In the maelstrom of battle on 15 April 1917, former gold miner Thomas Edwin Guilmartin and another 11th Battalion soldier were sent up to the front line with a supply of grenades, or “bombs”, to help their A Company comrades hold a machine gun post.

It was one of many Australian positions near the village of Lagnicourt in Northern France under attack by a vastly superior German force. The machine gun crew fought to their last bullet and last grenade before being overrun by the enemy.

In 1891 John Polinelli migrated from the colony of Lombardy in Italy and began his life in Australia as a young farm labourer in the County of Towaninnie (Lalbert). In July 1898 he applied to the Department of Lands and Survey, through a special Land Board at Wycheproof to select a section of land. This land was a block called Allotment nine in the Parish of Chinangin, County of Tatchera which was situated eight miles south west of Ultima. The following is an extract from application.