| This cache & it's companion cache "Long Way From Home I (Germany)" will take you on a historical journey around the district visiting significant, but rarely visited sites. I have not made this a multi but it is definately worth having a look around rather than rushing in, grabbing the cache and rushing out.
During the Second World War 4,000 Italian, German and Japanese POWs were detained at Murchison. Those who died at Murchison were buried in the local cemetery but floods in 1956 did major damage to the graves. Mr Luigi Gigliotti persuaded Italian families living in the Goulburn Valley to pay for the building of a mausoleum - the Ossario. He also managed to persuade the authorities to bury all the Italian POWs and detainees who died in Australian prison camps in the mausoleum. The mausoleum, completed in 1961, is Italian in style. It is built of Castlemaine stone with Roman roof tiles, a campanile and an altar of Italian marble. Each year, on Remembrance Day, mass is celebrated before a large gathering.
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The Italian Ossario is the subject of this cache.
Aislin, Renae & geohound Arthur are seen in front of it in this photo.
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This memorial was constructed by Italian POW's as a memorial to Prisoners of War & was originally located where constructed in Rushworth. It was moved here in 1968.
The upper plaque reads:
"CHI PER LA PATRIA MUOR VISSUTO E ASSAI" which in translation is "Who for the homeland spent life and more"
The lower plaque translates to:
"This monument was erected by Italian prisoners of war
in the Rushworth (VIC) concentration camp and transported to this Italian chapel of Murchison (VIC) on 7 September 1968 through the interest of Cavilieri Urbano A. Segafredo President and Founder of the Bendigo section of the Italian Federation of Ex Service and War Veterans"
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This memorial stands to Italian Soldiers, Airmen & Naval personell.
The plaque translated reads:
"To the heroic soldiers of land-sea-sky that for the homeland sacrificed their youth
The Italian Federation of Ex Service and War Veterans and The Associations of Arms
Inaugurated by General G. De Rosa Diaz
4 November 1975"
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One of the 7 internment camps around Murchison &
Tatura during WWII
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During the Second World War many German and Austrian civilians and soldiers were sent to internment camps and Prisoner-Of-War camps in Australia. Civilians living in Australia or other allied countries at the time were viewed as possible spies and detained and sent here, they were referred to as internees; servicemen detained and shipped back to Australia were Prisoners of war.
There were seven camps in the Tatura area during WW2. Three of these camps were for POWs: Dhurringile was for 50 German officers and their batmen. Camp 13 (Murchison) held 4,000 POWs, mainly Italian and German, but also some Japanese after the Cowra Breakout in 1944. Camp 6 (Graytown) was a bush wood cutting camp initially housing about 250 Italian, then German POWs, the latter being mainly crew members of the Kormoran. Finnish seamen were held there too. The camp supplied firewood to Melbourne and the surrounding local area.
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The remaining camps were for internees, and included Camps 1 & 2 (Tatura) and Camps 3 & 4 (Rushworth). Each of these camps housed around 1,000 internees. Camps 1 & 2 held single males mainly Germans and Italians. Camps 3 & 4 held family groups; Camp 3 held mainly German and Camp 4 mainly Japanese families. Initially, barbed wire compounds were established and accommodation was provided in tents. In time, more permanent camps were established, with rows of army huts replacing the tents. Sleeping huts were usually 5-6m x 20m (16-18' x 60')6 Shell holes at Port Gregory - June 1999 Photos: P. Weaver
and constructed of galvanised iron. In addition, large recreation huts, kitchen and mess huts, and ablution blocks were provided.
Camp 1 also included a first class hospital, and was the only camp to be sewered throughout. Internally, the
sleeping huts varied in layout. For example, in the case of family camps, sleeping quarters were partitioned off with Masonite to accommodate family groups.
POW camps, and internment camps for single males had barrack-style accommodation. Guards and other support staff were garrisoned outside the compounds. Life in the camps varied depending on the nature of the particular camp. Family camps incorporated playing areas for children and the necessary school accommodation. Internees and POWs organised a wide range of activities to keep minds and bodies active including craft work, education, gardening, theatre music and sport. Some trusted prisoners worked on local farms. The camps were very adequately supplied with food, and treatment by guards was
generally deemed to be good.
After the war, the camps were dismantled, so that little physical evidence remains today.
However, it is still well worth visiting the sites to gain an appreciation of what they were like.
Most of the camp sites are now on private property and in some cases owners or lessees need to be
contacted before you enter. Tatura Historical Society can provide details of how to gain access.
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| Before you go...
There is also a further grave of note at Murchison, it's worth a look. The township of Murchison developed as a result of the establishment of an Aboriginal Protectorate in the early 1840's. Molka Station as it was known at the time was a short lived institution lasting only 10 years.
King Billy Tattambo was buried here having expressed a desire to be buried in a box like a white man. You can find his grave in the northeast corner of the cemetery. Tattambo's breastplate is mounted on the grave. I'd dare say the grave is loosely connected to Fryer Tucked by Team Rubik in as much as the Mr. Fryer referred to likely to be the Fryer that the street in Shepparton was named after.
To this day the ongoing struggle of building a relationship between the indigenous community and the multicultural community of Greater Shepparton continues.
Hope you enjoy the cache.
DJ
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Breastplate of King Billy Tattambo. Tribal leader of the Molka subgroup of the Ngooraialum Tribe.
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