Members of No 4 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, waiting to embark for overseas service, Port Melbourne, 17 January 1917. Photograph by Josiah Barnes and courtesy Australian War Memorial.
- Day 905 of the war
- No. 4 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps embark RMS Omrah in Port Melbourne, bound for France. The squadron is the final one formed during World War I. Its pilots would commence active service in the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.
- Private Harold Gartrell, a telegraphist stationed in Rabaul returns to Orange to recover from malaria. Personal
- The Leader publishes the 264th casualty list which includes Henry Thomas Ward and C Taylor from Orange
- The audience at the Australian Hall in Orange listens “with rapt attention” to The Story of Gallipoli
- Canadian troops launch a highly successful raid against German lines northeast of the Lens-Bethune Railway near Calonne on the Western Front. In less than one hour, they succeed in blowing up more than 40 dugouts and three ammunition dumps, and manage to capture 100 prisoners and seize enemy guns.
- The lnter-Allied Conference convenes at Petrograd. Representatives of Russia, France, Great Britain and Italy meet to discuss war policy, finance, supplies and co-operation.
