Lake Elizabeth stretches languidly for about a kilometre along the heavily forested valley of the East Barwon River, about seven kilometres east of the township of Forrest in the Otway Ranges.
It’s a popular attraction for campers, walkers, and canoeists, not least because you can spot platypus in the early morning and at twilight…. if you’re quiet and lucky.
Forrest was a thriving timber town from the early days of settlement, but especially after 1945 when timber was desperately needed to feed Melbourne’s post-war construction boom.
For some years the Forester-in-Charge of the District was Bill Meadows.
During a prolonged deluge on a long weekend in June 1952 Bill and his assistant Mark Stump were “playing endless games of monopoly”. Records show that on 17 and 18 June, the total rainfall at Tanybryn near the top of the Otway Ranges was 40 inches, which is over one metre of rain, more than enough to float Noah’s Ark.
Forest Overseer Jack Hoult was told by an East Barwon farmer that while the West Barwon was a raging flood, the East Barwon was just a trickle.
Something was up… so they drove the Land Rover cautiously up the Kaanglang Road, which had recently been completely rebuilt, to discover that the mountainside along with their new road had disappeared in a gigantic landslip, leaving the steeply pitching bedrock glistening in the light rain.
A huge 48-hectare slab of sandstone with approximately 6 million cubic metres of soggy earth had slid into the East Barwon River below damming its flow. The water in due course over-topped the loose earth wall causing more flooding downstream.
Being the man in charge, Bill took numerous calls from Melbourne newspapers who asked what the new lake was called. The headline news in 1952 was the ascension to the throne of new Queen Elizabeth, so Bill patriotically replied: “Lake Elizabeth” and the name stuck, although some of the locals grumbled because they wanted it called Lake Thompson after a local farmer.
Twelve months later on 5 August 1953 and following more heavy rains the top 26 metres of the dam breached, and another surge of water carried tonnes of gravel and boulders several kilometres downstream.
The residual lake now contains about one fifth of its original volume.
Lake Elizabeth is a site of National geomorphological significance. Another well-known example of a perched lake is Tali Karng in the Alpine National Park north of Heyfield which was formed some 1500 years ago.
The profile of the massive slip. Source: Rosengren 1984.
A giant 48 ha slab of sandstone, soggy mud and wet forest slid into the East Barwon River in mid-June 1952 after 1000 mm of rain fell in just two days. Source: Corangamite CMA.
The Forestry Heritage Museum at Beechworth, which was opened with much flourish and fanfare by John Haber Phillips AC, Chief Justice of Victoria, during the Beechworth 150th celebrations on 27 July 2003, closes forever today.
A merry band of volunteers from the Forests Commission Retired Personnel Association (FCRPA) will brave the chilly conditions this week to move everything out, and hand the keys back to the Shire.
The museum is currently in the old Gold Warden’s Office, which is one of Beechworth’s original buildings. This building, plus the Chinese Protector’s office next door, were occupied by the Forests Commission in 1920 and continually functioned as a District Office until about 1985.
We don’t have any visitor statistics but, anecdotally, there was a steady stream of foot traffic into the museum making a beeline from where the tourist buses stop and grey nomads park their ginormous Winnebagos towards the iconic Beechworth Bakery for a sticky bun and frothy mugachino.
The museum has always been free entry, but the donation box accumulated enough shekels each month to help keep the lights on and pay the bills like insurance.
Indigo Shire are the custodians of the buildings and in 2021 engaged Melbourne consultants to review the historic precinct around the town. Despite being long-term tenants in the museum building, the FCRPA were not advised or engaged in the process, and a report was lodged before the Council which proposed.
“The Chinese Protector’s Office and the Gold Warden’s Office will be changing exhibition spaces, for artistic activation, interpreting and exploring themes relevant to the Gold Story.”
The retired foresters maintained that the consultants had failed to recognise that forestry has been part of the fabric of Beechworth since the gold-mining era. Many plantations were planted to stabilise the diggings.
Timber was also essential for the development of the mining villages as well as the surrounding farmhouses, for underground mining, for industrial and domestic heating.
Forester H.D. Ingle was stationed in Beechworth in about 1891 and he was followed by M. Griffin in 1905. It was pointed out that the museum building had a longer association with local forestry, land management and bushfires than it ever did with gold.
