Just like home
Before the war, agrarian life on Lemnos was comparatively simple. Some Australians, likely farmers themselves, were curious about local practices. They noted wheat, barley and rye among the local crops.
Many visitors were also fascinated by Lemnos’s windmills. These made sense on an island that experienced howling winds.
My word, it was lovely to free from the hospital, and to be again out among farmers. Everything is old fashioned here. The farmer was ploughing with a thick piece of wood for a plough drawn by oxen. After he had ploughed he scattered the seed over the land with his hands.’
– Private Max Goyder, Express and Telegraph, 22 Dec. 1915
‘Just outside the village were several windmills, the sort one sees in pictures; a stone tower with the wheel coming out from near the top. Some had the sails up; others did not. All the corn is ground at these mills and wherever you go on the island there you will find the windmills.’
– Australian soldier, Laura Standard, 17 Sept. 1915
