Diggers Joining Up

A four-panel mural painting for the 2/9th Australian General Hospital recreational hut for the amusement of the patients. This panel comprises of eight vignettes of an unlikely bunch of soldiers exhibiting varying forms of disrespect for senior ranking officers, through such activities as gambling and insubordination. Drawing and painting materials were scarce during the Second World War, so McLaren adopted the tar-backed paper (sisalkraft) that was used throughout the Solomon Islands for lining the thatched huts. At the end of the war, the murals were brought back to Australia by a member of the 2/9th A.G.H. and were installed in Red Cross House library in the N.S.W. division headquarters of the ARCS. In the early 1970s, the building was due to be demolished and the mural was salvaged once again to find a permanent home in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

• Diggers in the Middle East
• Diggers in the South Pacific
• Diggers on leave