Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Edward Ernest Porte was born on 11 July 1895 and registered in the district of
Deloraine in the north of the state.

Edward was the youngest of eight children born to mother Elizabeth (Page)
(Porte) Duncan.
Edward’s childhood is complex due to his mother’s complicated relationships with
The fathers of her children.

The last of Elizabeth’s children was Edward Ernest Porte was born on 11 June
1895, two days before her 42nd birthday, also in Deloraine. Although his WW1
Attestation papers list his birth place as Chadley (in fact is Chudleigh) which is very near Deloraine.

Surprisingly, Edward’s father is listed as Thomas Porte (the absconding policeman
husband and not his mother's husband at the time (Thomas Duncan)
Surprisingly, or perhaps not for Elizabeth, she is listed in the city directory as living on the West Coast town of Zeehan between 1902 and 1907 which is when she passed away.

Edward would have been a small child, 7 years old, when his mother relocated to Zeehan and upon her death, his eldest brother and Elizabeth’s first born Thomas Stewart Porte would have become his next of kin.

At the time of Edward’s enlistment, his older brother and next of kin lived in Zeehan. Zeehan is a mining town 35 km to the NW of Queenstown.

Edward was stated in a newspaper article as trying to enlist in Queenstown but was refused. However, no evidence has been found to support this. He next tried to enlist on 2 June 1915 in Sydney, New South Wales and his attestation papers are available for this.
He was listed as being aged 22 years on 11 June 1915, when in fact he was just about to turn 20 years in July. This was most likely a lie as he may not have had consent from his next of kin (brother Thomas in Zeehan).
It was stated, “he was a good specimen of manhood in every respect, he has defective teeth which I understand can be righted”

Although it appears he was accepted in Sydney, less than 2 weeks later, on 15 June 1915 Edward enlists in Brisbane in Queensland. This time he stated that he was 21 years and 11 months old.

Edward embarked for the Middle East on 16 August 1915 from Brisbane on board
the H.M.A.T A55 Kyarra.

Edward’s published Attestation papers are remarkably sparse in detail for someone serving on the battlefields of the Western Front for 4 years.

Edward was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre on 18 September 1918 at Villeret-Tincourt when "during an advance against the enemy front showed a conspicuous devotion to duty”

On his return, Edward was listed as living in Burnie at Five Mile Emu Bay Rail in
1919 and was working as a labourer. He may have worked on the railway which
serviced the mining industry on the West Coast, but he also comments on knowing about grazing on the NW in his evidence to the Public Works in 2020 (below) so may well have been a farm hand.

Edward returned to the West Coast of Tasmania and in the City Directory was listed as having a dairy at Lynchford, approximately 5 km from Queenstown and on the doorstep of the now world renowned rainforest area and West Coast Wilderness Railway.

The Crown Dairy was listed for sale a few years earlier, but it appears that Edward leased it, possibly under the Soldier Settlement
Scheme. The Crown Dairy was situated near the Lynch Creek and less than 2 kilometres from the Queen River. From his evidence to a Public Works Committee in 1920, we see that Edward leased 2000 acres of land and ran a dairy farm with 220 head of cows.

"E. PORTE'S EVIDENCE.
Edward Porte, dairyman, residing in Lynchford, deposed: — that he was
a returned soldier and was interested in grazing. He was grazing on about 2000 acres at Lynchford and had found it very satisfactory and saw no reason why similar country should not be found to the proposed road. He had about 220 head on the land he held. There had been on other occasions 400 head on that land in a previous occupant’s time.
The area would easily stand that number all the year round. Once this country was grassed it held better than grazing land on the North-West Coast, of which he had personal experience. This land had been grassed I5 years ago, and he regarded it as a highly satisfactory proposition. He desired to point out to the commission that he held this property under an occupation license from year to year, which was very unsatisfactory. This system gave no security of tenure,
and did not encourage fencing, as in the case of re assumption, no allowance mould be made for approvement. ' He strongly advocated, say, a 14 years' tenure, which would give security and confidence to developing the country. £2000 had been paid for the property he was occupying, including stock and premises, but beyond the stock and the good will of his dairying business, he had nothing else to show.
? To Mr Nichols— The system of tenure was a bar to settlement and stock raising on the West Coast. Security of tenure could be given without interfering with the mining industry."

Edward became engaged to a young lady named Minna May Victoria Triffitt from
Queenstown but tragically, she suddenly passed away on 6 May 1929. She was 28
years old and Edward was 35 years old at the time. Edward was understandably heartbroken and for the next few years (1930 -1934) published a memorial to her in the newspaper on the anniversary of her death.

Edward was involved in quite a few leisure activities while living in
Lynchford/Queenstown. It appears he played football at the local football ground, which was surfaced with gravel. He played for the Smelters team (named after the mining activity)

Towards the end of the 1920’s when he was living in Brown St in Queenstown,
Edward began exhibiting in the annual Queenstown Horticultural Society Spring
Show, His specialty was daffodils and he continued to send his exhibits down to
Queenstown when later living in Romaine (Burnie)
In 1934 Edward returned to the North West Coast and lived in Romaine , a suburb of
Burnie where returned soldiers were granted land under the Returned Soldier’s
Settlement Act. It is highly probable that Edward occupied land with a 99-year lease under this Act and continued his farming pursuits.

During the years of 1937 and 1943, Edward married his wife Clara Glady Dodd who was two years younger than he was. I have been unable to locate the actual date of his marriage. They lived at Romaine until they passed away, Clara in 1978 at the age of 80 and Edward in 1980 at the age of 85.

It does not appear that Edward and Gladys had any children of their own (probably due to their age when they married), as Edward left his estate to a nephew (Alan Baldwin) and his wife in Devonport.

It is quite ironic that it took 3 tries for Edward to get accepted for enlistment and
service yet he went through some of the most brutal battles of the war without being hospitalized for anything other than his teeth.