Victorians at War - Oral History Project

Enlistment
Ned Egglestone spent nearly all his early life in a home for Aboriginal children taken from their families. At the age of 15 Ned was sent out to work on a farm but a couple of years later, in the early 1940s, he decided to run away to enlist in the army. Ned travelled over 300 miles to Perth and, although he was under-age, managed to find a recruitment officer who would enlist him in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Ned describes the moment when the officer questioned him about his age and he replied, 'Well look, you know, I have absconded actually from a home…from an orphanage, who sent me out to a farm and I am still under their control'. Ned trained in Bathurst, New South Wales, and Canungra, Queensland, before he was sent to fight in Borneo.
Soundbite		Soundbite
A more recent soldier than Ned Egglestone, Simon Moore-Wilton was inspired to join the army when he left school in the early 1990s by a desire for excitement and a family history of military involvement. He explains his motivations for joining the forces in the following way: 'I suppose above and beyond anything else it was a sense of adventure, a bit of excitement'. Simon went on to the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, and then the Royal Military College at Duntroon before graduating in 1995. He served in the United Nations Advance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) in 1999.
Hear complete interviews with veterans in the "Personal Stories" section of the Archives