WAGGA will mark the centenary of the start of World War I with a commemoration in the Victory Memorial Gardens on Monday.
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Organised by the Wagga sub-branch of the RSL, the event will start with a barbecue breakfast at 9am and culminate with an official service at 11.30am.
England declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, and Australia as part of the British Empire immediately followed it into battle at a massive cost.
Wagga RSL sub-branch president Kevin Kerr said Australia's population at the time was just under five million; by war's end nearly four years later 416,000 men had volunteered for military service.
Of them, 64 per cent were casualties, the highest rate in the empire.
"As a result of that a lot of young women were unable to marry," Mr Kerr said.
Within days of war being declared, men from Wagga were hopping on the train to Sydney to enlist in the 1st Australian Imperial Force (AIF).
Volunteers for military service were called for in The Daily Advertiser on August 12.
The Advertiser reported on August 21 that almost two dozen men had left for Sydney and enlistment on the 1am train.
"They all thought it would be a great adventure"
- Kevin Kerr
"There were a considerable number of townspeople on the station to bid them farewell," the Advertiser reported.
Mr Kerr said the promise of adventure lured many men into the war.
"They all thought it would be a great adventure," Mr Kerr said.
Sub-branch treasurer Brian Watts said the commandant of Kapooka's Army Recruit Training Centre Colonel Steve Jobson CSC would deliver the keynote address on Monday.
Mr Kerr will deliver a welcome and speak about what is often called the Great War or the war to end all wars.
Wreaths will be laid on the cenotaph and silk poppies will be available for officials and school representatives to place on the memorial.
"We have a lot of schools coming," Mr Watts said.
At noon the bells of St John's Anglican Church will be rung to recall them pealing the day Australians learnt they were at war.
"At the start of the war the bells were rung and they did not ring again until the end of the war," Mr Kerr said.
Mr Watts said everyone was welcome to attend Monday's commemoration.
WHAT: Commemoration to mark the centenary of the start of World War I.
WHERE: Wagga's Victory Memorial Gardens.
WHEN: From 9am, Monday, August 4. Official ceremony starts at 11.30am.
