With Anzac Day approaching, Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) has partnered with Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum to tell the unique history of the Waranga Basin internment camps.
In the latest episode of GMW’s podcast, George Ferguson from Tatura Museum discusses what life in the camps was like, who they housed, and what remains of the camps today.
Many of the lakes, dams and reservoirs GMW manages have been around for generations. They have helped transform the region and have seen the region transform around them.
Work to build Waranga Basin was completed more than a century ago and it has a rich history, particularly with the nearby internment camps it supplied water to during the Second World War.
When the Second World War broke out in 1939, four separate internment camps were established around Waranga Basin to hold people from Germany, Italy, and Japan captive.
Rather than being prisoners of war, the internees were people living in Australia but were from or had ties to Axis nations (countries that opposed the Allies).
There were 18 such camps set up throughout Australia but the first four were established around Waranga Basin.
“There ended up being about 18,000 people involved with the four camps near Waranga Basin, so having a reliable water supply was a crucial factor in their location,” Mr Ferguson said.
Security at the camps was high, with double barbed wire fences and watchtowers with searchlights that operated all night.
But Mr Ferguson said life inside the camps was different to what might be expected from a typical prisoner of war camp.
“Camp Three was a family camp, and they actually had a school there with a really high standard of education, going right up to university level,” he said.
“The internees represented a real cross gamut of society, with cooks, musicians, and professors, all who were on hand to help teach the children.
“The foundations of Camp One are still intact, and if you visit you can see where the bowling alley and tennis courts were.
“They were prisoners who were kept behind barbed wire but often when we have heard from internees’ relatives, they have said the internees felt they were treated with respect.”
The remaining infrastructure from the camps is now on private land, but Tatura Museum regularly takes tour groups to some of the locations.
Today, Waranga Basin remains a critical part of GMW’s delivery network, supplying water to the Central Goulburn, Rochester and Pyramid Boort Irrigation Areas in addition to nearby towns of Rushworth, Kyabram, Stanhope and Tongala.
People can listen to the podcast episode on the internment camps via the GMW website.
More information on the internment camps can also be found on the Tatura Museum website.