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[Page 5]
the boat deck) and then turned in.
Saturday 25/12/15 Christmas Day – We had church service 10.30 a.m. which was much appreciated especially the allusions to and prayers for the absent ones, which even the roughest of the men seemed to feel. After the service we had our Christmas dinner which consisted of soup, roast pork with apple sauce and harircot beans and potatoes and plum duff. I also had a billy from home and I got the lucky wishing bone out of the pudding. Brother got a 3d but Tad did not get anything. The rest of the day was just like Sunday.
Sunday 26/12/15 Usual routine.
Monday 27/12/15.. We arrived at Freemantle (where we had to disembark so that a lot of wheat could be loaded) about 7.30 a.m. this morning, after a very slow trip from Sydney owing to their desire not to reach here before Christmas, we disembarked at 8.15 and entrained on the wharf for Blackboy Hill where a large W.A. camp was situated. We arrived there about 10 a.m. and were first allotted to our huts, but as there were no guards or officers visible and the W.A. boys were all away on leave we dumped our kits and made post haste for Perth. Ted Mears and I went together, had dinner at the Salvation Army and then took the tram to Nedlands. The line follows the swan river all the way, so we had an excellent view of the holiday makers for it is Boxing Day. The river is shallow the whole distance for about 200 yards out and all along the bank parties were bathing in the open, with very crude dressing sheds made of rugs, upturned sulkies and carts, umbrellas and all sorts of funny things. On alighting at Nedlands we found that a Red Cross Carnival was in progress. And so we had a very enjoyable time watching the very mixed crowd arriving in all sorts of dilapidated conveyances with animals hardly fit to be called horses. In fact during my stay in W.A. I only saw one decent bit of horse-flesh and that was a trotting thoroughbred. The trams are very curious things with a big awkward scoop in front made of a rope net on an iron framework, to act as cowcatcher. They also have transfer tickets which enable you to alight at one stop stay for a period not exceeding ten minutes and then continue your journey and as the first section is 3d and the others 1d it comes in very