Australian POW camps

[Lang]

I thought I would start a new thread so not to interfere with the interesting Canadian POW thread.

Maybe the administrators could bring the Australian comments across here.

The main Australian POW (for German and Italian prisoners) camps were in the Shepparton area of Victoria. This is the centre of a prosperous agricultural district with many nice small towns.

Of course the only Japanese POW camp at Cowra a few hundred miles north was famous for the big breakout and large loss of life.

There is a good book written about the POW camps and it is worthy of a Monty Python movie. Although it is a serious history, I found myself laughing out loud at the incompetence of the camp management.

The main camp was split in two with the tough Afrika Corps blokes on one side divided by a 50 foot roadway to the second camp holding the more relaxed Lufwaffe and mechant marine and naval personnel.

They all went out in work parties to fell trees and help in agricultural pursuits but still got bored. Stories of them stealing rifles from the guards causing great alarm, roll calls and minute searches end with the rifles being found in the roof of the guards' own hut.

A serious problem started to emerge when roll calls found 5 people missing from Camp 1 and five extra people in Camp 2 or vice-versa. After much teeth gnashing, extra guards, multiple roll calls etc failed to find the cause of the movement they stumbled on a tunnel between the camps.

Now this was not just any tunnel but a full walkway with electric lighting and steps at both ends!

A standard ploy was just to hide, under a building or in the roof, for no other reason than to create amusement for the boys. Probably would not have gone down too well in an allied POW camp in Germany but the Australians were not going to shoot someone for playing silly games.

I don't think Australians are naturally cut out to be jail warders. It all worked OK with no prisoners being physically mistreated and no record of escapees involving themselves in any form of sabotage or spying.

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

Can you post the book's reference please Lang? Always interested to obtain good books!

I think the Kormoran survivors ended up in Dhurringile 25 kms s/west of Shepparton (so in the general area Lang speaks of), which is still a prison today. I can remember a VMVC trip many moons ago that included a visit to Murchison POW camp, also near Shepparton (35kms SW). The solitary confinement cells were still there then, but used by the farmer for hay storage.

Mike

[Lang]

Mike

In Paris at the moment. When home on Wednesday will get the details - it is well worth the read.

Lang

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Can you post the book's reference please Lang? Always interested to obtain good books!

I think the Kormoran survivors ended up in Dhurringile 25 kms s/west of Shepparton (so in the general area Lang speaks of), which is still a prison today. I can remember a VMVC trip many moons ago that included a visit to Murchison POW camp, also near Shepparton (35kms SW). The solitary confinement cells were still there then, but used by the farmer for hay storage.

Mike

Tim Vibert organised that trip, he researched the camps and got permission for us to visit the main Murchison camp, which was private property. I can recall a few club members collecting bits of barb wire as souvenirs . The German and Italian POW's built memorials which we inspected , the Italian memorial had the Fascist date on it , the year Mussolini took over Italy they began the calender at year 1 . One original building was still standing apart from the naughty boy 'cooler' cells. Tim had wartime photos and we compared the gum trees, amazing some of the trees were identical in size and shape. The garden remnants were still visible . Interesting place .

Dhurringle was the German officers prison, a mansion house converted into a prison.

We also visited a satellite camp where the POW's had kept chooks, the little pens were still there.

[lynx42]

I lived in Orbost Vic for a number of years and whilst I knew that there were many Italians in the area it was just recently that I came across this write up about the Orbost Prisoners of War. It was written by Helen Martin from Gippsland History group and I hope you enjoy it.

Regards Rick.

BETE BOLONG PRISONER OF WAR CAMP.

Bete Bolong POW camp was on the west side of the Snowy River, near Orbost; its official address is now 60 Deaseys Cutting Road and 611 Buchan-Orbost Road. The site is on south side of the Buchan-Orbost Road, 3km south-south-east of Bete Bolong.

Status: Indicative place on the Register of the National Estate. Listed on the Victorian Heritage Inventory under the Heritage Act, Victoria. Was on the interim list for the Victorian Heritage Register (1993). Assessed as of regional significance and recommended for Heritage Overlay protection.

