decided that Australia should be advised to form her own Fleet unit which occurred in 1911. In 1909, Bean was sent by the S.M.H. to far western New South Wales to write a series of articles on the wool industry. This event in his life reinforced his views on the Australian character from his encounters with the people in the environment of the outback – mateship, resilience and laconic cheer in the face of adversity. Bean took that sense of an independent Australian character with him to war. His articles from this experience were subsequently reworked into two books: On the Wool Track, first published in 1910, reprinted many times and now accepted as an Australian classic and the social documentary of the Darling River, The Dreadnought of the Darling, an account of his trip down the river on a small paddleboat first published in 1911. In 1910, the S.M.H. sent Bean to London as its representative. He travelled via America writing a series of articles about the development of the cities he visited and the provision of open spaces. While in England, he continued this interest and took the opportunity to visit town planning experiments. In Scotland he was able to witness the building of the newly-established Australian fleet's flagship, HMAS Australia, and the cruisers HMAS Melbourne and Sydney. His despatches to the S.M.H. describing their construction were later incorporated in Flagships Three which was published in 1913. Early in 1913, Bean returned to Sydney as a leader-writer for the S.M.H., continuing to write about town planning and the steps that should be taken to control the city’s future development. Among his initiatives was his call for a Chair of Town Planning and Architecture at Sydney University and for the resumption of land to allow a necessary expansion of the city's railways. Bean's "The Great Rivers" series for the S.M.H. was published in May 1914. At the outbreak of World War I, he was investigating social conditions in Aboriginal communities with a view to publishing a series of articles on that topic. By mid-1914, however, he was writing a daily commentary on the crisis in Europe. World War I Following the declaration of the World War I, and Australian Forces becoming involved, the Australian Government requested the Australian Journalists' Association to nominate an official correspondent to accompany the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F). In September 1914 Bean was elected by