After the call to enlist, the 12, already part of the volunteer Longford Light Car Troop, would become the first to leave Tasmania. Months later, they would be among the first to leave the country for active service too.

One of the group, Frank Rigney, was a meticulous diarist - he was also a historian at heart. His typed notes from the early 2000s, shared by one of his three children, reveal a little of their story almost 80 years on.

"He learnt to use a computer when he was 90," said Mr Rigney's daughter, Vera Taylor. "And once he mastered that he had a lovely time writing up all his own family history that he knew of - and these accounts."

TIME TO DECIDE

The accounts tell a vivid story of the experience of the group, initially known as the Tasmanian 22^nd Light Horse Cavalry Regiment - later the 6^th Division Cavalry Regiment - from that first training camp at Mona Vale.

With about 1500 other Australian and New Zealand personnel on January 10, 1940, the 12 set off from Sydney for further training at a camp near the Palestinian village of Qastina - complete with mess, canteen and a picture theatre.

Here, they shared a tent with beds of three pine boards and trained with broom handles as guns until the correct equipment arrived from England.

By September 1940, the group had moved to a camp near Cairo, where the first showers were welcomed and further training was carried out in desert conditions.

The regiment then moved inland near Alexandria. They dug trenches in which they dove for cover at one stage when a swishing noise was heard closer than usual - later discovered to have been a flock of wild ducks disturbed by air raids near the city.

They would move again to Mersa Matruh on the Egyptian coast. A tin of bully beef was typically shared between three for each meal and water was restricted to 1.3 litres per day per soldier.

The desert was sparse here, with sweltering days and freezing nights. For warmth, soldiers would sleep fully clothed - boots included - under their single blanket. Tents would be moved over trenches to provide shelter from blinding sandstorms.

Around this time, the regiment met briefly with another containing many Tasmanians, which was noted as a great thrill.

It was then drawn into the attack against Vichy France as part of the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. During this campaign, Mr Rigney joined a group of 18 others - swelling later to about 40 - who would become know as the Kelly Gang.

The troop contained six other Tasmanians and many others from country centres. It used captured French Cavalry Horses to carry out raids and ambushes, relaying information and protecting Allied flanks.

After Japan entered the war in December 1941 the threat in the Middle East waned and the regiment, along with about 6000 other Australian troops, returned to defend their homeland.

They disembarked at Port Adelaide on March 30, 1942, more than two years after their departure, and were immediately moved to the Northern Territory.

On his return to Tasmania after four years of service, reaching the rank of Lance Sergeant, Mr Rigney worked on his step-father's farm near Cressy. He would later take on his own under the Soldier Land Settlement Scheme.

In those later years, before his death at the age of 94 in 2010 and the publication of his history of the estates and families of the Northern Midlands in 2008, Mr Rigney began retyping his notes from the war.

"Being a farmer in his later years, it made sense to keep a diary. But he obviously kept a diary long before that anyway," Ms Taylor said. "It's just been part of his life."

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