The Swanwater West cemetery is located in a quiet location between St. Arnaud and Donald in North Central Victoria. It is the resting place of many a local.
Even Swanwater West wasn't immune of the ravages of World War 1.
Location 1
The initial coordinates of this cache brings you to the grave of Gertrude Agnes Grewar.
Born in Swanwater West in 1881, Gertrude was the sixth child of eight. In her early twenties Gertrude began her nursing training at the Gippsland Hospital in Sale. Graduating after 3 years, she moved on to private nursing, and also spent a couple of years as a surgical Sister, in charge of a ward and operating theatre. She then spent 3 years at the Hamilton Hospital, where she was promoted to the position of Matron. Yet, as was often the case, when Gertrude joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1915, she had to accept the lower position of Staff Nurse, equivalent in rank to a Private.
She was 33 years old.
Gertrude embarked on the RMS Mooltan on the 18th May at Port Melbourne pier, as a reinforcement of the 1st Australian General Hospital. Arriving in Egypt on the 16th June 1915, Gertrude and her 37 Mooltan companions were taken on strength with the 1st AGH, which operated out of the Palace Hotel at Heliopolis, and various other venues around the area. During her time in Egypt, Gertrude suffered a bout of dysentery. On the 23rd of September 1915 Gertrude was transferred for duty in England. She was then was posted to transport duty, nursing the sick and wounded Gallipoli veterans returning to Australia from the hospitals in England. On the 26th July 1916, Gertrude went to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital where staff were increasingly administering to surgical cases from France, especially amputees, and the work was described by many nurses as ‘very heavy’. In the December of that year, Gertrude suffered her first bout of influenza. She continued to work in a variety of British hospitals before she was posted to France in June 1918. At the end of October, Gertrude was admitted to the 8th General Hospital suffering her second bout of influenza, and was still a patient when the Armistice was announced.
She was eventually discharged on the 21st June 1919 after being classed as medically unfit, her main debility being Pruritus, a skin irritation which results from other ailments.
Settling back into post war Australia, Gertrude continued to nurse, taking charge of Dr Kidd’s private hospital in Castlemaine. On Sunday May the 22nd she was taken ill herself. Gertrude passed away around midday on Tuesday the 24th of May 1921. The cause of death was given as paralysis of the brain. The funeral to the Swanwater West Cemetery took place the following afternoon.
A = The number of times that St. Arnaud is mentioned on the dark headstone and the white shield on Gertrude's grave
B = The number of letters in the last two words that finish off this line on the white shield… “Who died on _______ ____”
C = Subtract two from the Roman numerals on the dark headstone
D = The number of letters in the first word of the second last line of the white shield.
Location 2
The second set of coordinates will take you to a memorial to members of the Hodgson family. G.W.N. McD Hodgson is the person on interest for this cache. He isn’t in fact interred here, rather he lies in an unknown location, but has a space on the memorial at Villers-Bretonnex, France.
George William Norman McDonald Hodgson was born in Swanwater, the son of Margaret and Joseph Hodgson. At the age of 30 he enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force, 23rd Battalion, C Company.
His records (which make fascinating reading) indicate that he left Melbourne in May 1915, bound for Gallipoli. He landed in Gallipoli on 30/8/15. In what I find amazing, he was charged 3/5d in November 1915, the cost to replace a ground sheet!
He got the mumps and was evacuated from Gallipoli during the final evacuation to Egypt. Once he had fully recovered he was sent to France in March, 1916. In August disaster struck as he was struck with shrapnel and received wounds to his back and right arm. He eventually re-joined his unit on the 23rd of September. Unfortunately, on the 10th of November 1916 he was killed in action. The following account from Sgt. Leonard Jeffries explains
“I know that George Hodgson (23.,C, XII) was killed instantaneously by a shell about Nov. 10th while we were holding the trenches at Flere. It was in the evening about 8 p.m. I helped bury him the same night just outside the trench and a small cross was put up. Two or three others were wounded at the same time.”
More distressing in the records is the reading of the correspondence between George’s Dad and the AIF while he chased his son’s personal effects. You could almost hear the anguish in his prose as he chased his son’s treasured photographs which would have been on his person at the time of death.
FG = The number of letters in the stone mason’s name (bottom right hand corner)
H = The number of times that the word thy appears on the headstone
Joseph Hodgson died at the age of 8J
The Final Location
Located a short distance away from the graves you will find the cache, a preform tube. You will need your own pen.
You will find the cache at
S 36° 3A.BCD
E 143° 0F.GHJ