Exploring the island
Australians were attentive sightseers. The exoticism of ancient Mediterranean culture would have been fascinating. For some, it may also have resonated with tales of antiquity, Homer and Greek mythology.
Photographs and written accounts detail the landscape, villages and people. They demonstrate Australians’ interest in Lemnian culture and traditions.
Of Castro (now Myrina), Lance Corporal William Turnley noted that ‘quite a number of inhabitants could speak fair English’, which would have helped conversation.
‘The Island of Lemnos with its inhabitants is like a chapter out of ancient history. I think if we could have visited it two or three hundred years ago we would have found the people living the same kind of lives as today. The women may be often seen with their spinning jenny weaving their cotton. I purchased one as a curio.’
– Staff Nurse Caroline Allen, Bendigo Independent, 7 Mar. 1915