But the Council made it clear to the retired foresters that their new grand design didn’t include a forestry museum.
To be fair, the Shire has been supportive over the decades opening and closing the building every day and keeping an eye on things.
But more importantly, the membership of the Association is aging and thinning with no new recruitment because our constitution requires members to have been employed by the FCV, which folded in 1984.
And small country museums everywhere are struggling to stay open.
The writing was on the wall…. there was no immediate pressure, but we chose to move out, rather than be booted out.
We also decided a while back to get-with-the-times and digitally photograph our material and make it all freely available online with Victorian Collections. Interestingly, the most popular item at Beechworth has been the Gunter’s Chain.
Some additional items will be photographed this week by Wodonga camera wizard, Mark Jesser.
The best of the artefacts from Beechworth will be merged with DEECA’s Altona collection, which is available to visit by appointment. Surplus and duplicate items are being donated to museums at Heyfield and Mansfield.
Hopefully very little ends up in the skip (but how many hard hats do you really need to keep).
Facing the reality, the retired foresters are also in the process of winding up our affairs to remain as a social club, but still with a significant online presence, until the lights get switched off.
A sad day for sure, but thanks to all those who have shown interest and support for the Beechworth forestry museum.
Judge Stretton clearly identified the inseparable trinity of forests, soil and water.
The “Save the Forests” campaign was founded in January 1944 and rose from the ashes of the 1939 Black Friday bushfires.
It was broad-based and included representatives from over 50 government and philanthropic organisations, and boasted over 100,000 members.
The Forests Commission played a key role in the campaign which had noble goals of improving forests, protecting them from bushfire and growing trees to restore farmland.
Its activities included operating native plant nurseries, community tree planting, programs for schools, seed collection, farm inspections and advice as well as organising a number of high-profile events including “Forest Week” at the Melbourne Town Hall.
By 1951, the campaign became the Natural Resources Conservation League (NRCL).
The Forests Commission Retired Personnel Association (FCRPA) have been entrusted with a couple of very generous donations over the last few months.
These are the Chinese robes that belonged to Forests Commission fireguard and builder of Moscow Villa – Bill ah Chow.
Every organisation has a handful of colourful characters, and the Commission had its share, but Bill remains one of its enduring legends.
After Bill’s death in 1967, the robes were safely kept by Bill’s daughter, Rose, until she died in 1993. The robes then passed to Bill’s granddaughter, Janice, and were also highly prized. Janice wrote a book about Bill and Moscow Villa in 2019.
I have written several times about Bill on Facebook, Wikipedia and my forest history blog. I’m also often asked to give evening talks about Bill (there are a couple coming up).
I became friendly with the ah Chow family when I started to write forest history stories. Much of my information came from Janice and from retired foresters that were personal friends with Bill, including Athol Hodgson.
After much deliberation, the family felt the retired foresters were better positioned to keep Bill’s story alive and we are deeply honoured by the gesture.
Bill loved to tell embellished campfire stories and often claimed to be a descendant of Chinese Royalty, but his family believes the robes were more likely picked up from a second-hand shop in Little Bourke Street in the 1940s.
In 2018 I wrote to the Chinese Museum in Melbourne and they gave this advice.
Mr. Ah Chow is dressed in a way that imitates a Mandarin or official of the Qing Dynasty. His hat looks like a mandarin style hat, a Qing dynasty official’s headwear, although it’s quite unlikely that he was actually a Mandarin. The button atop the hat usually indicated the wearer’s rank. His robe fastens up to the neck with buttons, which is typical of Manchurian style men’s clothing of the Qing dynasty also. He is not wearing a rank badge, which denoted official status. This kind of garment was also normally worn with a separate collar, which Mr. Ah Chow is not wearing in any of these pictures.
The foresters association aim to get the items professionally photographed and added into the Victorian Collections database.
We will also seek some professional advice about how to properly store and protect these amazing and priceless items of clothing. DEECA’s Altona museum is not an ideal spot to keep them because its not air-conditioned.
Thomas William Ah Chow – Chinese costume (photo circa 1950).Bill who often claimed to be a descendant of Chinese Royalty, but his family believes it was more likely he picked his robes up from a second-hand shop in Little Bourke Street. Photo: Ah Chow family.
The Forests Commission Retired Personnel Association (FCRPA) have received a couple of very generous donations over the last few months.
