Waranga’s wartime heritage on display

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 was like in the camps, 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 to which it supplied water 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 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,” Ferguson said.

Wartime heritage in Waranga Basin

Security at the camps was high, with double barbed wire fences and watchtowers with searchlights that operated all night.

But 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 had a school there with a high standard of education, going right up to university level,” he said.

“The internees represented a real cross-section of society, with cooks, musicians, and professors all 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.”