Timely, lively and unflagging in its coverage of an extraordinary range of organisations and individuals, Volunteering takes the first comprehensive look at why Australians give so much of their time for free.

Sourced from Oppenheimer's own research and archival material from the Australian War Memorial, Australian Red Cross archives and State Libraries, Australian Women and War contains accounts of women such as Nursing Sister Nellie Gould in the Boer War and Angela Rhodes, the first Australian Military female air traffic controller to serve in Baghdad during the second Gulf War. The book also contains little known accounts of women such as Nurse Ethel Gillingham, one of the only Australian women to be a POW in WWI, and the group of Australian teachers sent to South Africa during the Boer War to work in the internment (concentration) camps.

This book maps out the deeply personal history of the soldiers' struggle to transition from Anzac to farmer and provider.

Written by leading historian Melanie Oppenheimer, and fully illustrated with a wealth of photographs and other records from the archives of Australian Red Cross Society, this riveting history marks 100 years of Red Cross in Australia. this is the story of everyday Australians. It is a history of people helping people across 'generations, united by a common passion and commitment to humanitarian action'. Born at the outbreak of World War I, Australian Red Cross celebrates its centenary in August 2014, making it one of the oldest and most respected voluntary organisations in Australia. With the help of volunteers across Australia, Red Cross played a critical role in supporting the men fighting overseas and the families at home during WWI and its aftermath, and later during WWII. Post-WWII it continued to build on this foundation, developing humanitarian services both nationally and internationally. this celebratory book focuses not only on the past but also on the present and future of Australian Red Cross, showing how the organisation has changed and developed over the last hundred years, from an organisation formed in war to one dealing with the varied demands of the twenty-first century - from social welfare to responding to disasters within Australia such as Cyclone tracy, the Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods, as well as international crises such as the 2004 tsunami. Fully illustrated with a wealth of photographs and other material from the archives of Australian Red Cross, this is an important record of an Australian icon.

At the outbreak of World War I, Narrelle Hobbes was the matron of the small and remote Brewarrina hospital in north-western NSW. Keen to be an active participant in the war, Narrelle, aged 36, decided to travel to London in March 1915 in order to join Queen Alexandra's Imperial Medical Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR). By May she was in Malta nursing the sick and wounded from Gallipoli. She later nursed in Sicily, India and Mesopotamia (now modern day Iran/Iraq). The Mesopotamia campaign, fought between the British and the Turks, is one of the largely forgotten theatres of the war. Narelle spent 10 months in Basra and later Amara, on the Tigris River, nursing casualties and patients with appalling diseases such as enteric fever, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. After falling sick, she then spent six months recuperating in the foothills of the Himalayas at the remote hill station of Binsar in Uttar Pradesh. Narelle is based on an extraordinary collection of letters written home to her family ('Dearest Peoples' and signed 'oceans of love') in Australia, letters that are a witty and evocative reminder of an extraordinary period in Australian history from the perspective of an Australian girl from the bush. Some of these letters are now held in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Written by leading historian Melanie Oppenheimer, and fully illustrated with a wealth of photographs and other records from the archives of the Australian Red Cross Society, this riveting history marks 100 years of the Red Cross in Australia. This is the story of everyday Australians. It is a history of people helping people across 'generations, united by a common passion and commitment to humanitarian action.' Born at the outbreak of World War I, the Australian Red Cross celebrates its centenary in August 2014, making it one of the oldest and most respected voluntary organisations in Australia. With the help of volunteers across Australia, the Red Cross played a critical role in supporting the men fighting overseas and the families at home during WWI and its aftermath, and later during WWII. Post-WWII it continued to build on this foundation, developing humanitarian services both nationally and internationally. This celebratory book focuses not only on the past but also on the present and future of the Australian Red Cross, showing how the organisation has changed and developed over the last hundred years, from an organisation formed in war to one dealing with the varied demands of the twenty-first century - from social welfare to responding to disasters within Australia such as Cyclone Tracy, the Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods, as well as international crises such as the 2004 tsunami. Fully illustrated with a wealth of photographs and other material from the archives of the Australian Red Cross Society, this is an important record of an Australian icon

Australians have always volunteered to help in emergencies, especially when the nation has been at war. During the Boer War, World War I and World War II, volunteers from all walks of life raised money, assisted with nursing and rehabilitation, and provided food and clothing. Servicemen and women were helped both at home and in the field. The main wartime volunteer organisations were the Australian Red Cross, the Australian Comforts Funds, the Salvation Army, and the YMCA with the YWCA. Their story and the stories of countless wartime civilian volunteers is told for the first time, revealing important aspects of Australian social and political life. For example, it was the pressure of the volunteers that forced governments to act on essential matters like repatriation benefits for returning soldiers and for the welfare of their dependents.