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<p class="page" id="a5658002">[Page 2]</p><p>Diary of my period during the Great War [indecipherable]<br/>We left Cootamundra which is better known as Coota about 6.30 in the eveng of the 13th. The people of Coota were there in full force and as far as send offs go we were all right. The Camp Canteen Sgt distributed cigaretts and the boys supplied their own liquers and food until we got breakfast aboard the Ceramic on the following morning. We arrived in Sydney at about 4.30 a.m. and were surprized to find so many people on the station. I almost forgot to mention that we picked up some more troops at Goulburn. When we got out of the train we took the train to Millers Point (Dalgaty's) where there were other troops waiting to embark There were a lot of people there considering the timetable 5 or 5.30. There was also a good band who played 2 or 3 selections. It must have been fully 8 o'clock before we were all on board and then the people were let on to the wharf The squarddies had rolls of papers about an inch wide and about 20 or 30 feet long which they threw to their friends on the quay so that they had hold of one end and their friends the other. They were of various colours and they looked fine I can honestly say that from my own point of view (for you must understand I had "no" one to say good bye to) that it was all that one could wish for. Then as the ship gradually withdrew from the quay the band played "Auld Lang Syne" and the usual scenes were witnessed as are seen when the majority of ships leave port. Then the Squddies whose roll of paper (or streamers as we have called em) was longer had the satisfaction of seeing the shorter ones break one by one, I can say, that every one of us were touched from the bottom of our hearts.</p>