- The Leader publishes the 276th casualty list; Arnold Astill from Cumnock and John James McMurtrie from Orange are listed as killed in action
- George Denis Chapman of Spring Hill provides a graphic account of the Battle of Rafa, which took place in Sinai on 9 January 1917. The Anzac Mounted Division
- The Leader publishes a letter of thanks from Lance Corporal E Leslie Gillman in France to Joyce Agland of NSW to thank her for a Christmas parcel he received. He says:
I feel I must write and thank somebody, so I do so to you…I rather like the name Joyce. ‘Tis a ripping name for a girl!… I shall be very delighted to hear from you it you care to write, and to hear all about you. I should also like to receive a photo from you.” He adds: “(I hope you don’t think I’m too cheeky!).” The Xmas Parcels – A Soldier’s Thanks
- William Edwin Agland, former Assistant Town Clerk in Orange, and the son of Orange mayor, WE Agland, writes from Lark Hill, England, to express his disgust at the “No” result in last October’s conscription referendum. He declares that those who oppose conscription:
should be over here, up to their bellies in mud and slush and fighting for freedom, instead of waltzing up and down Summer-street, making eyes at the pretty girls. An Australian on the Antis
- Orange musician and father, William Topman Waddington, is farewelled at the Royal Hotel before he boards the train to Sydney. Off to the Front – Pte W Waddington Farewelled
- German soldiers on the Western Front launch attacks at Pont-a-Mousson and the Australian-held Bouchavesnes; both attacks are repulsed with heavy casualties
- Allied soldiers close in on Bapaume Ridge
- Russian troops occupy Kangavar, south of Hamadan in Western Persia
- Turkish troops abandon their positions west of Shalal on the Sinai Peninsula
- The British government approves the creation of a National War Museum in London
Stone Bridge ten miles north of Kangavar, Ariel Varges. Image courtesy Imperial War Museum © IWM (Q 25056).
