Volunteers working on Map of Australia in Compton Chamberlayne
The chalk map was carved more than 100 years ago
A group of volunteers have been working with the Map of Australia Trust (MOAT) to maintain the badge carved on the downs near Compton Chamberlayne.
The landmark, first created by Australian soldiers during the First World War, is close to the old Hurdcott Camp site, where the recruits from Down Under were trained.
MOAT have been responsible for the site since 2017 and is headed up by Helen Roberts, who founded the trust.
“We restored it back in 2018, but constantly grass and weeds are growing through that which makes the map look less visible,” she told us, adding: “We work on the hillside exactly like soldiers would have done 100 years ago.
We don't have anything mechanical or powered we use hand tools, shovels, lots of chopping tools to chop the weeds out. I've got an old entrenching tool possibly dating back to the First World War and that is one of the most useful things for working on the chalk.”
More volunteers are wanted to help with the upkeep of the badge, with working parties scheduled to visit the Map over the next few weeks.
“We didn't get up there during those hot summer months and then we don't have access up to the map during the autumn and winter,” said Helen, “We are able to get back up there at the very beginning of February, but we're only just getting going again this year.
It’s just a case of regular maintenance, we've got two more working parties coming up in the next couple of weeks on this coming Saturday the 15th of April and the following Saturday the 22nd then we will have a small Anzac Day service on the 25th.”
The Hurdcott Camp was not just a place of training, it was also where injured soldiers stayed during recovery, which war diaries suggest those in charge kept in mind when conducting training exercises.
Helen explained how they achieved that balance: “They were very careful to minimise the trauma to soldiers that had perhaps suffering from things like Shellshock. So, they limited the use of bombing and everything in the training of new recruits because they were aware that they had also convalescent soldiers staying at the camps as well.”
The Map is one of several similar badges across Wiltshire, and Helen says the carving shows how the Australians were thinking of home.
“Many of those (soldiers) would have looked up through those freezing cold winters, through the fogs, the wind, the blizzards, the snow cause with those winters were terrible and they would have looked at Australia, seen home, thought of home and thought of all the people that they'd left behind.”
The MOAT website has several diary entries from various soldiers of their time at Hurdcott Camp referencing the Map on the hillside, where you can also find out more about how to get involved with the maintenance of the Map.