Snowball marches

During World War I, recruitment marches or snowball marches to state capital cities were a feature of volunteer recruiting drives for the Australian Imperial Force in rural Australia. Between October 1915 and February 1916, nine marches were held starting from various points in the state; the most notable was the first march from Gilgandra, New South Wales, known as the Cooee march. The March of the Dungarees took place in south-eastern Queensland in November 1915. In 1918, in an effort to promote recruitment, another march was staged, but this was less spontaneous and the marchers in fact travelled by train.

The marches were called "snowball marches" in the hope that like a snowball rolling down a hill will pick up more snow, gaining more mass and surface area, and picking up even more snow as it rolls along, the marchers would also collect more marchers as they progressed to the recruiting depot.

The Australian Imperial Force was formed promptly on the declaration of World War I as a volunteer force; many men signed up immediately. From mid-June 1915 there was a substantial increase in recruitment, as state-based Parliamentary recruiting committees were formed and became active in towns, boroughs and shires. In June 1915 the Minister for Defense set recruitment goals at 5,300 men per month in order to maintain the forces fighting at Gallipoli.

This target was exceeded in Victoria when 21,698 men enlisted in that month, the largest number from any state during the war. The campaign in New South Wales by contrast was disappointing for state leaders — especially so in light of interstate rivalry between the two neighbors. It was suggested by the Premier of New South Wales, William Holman, that one of the reasons New South Wales was not meeting the targets was because the military authorities were not ready to accept the men at the time they offered to enlist and told them to come back later.

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