CAMP NO.1 WWII INTERNMENT CAMP

How is it significant?
Camp No. 1 WWII Internment Camp is of historic, cultural, social and archaeological significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
Camp No. 1 WWII Internment Camp is historically significant for its association with the Australian internment policyof the first half of the twentieth century.Camp No.1was the first of eighteen purpose-built camps a number of which were constructed in the Goulburn Valley. Crucial to the significance of the camp is its capacity to demonstrate to all visitors a direct impact of World War II on Australia. Although many of the internees were Australian residents, they were thought to be a potential security risk to the nation because of the country of their birth or their affiliations. The ruins and the landscape illustrate clearly the physical environment faced by internees and the organisational arrangements of World War II internment camp.

Camp No. 1 WWII Internment Camp is culturally significant due to the impact it had on persons of German origin in Victoria. Germans represented one of the major national groups in the early waves of immigration to Australia. Although numerically fewer than British or Irish settlers, they nevertheless had a substantial impact in forming the Australian society. Internment demonstrated to them that they were not considered a part of Australian society, which was at that time dominated by British values and politics.

Camp No. 1 WWII Internment Camp is archaeologically significant because it contains an abundance of archaeological evidence on the layout and operation of the camp and life within the camp. Local historians have recorded the memories of former German and Italian Internees who have returned to revisit a period of their live which had a profound effect on them. The compactness of the camp, and the quality and depth of surviving sources of information (archaeological, historical and oral history) bestows the ruins with tremendous social significance as touchstones to the experience of wartime internment.

Further Comments
Germans represent one of the major national groups in the early waves of immigration to Australia. Although substantially fewer than British or Irish settlers, they had a significant impact on the formation of Victorian society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This contribution, however, did not prevent the rise of an anti-German movement during World War I, which resulted in the internment of hundreds of persons of German origin, including some who were born in Australia. During the inter-war period, 1918-1939, scepticism towards persons with a non-British Isles background was still present. As a consequence, during World War II, Australian residents of German origin were interned because Germany was at war with Great Britain. The numbers of civilian internees increased during the war. Australia also agreed to take in enemy aliens who had been interned by British authorities. Most of them were Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Australia also accepted a great number of Italian and German prisoners of war, who had been captured by the Allied Forces. This led to a total of approximately 26,000 prisoners of war being held in Australian WW II camps as well as approximately 7,000 civilian internees from overseas and 7,000 from within Australia. The prisoner of war camps and internment camps had a huge influence on persons of German origin in Victoria as well as those of other nationalities at war with Great Britain. It demonstrated to them that they were not considered part of Australian society. Australia was dominated by the British and British attitudes.

In Victoria, over nine thousand people, including women and children, were accommodated in seven camps. These were concentrated in the Goulburn Valley, located 160 km north of Melbourne. They were later referred to as the ?Tatura group?.

The first people to be interned in 1939 were German residents, followed by Italian civilians in 1940. After Dhurringile mansion at Murchison had been occupied by internees in 1939, internment camps 1 and 2 (close to Tatura) and camps 3 and 4 (close to Rushworth) were established. In 1941, German and Italian prisoners of war who had been captured by the Allied Forces were brought to Victoria to Prisoner of War Camp 13 at Dhurringile and Dhurringile mansion. Some of them later worked at Graytown Forest Camp. The camps mainly consisted of rows of corrugated iron huts and communal buildings surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by the Australian Army.

After the war, some of the camps accommodated displaced Europeans who arrived under the post-war migration scheme. Eventually, all the buildings were removed from the sites. Today, mainly concrete foundations can be found of communal huts eg. mess huts, kitchen, latrines, showers etc. and selections of the barbed-wire and other remaining reminders of the previous use of the sites.

The sites of the former prisoner of war and internment camps in the Goulburn Valley are of cultural heritage significance to Victoria. All the sites relate to the experience of persons with a non British-Isles background (in particular Germans, Italians and Japanese) in Victoria during World War II, either as interned civilian enemy aliens or as members of armed forces who had been detained as prisoners of war. The group of sites as a whole also stands for a particular policy in Australia during World War II. They help us to understand the past of Victoria when British influence was dominant. It is therefore important to preserve these sites as reminders of the values and attitudes expressed during the first half of the twentieth century

Assessment against criteria

Criterion A. The historical importance, association with or relationship to Victoria?s history of the place or object.

The camp is significant for its association with the Australian internment policy during World War II. The camp was part of a wider network of internment camps, which included camps in Victoria (eg. camp 2 at Dhurringile, camp 3 and 4 at Rushworth) as well as in other Australian states (eg. Hay in New South Wales). The overall number of internment and prisoner of war camps constructed in Australia during World War II indicates the political and cultural ties with Britain, as additional camps would have had to be built to cater for the number of internees Australia agreed to accept from Great Britain.

Criterion B. The importance of a place or object in documenting rarity or uniqueness.

Camp 1 stands out because of its unique layout and design.

Camp 1 is significant as the first camp of a network of internment camps in the Goulburn Valley particularly designed to house internees. Camp 1 accommodated the first Melbourne German internees who were taken away from their homes at the beginning of World War I. They were held at Dhurringile mansion first and as soon as Camp 1 was ready for housing, brought to the site. Camp 1 differs in its layout from internment camps built later in Victoria in its layout (only two compounds, shape of outlines and sewerage system. Later camps had no sewerage systems.

Criterion C. The place or object?s potential to educate, illustrate or provide further scientific investigation in relation to Victoria?s cultural heritage.

The place could yield unique archaeological information for an important period of Australia?s twentieth century development. Camp 1 has the potential to be used as an extension of the Tatura Irrigation & Wartime Camps Museum in Tatura. Movable objects from internment camps are displayed in the museum and tours of Camp 1 can be arranged as a continuation of this history in the district.

Criterion D. The importance of a place or object in exhibiting the principal characteristics or the representative nature of a place or object as part of a class or type of places or objects.

Camp 1 was part of a wider network of camps clustered in the Goulburn Valley.

Camp 1 is significant for its capacity to demonstrate to all Victorians the physical environment faced by the hundreds of internees who were held in various internment camps in Australia during World War II. They were thought to be a potential security risk to Australia because of the country of their birth or their affiliations.

The remnant structures illustrate the organisational arrangements of World War II internment and provide an understanding of the conditions under which the internees were accommodated.

Criterion G. The importance of the place or object in demonstrating social or cultural associations.

Former internees of Camp 1 or their relatives have an ongoing connection with the site which represents this historic period in their lives and their skills in coping with it. Former German and Italian Internees have returned to camp 1 to ?revisit? a period of their live which had a profound effect on them.

Group

Military

Category

Internment Camp