History of Australia'

Wattle Day and wattle blossom took on a new emphasis during World War I. Light-hearted celebrations and carefree gatherings were replaced by serious fundraising and a depth of patriotism never before experienced among Australians.

The New South Wales Wattle League put all its energies into helping the war effort. Together with the Red Cross and Patriotic Fund, they combined forces to raise as much money as possible by selling sprigs of wattle on the streets of Sydney. Depots were established in various parts of the city to receive wattle sent by country supporters.

This was the first time in our history that large numbers of Australians were absent from our shores together (the contingent to the Boer War was small by comparison). For 130 years, migrants had been leaving other homelands and adopting this country, some for better, many for worse. Suddenly now their sons find themselves transplanted en masse in hostile circumstances upon a foreign shore. These men had left the only land they knew and naturally, their thoughts were of home, in Australia. Not England or Ireland or anywhere else.

'History in your city - Wattle days', Daily Telegraph, 1 August 1972

A grove of Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia baileyana, trees in Centennial Park, Sydney. The New South Wales branch of the Wattle Day League celebrated Wattle Day in 1913 by planting 200 wattle trees in the park. Photo: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

A change of date to August 1

So much wattle was needed for these stalls that demand soon outstripped supplies. In 1916, the date for Wattle Day in New South Wales was changed to 1 August, because of the early blooming of wattle around Sydney. At the time the most popular wattle in Sydney gardens was the Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana) which flowers in winter. By September this variety is finished blooming.

The League also obtained special permission for soldiers to wear a sprig of wattle on their uniforms. Sprigs were handed out freely to soldiers on the street while members and friends of the League spent Wattle Day visiting military camps and hospitals distributing sprays of wattle.

Cardboard boxes filled with sprigs of pressed wattle were sent to Egyptian hospitals for ditribution to wounded Anzacs. This soon became a tradition and, as the war progressed, wattle was despatched to wounded soldiers in France and England.

It became customary for mothers to enclose sprigs of wattle with letters to their sons on service abroad, to remind them of home.

Alban Pierce of Victoria was sent this sprig of Wattle by the Red Cross after being wounded in France. It is a piece of Cootamundra wattle.