This description is from the Australian Heritage Database (RNE citation) and dates from the early 1990s:
During the Second World War, first alien internees and then prisoners of war were used throughout Australia as labour for essential works, including in agricultural areas, where they worked as farm labourers, helping to harvest vegetables and grain for local farmers during the day.
From November 1943 to November 1945, Italian prisoners of war were based at Bete Bolong, cultivating maize, peas, beans and other vegetables on local farms. Unlike other 'farming' prisoners of war, those at Bete Bolong did not live with the farming families, but at a Prisoner of War Control Centre on Crown land overlooking the Snowy River Flats. About fifty Italian prisoners lived at the centre, along with an Australian Military Force staff of approximately seven people. The prisoners were driven to and from the farms each day. Three of them apparently simply swam across the river to work. They worked a six day week, with Sundays off.

Although they were provided with rations, both prisoners and staff maintained vegetable and flower gardens. They were also skilled at cooking 'anything' they could catch, and at making illegal grappa. Very few of the Italians were experienced farm workers. Some of them used their skills to make things for the families they worked for; a cabinet-maker made furniture, a cobbler made shoes, etc. They interacted with the local community and, although they were not supposed to go within one kilometre of town, some were found at local dances on Saturday nights.

As recreation the prisoners were allowed to walk along the road to the west of the camp. Local people from both sides of the river could hear them sing as they walked. The prisoners also helped to construct an 'ant bed' tennis court on a property adjacent to the centre. Although now overgrown, the site of the tennis court can still be discerned as a flat area above the site of the centre.

Prisoner of war camps tended to be far more substantial than those that had housed unemployed labour in the 1930s, or even 'friendly aliens' in the early years of World War Two. The Geneva Convention specified certain conditions for prisoner of war accommodation, so huts were provided, rather than tents. Two of the dormitories that housed the Bete Belong prisoners of war are still standing in the local area. One was sold to a local farmer and used as a hay shed, and another was used for some time as a local dance hall.

The site consists of a number of features including structural remains of buildings, building sites, garden features and an access track. They extend for around 170 metres along a SW-NE trending ridge; concrete features possibly associated with buildings also occur on the western slope of the ridge. Vegetation on the ridge is open woodland of black box and grey gum. There are numerous introduced plant species, including aloe vera, lilies and radishes. Deposits of alluvial gravel, largely quartz, occur on the higher slopes at the southern end of the ridge.

At a number of points along the ridge, linear and circular arrangements of quartz pebbles can be discerned. These are likely to be decorative edging for small garden plots and paths. Two distinct lines of eucalypt trees can be seen extending down through the spine of the ridge. These may flank a road or path which led through the centre of the camp towards the NE end of the ridge. Pebble edging is discernible at some points along this alignment.
The site contains the remains of fourteen distinct features: gravel extraction pits; a loading dock; two ablutions blocks; a septic tank; unidentified buildings remains; unidentified building footings; a brick mound; a garden; two areas of terracing; an earth ditch; an earth mound; and an access road.

Extra information from East Gippsland Heritage Study 2005 and background research for East Gippsland RFA: The prisoners of war were shipped from North Africa to Australia. The Italians were well regarded by many of the locals and enjoyed singing when being escorted to and from work.

The site is important as being one of few remaining prisoner of war camps within the region. It demonstrates an unusual activity in the region, with Italian prisoners of war being used to maintain agricultural production. It is also historically significant as a place which played an important role in farming within the region during WWII, and as a place which provided cultural exchange between the Italian Prisoners of War and Australians, prior to the post-war immigration period. This history and fabric of the site demonstrate a distinct phase of Australian history where prisoners of war were used to maintain agricultural production. (Criteria A.4, D.2)

The camp is unusual in that the Italian prisoners of war were contained within the camp rather than being billeted out onto individual farms, and is notable as one of the few remaining prisoner of war camps within the region. While the layout of the camp is indicative of its military function, the remains of the garden beds and paths demonstrate the cultural influences of the prisoners of war themselves, and the living conditions of the camp itself.

