The Scent of Eucalyptus

Book One. It's August 1914 and the Sovereign nations of Europe spiral inevitably into war. Most are confident it will be a short conflict and that a great victory will be achieved by Christmas. Jack Roberts and his family live in Berri, a town on the Murray River in South Australia. One by one and for very different reasons, the Roberts men enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces for service overseas. Local football hero Ally, the eldest of Jack's sons, enlists at the very...
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Book One. It's August 1914 and the Sovereign nations of Europe spiral inevitably into war. Most are confident it will be a short conflict and that a great victory will be achieved by Christmas.
Jack Roberts and his family live in Berri, a town on the Murray River in South Australia. One by one and for very different reasons, the Roberts men enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces for service overseas.
Local football hero Ally, the eldest of Jack's sons, enlists at the very outbreak of war. For him it's simple - his mates are going, and he won't be left behind. Jack's youngest son Jimmy lies about his age and enlists under a false name along with his best friend Willie - an Aboriginal lad who becomes convinced that serving in the army will contribute to greater respect being afforded his marginalized, mistreated people. After learning of Jimmy's enlistment, Jack resolves to have him sent home. He believes his only chance to track Jimmy down before his son's 18th birthday is to follow his boys into the army.
On the other side of the world, Daniel Carbury, a young English aristocrat and commissioned officer in the Coldstream Guards, is amongst the first men of the British Expeditionary Forces sent to confront the Germans as they rampage through Belgium. When he is wounded early in the war, his influential parents contrive to keep their only son and heir in England and out of danger - but not to be denied and driven by his sense of duty, Daniel counters by resigning his commission and transferring to a new branch of the services, the Royal Flying Corps where his parent's sphere of influence does not extend.
By Christmas 1915 the allied campaign in the Dardanelles has failed, the Western Front has devolved to a monumental stalemate and the very nature of the war has changed. It is no longer purely a soldier's war. The conflict has been driven to the doorsteps and brought down upon the very roof tops of civilian populations across continental Europe, extending across the English Channel to London. A second Christmas passes with no end to the war in sight.