Spare a thought for what life must have been like for Emma Hitchin. Age 52, with the news of Gallipoli still ringing in her ears Bill, her husband of 25 years and her oldest son head off overseas to fight in the war. 

Not long after Bill arrived overseas he contracted influenza and was hospitalised in England. After two agonising months of getting varied correspondence from the hospital about his rapidly changing and often improving condition, Bill eventually deteriorated and died on 3rd September, 1916 in England. 

Bill had led the world-renown Coo-ee March from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915 to enlist more soldiers. The 515 kilometre march saw the 35 men from Gilgandra grow to 263 recruits. 

A new exhibition at the Coo-ee Gallery in Gilgandra examines what life was like for the women left behind as 35 men from Gilgandra headed off to the deadly trenches of the first World War. 

The ‘Ladies Behind the Lines’ experience, will tell the story of the Coo-ee March through the eyes of the women as they experienced a new way of life from 1915.

“A powerful expression of hope and excitement turned to fear and sorrow” according to a Gilgandra Shire Council statement. 

The idea came from Shirley Marks, the Curator and Archivist at the Gilgandra Museum and Historical Society. 

“I put up my hand and said maybe we should think about what it is like for the women left behind” she explained “Mrs Hitchin was left behind and left heartbroken. Women across the town were left with farms, family and businesses to manage after their husbands left.

“You take 35 strong men out of a small country town, it leaves a big hole and it was filled by some very strong women”. 

ABOVE: The Coo-ee March Gallery at the Coo-ee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre in Gilgandra. The latest exhibition will feature actors who will play the role of wives of veterans who stayed behind in Gilgandra as their husbands and often sons went off to war. Image: NSW Museums 

ABOVE: Coo-ee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre in Gilgandra. Image: NSW Museums. 

The exhibition comes as part of the opening of the refurbished Coo-ee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre in Gilgandra, within the recently upgraded Gilgandra Cultural Precinct.

As part of the Gilgandra Cultural Precinct revitalisation project, the 707m2 Coo-ee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre received new flooring display cases, new fixtures, accessibility upgrades, air conditioning and a fresh coat of paint. The wider project scope of work also includes an accessible riverside observation deck, yarn circle and landscaping. 

ABOVE: The Coo-ee March: Gilgandra Shire library 

“Gilgandra now has a Coo-ee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre that in itself is a tourist attraction that celebrates our diverse history in a unique building that continues to attract positive comments from near and far,” Gilgandra Shire Council Mayor Doug Batten said 

The Coo-ee March is clearly a big part of Gilgandra’s cultural fabric said Shirley Marks.

“Recruiting all those men certainly was a big achievement. But we are also now thinking about it from the women’s point of view," she said.

"I know the fall-out from the war was also hard and some relationships didn't continue even if the men returned. One man returned from the war missing a leg to his fiancee and he felt so ashamed he broke off the relationship because he felt, in his words, his fiancee deserved a ‘complete man’."