Historical analyses of soldiers in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the Great War have focused overwhelming on combat experiences and the environment of the trenches. By contrast, little consideration has been made of the non-combat experiences of these individuals, or of the time they spent behind the front lines. Far from military experiences revolving around combat and trench warfare, the letters, diaries, and memoirs of working class men suggest that daily life for the rank and file actually revolved around work, and in particular manual labour. Through a focus on working class men???s experiences in the AIF during the Great War, this dissertation seeks to discover more about these experiences with work in an attempt to understand the broader aspects of life in the military. In this environment of daily work, many working class men also came to approach military service as a job of work, and they carried over the mentalities of the civilian workplace into their daily life in the military. This dissertation thus seeks to understand how workplace cultures were transferred from civilian workplaces into the military. It explores working class men???s approaches towards daily work in two different theatres of war, Gallipoli and the Western Front, in order to highlight the significance of work within military life. Furthermore, it evaluates aspects of this workplace culture, such as relations with employers, the use of workplace skills, and the implementation of industrial relations methods, to understand the continuities between the lives of civilians and soldiers. Finally, this dissertation is not a military history: it adopts a culturalist approach towards the lives of people in the AIF, and in the environment of the Great War, in an effort to place the military experiences of these working class men within the context of their broader civilian lives.

Historical analyses of soldiers in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the Great War have focused overwhelming on combat experiences and the environment of the trenches. By contrast, little consideration has been made of the non-combat experiences of these individuals, or of the time they spent behind the front lines. Far from military experiences revolving around combat and trench warfare, the letters, diaries, and memoirs of working class men suggest that daily life for the rank and file actually revolved around work, and in particular manual labour. Through a focus on working class men???s experiences in the AIF during the Great War, this dissertation seeks to discover more about these experiences with work in an attempt to understand the broader aspects of life in the military. In this environment of daily work, many working class men also came to approach military service as a job of work, and they carried over the mentalities of the civilian workplace into their daily life in the military. This dissertation thus seeks to understand how workplace cultures were transferred from civilian workplaces into the military. It explores working class men???s approaches towards daily work in two different theatres of war, Gallipoli and the Western Front, in order to highlight the significance of work within military life. Furthermore, it evaluates aspects of this workplace culture, such as relations with employers, the use of workplace skills, and the implementation of industrial relations methods, to understand the continuities between the lives of civilians and soldiers. Finally, this dissertation is not a military history: it adopts a culturalist approach towards the lives of people in the AIF, and in the environment of the Great War, in an effort to place the military experiences of these working class men within the context of their broader civilian lives.