One is the brass identification plate from the Washington Winch.
The winch sits deep in the forest east of Swifts Creek and is the last one of its particular type left in Australia.
It was made by the Washington Iron Works company in Seattle.
This unique winch was one of two machines imported in 1920 to operate in the Karri forests of WA.
Both machines were later purchased by the Forests Commission after the 1939 bushfires for salvage logging at Toorongo to drive elaborate “high lead” cable systems.
This particular machine was later sold to Jack Ezard from Swifts Creek in 1959 where it operated on its current site until about 1961. The fate of the second machine is unknown. It was possibly cannibalised for parts.
The Ezards were innovative sawmillers who introduced high lead logging into Victoria. They had owned and operated sawmills in the Warburton area from 1907, before shifting to Erica in Gippsland in 1932.
Bulldozers and powerful logging trucks eventually made steam and the Washington Winch redundant.
The plate was recovered from underneath the Washington Winch in about 1980. Permission was sought at the time from Ezards sawmills.
The heavy 21 cm diameter plaque with the markings 11 x 14 refers to the double drums and the serial number is assumed to be 3832.
It will be displayed at DEECA’s Altona Museum.
The winch is listed on the State Heritage Register.
Wilhelm Schlich was from the Prussian school of forest management in the 1890s. He worked extensively in India for the British and later became a professor at Cooper’s Hill forestry school near Surrey in England, where he influenced generations of foresters across the British colonies.
He advocated the use of working plans in his five-volume “Manual of Forestry” which were written between 1889 and 1896. The first two volumes covered silviculture while the others dealt with forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation. They became standard and enduring texts for all forestry students.
The idea of working plans spread throughout the British Empire and were recommend by Ribbentrop in his report to the Victorian State Government in 1895. This was echoed in the Royal Commission and the then stipulated Forests Act (1918), which created the Forests Commission.
The founding Chairman of the Forests Commission, Owen Jones, had trained under Schlich in Germany and had also prepared a working plan. This no doubt this influenced the decision by State Cabinet to recruit him from England.
There was no set formula, but working plans covered a range of things including timber harvesting, silvicultural thinning and pruning of younger native forests, establishment of exotic softwood plantations, construction of tramways, roads and bridges to enable licensed sawmillers to access timber stands, the maintenance of fire breaks and the operation of patrols to control illegal timber cutting and prevent fires.
The Commission pursued the idea of mapping, assessment and working plans with some vigour but lacked the skills and resources to fully implement them.
Schlich pointed out in his summary of British Empire Forest Policy in 1922, that Australia lacked many of the skills to undertake inventory needed to prepare proper working plans.
This shortage was one of the main reasons why the new FCV Chairman, A.V. Galbraith, recruited trained foresters from Norway (Bjarne Dahl, Bernhard Johannessen and Kristian Drangsholt) as well as from the United Kingdom (William Litster and Karl Ferguson from Scotland with Mathew Rowe from the Forest of Dean) in the 1920s.
To cope with the growing workload the Commission also restructured in 1926, dividing the State into five Divisions each with a Chief Inspector and four inspectors, and a total of 51 Districts.
A Forest Engineering Branch was also added in 1926 in the Head Office to deal with an expanding works program.
The Commission always saw itself as the champion of forest reservation and conservation and constantly advocated for an increase in permanent reserves.
It also had a very clear intent to move forests management from the chaotic “cut and run” approach of the 1800s to a more orderly and sustainable one.
BTW – The Forest Management Planning process which began under the Timber Industry Strategy (TIS) in the late 1980s fell under Section 20(a) of the Forest Act (1958) which required the Department to produce working plans.
Handwritten working plan for the Woohlpooer State Forest prepared by R S Code, Inspector of Forests, in the late 1930s.
There are some important parallels between the efforts of early foresters in North America to protect and conserve their forests from exploitation and clearing, and the experiences here in Victoria. There are also some striking differences.
The US Forest Service began in 1905 around the same time as the Victorian State Forest Department and the relationships have always been strong. Policies were also forged by catastrophic bushfires… theirs in 1910 and ours in 1939.
The organisations also held similar views about the protection and wise use of forests.
America’s first professional forester, Gifford Pinchot, came from a wealthy and politically well-connected timber family.
