippings and official correspondence is now held by the State Library of NSW.
Helen said the 1987 re-enactment occurred when archival materials were not as readily available.
"This time around people expect a lot more detail," she said. "They want to know more about the individuals who marched and the people listed on war memorials and honour rolls."
During a holiday to England, France and Belgium in September 2012 Helen and Stephen visited the graves and memorials of fallen Coo-ees who did not return to Australia.
After more names were found during their research Helen and Stephen returned to Europe in September 2014. They visited 22 cemeteries and memorials in England, and 161 cemeteries and memorials in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany.
"We photographed headstones and names on memorials of about 762 First World War and Second World War soldiers who were from our local Central West NSW area, a few family members, and those who were recruits on the Coo-ee, Boomerang and Kookaburra marches," Helen said.
"Coo-ees who died during the First World War are in 27 of these cemeteries and memorials, including the Menin Gate at Iepers (Ypres) in Belgium, and the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
"If anyone had a family member whose name was recorded on local war memorials and rolls of honour from Trangie, Narromine, Gilgandra, Dubbo, Wongarbon, Geurie, Wellington, Stuart Town, Molong, and Orange, or whose address on enlistment was in these areas, and who died in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany or England during WWI or WWII, there is a good chance that we might have a photograph of their headstone, or name on a memorial that we are happy to share.
"We plan to make these photographs available to the local community by putting them on a CD and donating them to local public libraries for their local studies collections. We also hope to place them on a wesbsite to make it easier for family members to find photos of the headstones of their fallen First World War and Second World War servicemen."
Photos of headstones have already been placed on the 1915 Coo-ee March website.
The site contains day-to-day newspaper reports on the route of the march and other articles of interest; information and photos of the individuals who joined the march; and information on how the Coo-ees are remembered.
"The Macquarie Regional Library Local Studies Collection has an original copy of a photo taken when the Coo-ees reached Orange," Helen said.
"The image clearly shows the faces of the men who joined between Gilgandra and Orange, including those from Dubbo, Wongarbon, Geurie, Wellington, Stuart Town, Euchareena, Molong and Parkes. This photograph gives us faces to put to many of the names.
"A project of mine is to match names to faces for men I find photographs of in old newspapers, or from photographs sent to me by family members.
"If anyone has any photographs of the Coo-ees I would love to hear from them via email cooeemarch1915@gmail.com."
During their research Helen and Stephen found the Coo-ees stayed in the Protestant Hall in Wellington on the nights of October 16 and 17, 1915.
"We didn't know where the hall was," Helen said.
"Imagine our surprise last year when we learned Stephen had been living in a flat at the back of the hall at the time when I met him after the Coo-ee March re-enactment in 1987."
The couple has also found a connection with Thomas W. Dowd, one of the Coo-ees who joined at Wongarbon.
Thomas Walter Dowd reached the rank of Second Lieutenant during the First World War and married Mary Grace Mackey in Sydney in 1922.
"Mary was Stephen's great grand aunt," Helen said
"That means Thomas Dowd was Stephen's great grand uncle-in-law."
