Early in 1915 Australians with loved ones among the "six bob a day tourists" of the AIF were receiving letters (often picture postcards) from the far-flung, wide-eyed men, and giving them to the press. One hundred years this week the Goulburn Evening Penny Post reported
"WITH THE AUSTRALIANS IN EGYPT. Following are extracts from a letter written by Private D. Lees, of the First Australian Division at Mena Camp, Egypt, to his sister, Miss Lees.
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"We are camped on a sandy desert ... Three of the pyramids are quite close to our camp, while the others are some distance away. The country between the pyramids and Cairo is magnificent, being rich Nile flats, where all the vegetable gardening and general cultivation is carried on. The land on these flats is worked in a most primitive fashion, an old wooden plough being drawn by two oxen. The men still wear the same long robe, and the married women have their faces covered (with the exception of their eyes) by a thick black veil.
"Cairo is the most immoral place I have over been in, [but] the road from our camp to Cairo is very beautiful, having an avenue of trees all the way.
"There are 28,000 men in camp at Mona, and you can imagine that we have quite a large city. We are were much amused by the manner in which the Cairo milkmen serve their customers. The cow is driven from door to door and the milk drawn as the customers require it."