He was largely responsible for the national awakening of land management and conservation. Importantly, he enjoyed the strong support of the US President Theodore Roosevelt who set aside vast tracts of national forest.
Pinchot said –
“conservation is the foresighted utilisation, preservation and/or renewal of forest, waters, lands and minerals”.
And…
“where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time”.
Pinchot thought of the greatest good in terms of the balance of multiple uses, including land, wilderness, forage, wildlife, timber, water and outdoor recreation.
Pinchot’s views were similar, but differed, from another great American forest conservationist, John Muir. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. Muir also co-founded The Sierra Club.
Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation’s natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use without destroying the viability of the forests.
Muir acknowledged the need for timber and the forests to provide it, but valued nature and wilderness for its intrinsic and spiritual qualities.
From the mid-1960s, with increasing public criticism, environmental activism and legal challenges to traditional uses such as timber production, the US Forest Service found it more difficult to determine the greatest good.
Meanwhile is Australia, the same principles of balance and multiple use, which had been originally described in Wilhelm Schlich’s “Manual of Forestry” in 1898, were strongly advocated as the core policies of the Forests Commission.
This 2006 documentary was made to celebrate the centenary of US Forest Service. A similar film was suggested a while ago to tell the story of Victoria’s forest heritage but stumbled at the barrier.
This painting of Gifford Pinchot first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1955 and now hangs in the U.S. Forest Service national headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Andraes Stihl was a Swiss-born engineer and is often said to be the “father of chainsaws”.
After serving during WW1, he studied mechanical engineering in Eisenach and later founded the Andreas Stihl Company.
Then in 1926, Stihl patented the “Cutoff Chainsaw for Electric Power” which was the world’s first electric chainsaw. But it weighed a hefty 64 kilograms with its one-inch gauge chain and handles at either end. Due to its bulk, it required two people to operate.
In 1928, Stihl’s former business partner, Emil Lerp, built and patented the first petrol chainsaw, known as the Dolmar.
A year later, in 1929, Andreas introduced his own petrol version, a two-man saw called the “Baumfällmaschine Type A”. Producing 6 horsepower and weighing 46 kilograms, the saw was marketed as a “portable tree-felling machine”.
The Sthil company continued to revolutionise and grow and, in 1931, became the first European company to export chainsaws to both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Following the Second World War, lighter materials, metal alloys and improved engine designs revolutionised chainsaws together with the logging and timber industry. The first one-man chainsaw was produced in 1950 but was still heavy.
The Stihl Contra was launched in 1959 and set the design standard for modern chainsaws. The gearless one-man chainsaw produced 6Hp and weighed only 12 kg. It also featured a diaphragm carburettor capable of working in any position which offered flexibility without having to manually change settings.
Many other companies now manufacture chainsaws, but Stihl remains one of the world’s biggest.
The man, the myth, the legend, Andraes Stihl with the STIHL Contra. The gearless one-man chainsaw was a milestone. The 6Hp Contra weighed 12 kg and set the design standard for nearly all modern chainsaws. It was launched in 1959 and revolutionised forestry.
The cabbage-tree palm (Livistona australis) grows along the remote Cabbage Tree Creek, 30 kilometres east of Orbost. The palm is regularly found in NSW and Queensland, but only at this isolated spot in Victoria.
Famous explorer, A. W. Howitt wrote that heart of the Cabbage-tree was eaten by the Gunai/Kurnai people. Leaves were used for shelter and fibres for string, rope and fishing lines.
Early settlers also ate the Cabbage-tree palm and used the fronds as roofing and for brooms.
A cottage industry developed weaving the fronds into cabbage-tree hats.
Bundles of the palm leaves were gathered and carried home to be boiled, dried and finally bleached. Women and children spent their spare time plaiting hats for the family.
Orders were soon received from all over the country. A well-made cabbage-tree hat could fetch as much as twenty pounds. They proved very popular with Australian bushmen, gentleman squatters and young sportsmen.
Source: A Thornton, Walkabout Magazine. (1 July 1945). Vol. 11 No. 9. Page 16.
Cabbage tree palm (Livistona australis) in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, Vol 103, no 6274 (1877).
Cabbage Palm Hat. c 1860. This particular hat was worn by Marcus Clarke, journalist and novelist, after his arrival in Melbourne in 1863. Source: SLV http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/209287
Australian writer Marcus Clarke wearing a cabbage tree hat, 1866. Source: Wikipedia.