[motto]

The Italian prisoners mostly enjoyed their time in Australia and when the opportunity arose to return as immigrants many of them did so. Ex prisoners from the Murchison camp and their families used to hold an annual reunion at Goulburn Weir where my father lived for many years. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still carried on by their descendants.
Tim Vibert had printed off some pages from the Murchison camp daily log that were quite interesting. As POWs the Italians were no problem although I do remember reading about one that got himself returned to the Murchison camp from a posting on a farm in Gippsland for making an improper suggestion to a local girl.
There was also mention of some camp personnel being sent for training in the handling of Japanese POWs who were an entirely different kettle of fish. Apparently they were expecting some there after the breakout at Cowra so as to split them up a bit.

David

[Ian Fawbert]

Lang,

As you head south on the Hume Highway, not far past the Campbelltown Steam Museum and on the north side of the Picton Rd turn off, there are strange huts in the dairy paddocks. They look like POW type camp observation towers.

Years went by, we would drive past on the way to my grandparents. Mum and Dad didnt know the answer to what they were nor did others we would ask (not being from the area and pre computer, it wasnt as easy!).

Fast forward to about 5 years back, i was speaking to Les Bell. He too had seen them and often wondered. Moving into the area not long ago, he started asking. He said he'd found out that they were POW type/ww2 camp guard towers, and also were part of a railway line station (i think that was what he said) which was to bring those imprisoned, either POW or citizens of axis nations who those in the know said needed to be locked up (similar to Cowra i guess).

Regardless, it solved a mystery (one of the many!). They are still there, quite visible though sadder than they were when i remember then as a kid 25 years back. There used to be more visible, they have collapsed- the dairy cows rubbing on 70+ year old timber structures doesnt aid much, but the main one or two arent hard to spot- on the left, about 50-150 metres off the road as you head south.

Les didn't find much info on it (back then) and i havent thought to ask if he had found more by now.

Cheers,
Ian.

[Tony Smith]

Les may have got the story a little mixed up. There WAS a railway branchline used to take POWs and internees to a camp (known officially as the German Concentration Camp! . That name wouldn't ring so nice 25 years later.), but it was not near Campbelltown. The Holdsworthy (as it was spelt then) branch left the Main South Line at Liverpool station and crossed the Georges River (the bridge supports are still there, now a pedestrian/cycleway) and ran along what is now Heathcote Road to around the position of the current East Hill line, where it turned due south and into the current Holsworthy Military training area. It was 5Km long.

The camp was opened in WW1, and closed in 1920. The railway branch was built with Internee labour and opened to traffic in 1917. The end of the branch into the GCC was closed with the closure of the camp in 1920, but the middle section continued for many years to serve the warehouses in the Holsworthy Base, and also brought special passenger trains for weekend shooting competitions at the Anzac Rifle Range. The branch finally closed in 1974.

Being securely enclosed within the Military base, the remains of the railway formation and GCC are somewhat preserved, including lots of German grafitti and names carved in the sandstone outcrops around the site of the railways station. The camp buildings were burnt in a bushfire many years ago, but the stone remains of the commandant's house and mess hall still remain, with modern buildings all around them.

Pity the AWM's site has gone all funny, as there are lots of photos of the camp and railway in their online collection.

[Mike Cecil]

I agree with you Tony, about the AWM's updated website: gone backwards in a big way, and that's being polite. Best to write to the webmaster and voice your frustration like I and many others have: they might get the hint, but somehow I doubt it.

If you go to the new site 'search' option and type 'German Concentration camp Holdsworthy', 60 odd images come up for viewing. Simple searches like that seem to work OK, just don't try anything more complex!

Mike

[Dinty]

I have been going to a property up near Coonabarabran NSW, during WW2 there were Italian POW's on this property, they constructed wooden shearers quarters, erected a few windmills on this property, the next time I'm up in the area I will get more information if anyone wants it cheers Dennis