Regional Australia and the Great War

In this intimate portrait of Australia at war, Philip Payton looks at the experiences of inhabitants of “old Kio,” the copper mining communities of South Australia’s northern Yorke peninsula during World War I. Payton focuses equally on the soldiers—all volunteers—on the battlefront, as well as the divisions and tensions on the home front, and provides a beautifully nuanced depiction of the ripple effect of war and violence. With excerpts from newspapers, diaries, and memoirs, as well as many photographs of Old Kio and its denizens during the war, Regional Australia and the Great War is a carefully researched and vividly drawn account of the changes wrought on a community during war.