The magnificent River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) has the widest natural distribution of any of the Australian eucalypts.
Specimens have also been planted across the globe, including Sicily where I have just returned from.
It seems that River Red Gum was widely planted by Italian authorities after the war for timber and to stabilise soils, and some locals now consider them an invasive weed.
But more interestingly, its botanical name can be traced back to an ancient religious hermitage in the mountains near Naples which was constructed in 1585 by the Camaldolese congregation of Monte Corona.
In 1816, the distinguished Italian gardener, and Director of the botanical garden of Naples, Federigo Dehnhardt, was engaged to develop a private garden for a local nobleman, Count Francesco Ricciardi Camaldoli. The Count had been gifted some of the original lands of the Camaldoli Hermitage by the new Bourbon Government.
The garden was known as L’Hortus Camaldulensis di Napoli.
Dehnhardt propagated some River Red Gums in 1818 with seed that had been collected and sent over by Allan Cunningham, the famous NSW government botanist.
The trees grew so well that Dehnhardt described and named the species, Eucalyptus camaldulensis after the hermitage where the trees had been planted. His description appeared in the 1832 edition of a catalogue which recorded the names of all the species growing in the gardens, but his book was largely unknown to the botanical community. His specimens are housed in the Natural History Museum in Vienna.
Dehnhardt’s work was overlooked, and the River Red Gum was initially named Eucalyptus rostrata by the NSW botanist, Diederich von Schlecterindahl in 1847.
But Schlercterindahl’s name was declared invalid because it had already been given to the Swamp Mahogany in 1797 by a Spanish botanist.
In 1853, the Victorian government botanist, Ferdinand Von Mueller renamed the River Red Gum Eucalyptus longirostratis ( after the ancient Greek word for the long point, or beak on the cap that covers the developing flower)
But finally in 1934, notable Australian botanist William Blakely recognised Denhardt’s original work and the name Eucalyptus camaldulensis for River Red Gum was accepted.
In 1922, the River Red Gums planted by Frederick Dehnhardt were sadly cut down and the Camaldoli gardens were abandoned. The garden is now completely incorporated into urban expansion near Naples.
With the generous support of the Dahl Trust I have been busy over the last few months writing a new eBook titled “The Working Forests”.
The project about Victoria’s rich forest and bushfire heritage is due to be finished by the end of the year.
I had to break it up into two volumes because of problems with MS Word and instability of big files.
Attached is a link to a draft of Volume 1.
It contains about 200 short stories spread over nearly 600 pages with lots of pictures, maps and white space. It takes up about 140 MB in size.
Volume 1 roughly covers the chaotic period from colonisation in 1803, the 1850s gold rush, the trashing of the forests leading to the Royal Commission in 1897, the formation of a State Forests Department in 1907, through to the 1939 bushfires and the war years in the 1940s.
It also includes a big section on tall and remarkable trees which hopefully dispels some of the myths.
Volume 2 is in advanced draft and is about the same size.
It will start with the post war reconstruction and A. V. Galbraith’s “Grand Design”.
Building an effective fire fighting agency and major bushfires will be in there
Post war forestry and staff training to build a professional organisation.
Plantations, reforestation and silviculture.
It will tackle the rise of environmental activism in the 1970s.
Formation of CFL and the Timber Industry Strategy was a major turning point.
Changing community and political attitudes leading to the demise of the timber industry in 2024 will be tricky to write (but I have a few insiders to help).
The wide range of uses and values of State forest will also be covered.
And the great outdoors.
I have a long list of notable people too
I’m interested in your thoughts –
Is anything missing ?
Are there any major errors or bloopers ?
Does it look and feel right ?
It doesn’t have a comprehensive index because in electronic format it’s easy to skim, search and scroll. Is this a problem?
I have cited my main references and used lots of links but have stuck to my normal conversational (e.g. non-public service speak) style of writing. There will be a list of “further reading” at the end
It also hasn’t been proofread so please don’t focus on typos and wordsmithing at this stage.
I have linked to the main stories on the FCRPA website and tried to minimise duplication. The long term stability of these links is a concern.
It will be far too expensive to print. It was always planned to be a free eBook that could be safely stored in the national library to be downloaded and shared online.
