ABSTRACT
The largest single group among the seventy 'Aborigines', who entered Ellesmere College when it opened in 1884, were farmers' sons. Farmers' sons were similar to other boys in that their fathers took charge of and planned their careers. Farmers desperately wanted young men and they took whatever help they could get. One contribution to this chronic shortage of strong young men was the Summer Harvest Camp. The Harvest Camps provided an enjoyable holiday and a 'very much worthwhile war effort' for the boys who were fortunate to be able to make such an enjoyable contribution to the nation's wartime survival. During the war understandings of masculinity and schoolboy heroes changed. Learning to endure misery and fear silently without expression was a fundamental aspect of growing up from a boy into a man. Even more suppressed and problematic than emotion in making boys into men is the development of sexuality.
