Donations for the returning soldiers included goods such as fruit, cakes and flowers, mostly gum leaves and wattle. Cigarettes and other useful items were collated in the town hall. The Victorian railways agreed to carry free of charge to Port Melbourne station, parcels addressed to ‘the returning wounded soldiers’. An excerpt from the Argus newspaper in September of 1919 reads: Since July 1915, this committee has tendered welcomes to over 100,000 returning soldiers and sailors with “smokes” and refreshments. The amount expended in doing so totals over 3000 pound. Excepting occasional donations that amount had almost entirely been collected in pennies.
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