Oddfellows

On 1 January 1915, ramifications from the First World War, raging half a world away, were felt in Broken Hill, Australia, when in a guerrilla-style military operation, four citizens were killed and seven wounded. It was the annual picnic day in Broken Hill and a thousand citizens were dressed for fun when the only enemy attack to take place on Australian soil during World War I, took them by surprise. Nicholas Shakespeare has taken this little known piece of Australian history and turned it into a story for our time.