I’m going off-line for a month and won’t be back till early June. I’m happy to take comments by email, but I might not be too quick in responding.
theworkingforests@gmail.com
Thanks once again for your support and encouragement.
Cover: The Sleeper Cutters – Cann River. David Parnaby graduated from the Victorian School of Forestry in 1940 and initially worked in Assessment Branch. He later had District postings at Heathcote, Powelltown, Dandenong Ranges, Bruthen and Beechworth. Promoted to District Forester in 1951, David was moved to Cann River, then Heathcote (1955), Castlemaine (1958) and Daylesford (1971). Following a period with Forest Protection in Melbourne he retired in 1980. David was an accomplished cartoonist who provided insightful and humorous commentary through the Victorian State Forester’s Association Newsletter. His keen eye for the antics of sleeper cutters at Cann River in the 1950s remains a classic. The more you look at this, the more you will see. This copy was a gift to the FCV’s Chief Forest Assessor, Murray Paine, in 1978 and is now with Gregor Wallace.
Driven by a deep philanthropic desire to provide employment for some of the more seriously maimed returned soldiers, several prominent Melbourne citizens, together with the support of Department of Repatriation, established the Tobacco Pipe Manufacturing company in Leicester Street Carlton in 1918.
The factory needed to not only invent, but also build its own machinery, and even had its own wood testing laboratory, while the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry was engaged to investigate the suitability of various Australian timbers because little was known at the time.
Timber was selected for its low flammability qualities.
The ideal wood for making pipes needed to be even grained, dense and heavy and with long and firm structural fibres that could take a highly polished finish.
Some species contained essential oils and tannins that tainted the pipe smoke which ruled them out.
The famous wood technologist Richard Thomas Baker in his important work published in 1919, “The Hardwoods of Australia and their Economics”, refers to the combustibility and suitability of certain pipe woods.
Southern Mahogany (Eucalyptus botryoides) from Gippsland proved most popular, while other species included Swamp Mahogany (E. robusta) and Jarrah (E. marginata). Somewhat surprisingly, River Red Gum, then known as E. rostrata was rejected.
Logs were first broken down at the circular saw bench, and after passing through numerous cutting, docking, and shaping machines, pipes were finished off by hand.
Pteridomania was the 19th century European craze for ferns and an obsession for collecting the rare and beautiful, just as Tulipomania had been two centuries before.
“Fern Madness” was coined by Charles Kingsley in his work Glaucus, or,The Wonders of the Shore in 1859. It was in full swing in Britain from 1850 to 1890 and spread to the United States and the Colonies.
People from all classes ventured into the bush to collect specimens – many of which were carefully pressed and kept in scrapbooks. Designer furniture and costumes with ferny motifs became enormously popular.
Collections of living ferns were often kept in specially built glasshouse ferneries or in sealed “Wardian Cases” at the homes of the well-to-do and middle-class.
Fern fronds were so popular in Victorian society, they sprouted beyond the garden into the realms of literature, religion, decorative arts, music, architecture, funerary sculpture and psychiatric care.
In no small measure, Pteridomania accounted for the enormous popularity among day trippers to the Dandenong Ranges, also made famous by painting by colonial artist Eugene von Guerard in 1857.
The problem was that many sought to take a little bit of the magic home, and the widespread plunder of the forests began.
So popular was a bit of fern napping for the home garden or pinching some fronds from the bush for the scrap book, that in 1869 one of Victoria’s earliest environmental regulations was introduced.
However, an attempt to prosecute a “fern thief” under a provision of the Lands Act (1869) ultimately failed on appeal in the Supreme Court in 1882 on the question of whether or not a tree fern was a “tree”. The full court ruled it wasn’t.
The collapse of the case, in part, helped the excision of 556 acres of the existing Dandenong Ranges Timber Reserve in 1882, which eventually became the Ferntree Gully National Park.
Australian tree ferns remain popular in home gardens both here and Europe. They can withstand dry conditions as well as heavy snow falls. They were exported in large numbers from Victorian and Tasmanian State forests as well as private land throughout 1970s to the 1990s.
Tree ferns are protected under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
The famous Vienna Mozart Boys Choir found themselves stranded in Australia on the final leg of their global tour.
Australia declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the day after their final concert in Perth Town Hall, so the choristers suddenly found themselves no longer celebrities but, in effect, