Candidates with claims to being the first organised throbs of that good heart emerge from a fossick through a new on-line exhibition Canberra Women in World War I: Community at Home, Nurses Abroad. http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/cww1/index.html

There we find Jane Miller, living in infant Canberra from 1913, making warm-hearted, big-hearted, energetic responses to challenges posed by the Great War of 1914-1918.

Living in Canberra because her husband, Colonel David Miller, was appointed the first administrator of the Federal Capital Territory, she became president and mover and shaker of (the "candidates" we have just nominated above) the Federal Capital Territory War Food Fund and of Clothes for Belgian Babies.

And Jane Miller was there (although we don't know which woman she is in our picture) at the famous February 20,1913 Ceremony. King O'Malley, Minister for Home Affairs, ceremoniously drove the first peg to mark the axis between the Capitol and Mt Ainslie. He then invited Jane Miller to name the site and she christened it "Canberra Hill".

But on to wartime. Belgium's wretchedness after it's early (August 1914) invasion by Germany and then because of German atrocities against civilians (sometimes called in the history books The Rape of Belgium) touched decent hearts everywhere. It certainly touched Jane Miller's and the Queanbeyan Age of those times was always chronicling her busy good works. Her War Food Fund contributed funds to many causes including several Belgian ones such as the Belgian Relief Fund, Homes for Belgian Refugees, Belgian Soldiers' Fund, Belgian Relief Commission for Belgian Refugees in Holland and Distressed Belgians in Belgium.

She and her assistant good souls were very quickly galvanised after the war was underway. She organised an October 1914 fund-raising event that packed the Canberra Amusement Hall "to the doors". The audience "lustily" joined in singing patriotic airs (poignantly for us, given today's horrors in Paris, those airs included La Marseillaise) and enjoyed various entertainments that included the last scene of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

In May 1915 a reporter from the Age went to see her at her home the administrator's residence to report on her project of collecting clothes for Belgian babies. She was appealing for warm clothes for "the poor destitute Belgian mothers caring for their little ones in many of the towns of Belgium, France, England and Holland".

She showed the reporter a whole room he marvelled was "filled with hundreds of little garments of all descriptions, flannel and flannelette night dresses, pilchers, flannels, petticoats, dresses of various materials, hoods, bonnets, lovely bootees, boots, even a fur boa … the useful and practical work of patriotic women".

This article Clothes For Belgian Babies lauded the efforts of "the patriotic women in all parts of the Federal territory making up useful little garments during their spare hours". The Age noted that local school girls too were making things for Belgium's babies.

In December 1915 the paper found that at the third Canberra Sports Carnival held at the Canberra Recreation ground in aid of Allies' Day, Mrs Miller had "very thoughtfully arranged a marquee in which to receive clothes for the Belgian children, and a liberal response was made by the ladies of the district, especially those residing in the vicinity of Canberra".

You can read all about these early, vigorous throbbings of Canberra's heart, and about much, much more, at the online exhibition Canberra Women in World War I: Community at Home, Nurses Abroad.

And from the largeness of heart of those of our city and region who have gone before (Jane Miller went to her Great Reward in 1932) to large-heartedness here in our own times. Prepare to have your hearts (and all your other giblets) warmed by the story of the scarred little Boobook Owl in our affecting picture.

Philip Machin (he took the photograph) enlightens us that "A property owner found 'Boo' (a Southern boobook owl) whilst walking along one of his fence lines.

"Boo had been caught in a strand of barbed wire and in trying to escape had shredded a number of feathers from its wing [and that's probably when it got its facial scars too]. The bird was handed over to Wildcare and after checking there were no fractures he (?) was rehabilitated.
"Whilst waiting for its feathers to grow back, Boo was fed on a diet of crickets and defrosted mice, at dawn and then again at dusk. As we have a large aviary (a filled-in stable block) we could test fly it and ensure it could pick-up food. There were also a number of small bush rats scurrying around [for it to catch].

"He was eventually released back to his old hunting grounds and it was a delight to see him fly off into the nearby trees.

"Boo is featured in Wildcare's 2016 (wall-mounted) calendar, which is available from Lorraine, tel. 0439599032 or at calendars@wildcare.com.au.

"As to the culprit – barbed wire really needs to be removed where and when it is no longer needed. It traps birds, flying foxes and bats like an angler's fish hook."

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