Australian POW camps

[Mike K]

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.