The Geelong Post Office bell rang out at 8.30pm on 11 November, 1918, signalling the close of the “war to end war”.
Bells pealed across city as revellers filled the streets, musicians played patriotic songs and farmers rode their horses from Waurn Ponds to join the celebrations.
A new Geelong exhibition has recreated that historic 20th Century day and the years that followed, reliving the Armistice through local artefacts and stories.
Remembering the End opened on Tuesday at Geelong Heritage Centre in commemoration of Sunday’s Centenary of Armistice.
Geelong Regional Library Corporation chair Ron Nelson described the exhibition a timely opportunity to delve into a fascinating and pivotal time in history.
“This exhibition highlights the huge and lasting impact that World War I, and the years following the armistice, had on the local community,” Cr Nelson said.
“Though a century has passed, the legacy of many of the activities undertaken in the post-war era still lives on in the community today.”
The exhibition features historic images from Geelong Heritage Centre, local press archives and Australian War Memorial in commemoration of the Centenary of Armistice.
The collection explores peace celebrations, the pandemic Spanish flu and ex-soldiers striving to return civilian life, in eight separate themes.
The exhibition will remain at Geelong Heritage Centre until early February 2019, before touring libraries across the city.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs Armistice Centenary Grants Program funded the exhibition.
Corio MP and shadow defence minister Richard Marles visited the exhibition and met with Geelong Heritage Centre staff on Friday, after personally endorsing the grant.
