History of Australia'

Wattle Day and wattle blossom took on a new emphasis during World War I. Light-hearted celebrations and carefree gatherings were replaced by serious fundraising and a depth of patriotism never before experienced among Australians.

The New South Wales Wattle League put all its energies into helping the war effort. Together with the Red Cross and Patriotic Fund, they combined forces to raise as much money as possible by selling sprigs of wattle on the streets of Sydney. Depots were established in various parts of the city to receive wattle sent by country supporters.

This was the first time in our history that large numbers of Australians were absent from our shores together (the contingent to the Boer War was small by comparison). For 130 years, migrants had been leaving other homelands and adopting this country, some for better, many for worse. Suddenly now their sons find themselves transplanted en masse in hostile circumstances upon a foreign shore. These men had left the only land they knew and naturally, their thoughts were of home, in Australia. Not England or Ireland or anywhere else.

'History in your city - Wattle days', Daily Telegraph, 1 August 1972

A grove of Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia baileyana, trees in Centennial Park, Sydney. The New South Wales branch of the Wattle Day League celebrated Wattle Day in 1913 by planting 200 wattle trees in the park. Photo: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

A change of date to August 1

So much wattle was needed for these stalls that demand soon outstripped supplies. In 1916, the date for Wattle Day in New South Wales was changed to 1 August, because of the early blooming of wattle around Sydney. At the time the most popular wattle in Sydney gardens was the Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana) which flowers in winter. By September this variety is finished blooming.

The wealth of golden glory in the vicinity of Sydney becomes almost exhausted long before September 1, so it has been decided that future celebrations should take place on August 1.

'History in your city - Wattle days', Daily Telegraph, 1 August 1972

That same year the 1 August edition of the Sydney Morning Herald pleaded with its readers to support the fundraising:

Wear a spray of wattle and your allegiance pay

To the emblem of your country,

for this is Wattle Day.

H.D. Bulmer, a Bairnsdale photographer, took this photo of his employee, Miss Edie Scott, on the banks of the Mitchell River in about 1913, when the wattles were in bloom. For many years he displayed a life-size colour enlargement in his shop window. Photo sent by Alban Pierce

The League also obtained special permission for soldiers to wear a sprig of wattle on their uniforms. Sprigs were handed out freely to soldiers on the street while members and friends of the League spent Wattle Day visiting military camps and hospitals distributing sprays of wattle. The Soldier's Club, decorated with wattle, also became a distribution centre.

Cardboard boxes filled with sprigs of pressed wattle were sent to Egyptian hospitals for ditribution to wounded Anzacs. This soon became a tradition and, as the war progressed, wattle was despatched to wounded soldiers in France and England.

Alban pierce, a veteran of the Great War, recalls recieving his sprig of pressed wattle which was sent by a friend. He was in hospital in England at the time having been evacuated from France. It was a sprig of Cootamundra Wattle decorated with a small purple bow. He also remembers the custom of enclosing wattle with letters.

Alban Pierce of Victoria was sent this sprig of Wattle by the Red Cross after being wounded in France. It is a piece of Cootamundra wattle.

The happy flowers smile in your face, and cleanse your heart of pain,

Then take these kisses of the earth and love her back again.

And wear your spray of wattle, as a monarch wears his crown,

Its native gold, through testing fires, has won to high renown.

And none shall see its gallant pennon waving in the sun,

But shall recall Australia's part in deeds of valour done.

And none shall catch its fragrant breath so sweet, so bitter sweet,

But love and pride shall dim his eyes and make his pulses beat.

The exile savours it in dreams,

'Tis ours to have and hold,

'Tis ours to keep untarnished still,

Australia's heart of gold.

Agnes L. Storrie

From a tree beside the sheep track,

Hung this golden, clustered mass.

I picked it off for you lad,

Because it would not let me pass.

And with the soft wind

Came a message and command.

Send this spray of wattle blossom

From your dear Australian land.

Send it on to far Gallipoli,

Where our boys in khaki fight

For their mothers, wives and sweethearts,

And the cause that is just and right.

They will know then you are waiting

For the vistory that's to come,

By this spray of wattle blossom

From your dear Australian home

Australian Worker, 1915, contributed by Harry Phipps

It became customary for mothers to enclose sprigs of wattle with letters to their sons on service abroad, to remind them of home. A poem 'A Spray of Wattle Blossom' contributed to the Australian Worker in 1915 by an anonymous poet, started this display of patriotism.

The sprigs were welcomed by soldiers at the front. A.H.Scott of the 4th Battery, Australian Field Artillery, recorded his feelings about the custom in a poem 'A Little Sprig of Wattle' which was published in Melbourne in 1916 as part of an anthology of poems written by ANZACs at Gallipoli.

During World War I, various gum leaves and golden wattle were often enclosed with letters to me on service, as reminders of things they loved at home. There comes to mind the story that the arrival of one such mail caused an offensive to occur in France, with the same dried gum leaves stirring some men from the bush to burn some, to enjoy the smell of burning gum trees. One became so excited with memories, that he discharged his rifle in glee, unfortunately Fritz was not to know that and some replied with rifle fire which induced machine guns to join in and so it spread until artillery of both sides were engaged.

Alban Pierce - Extract from a personal letter

My mother's letter came today

And now my thoughts are far away,

For in between its pages lay

A little sprig of wattle.

'The old home now looks at its best,'

The message ran; 'the country's dressed

In spring's gay cloak, and I have pressed

A little sprig of wattle.'

I almost see that glimpse of spring:

The very air here seems to ring

With joyful notes of birds that sing

Among the sprigs of wattle.

The old home snug amidst the pines,

The trickling creek that twists and twines

Round tall gum roots and undermines,

Is all ablaze with wattle.

A.H. Scott, The Anzac Book, Cassell & Co. Melbourne 1916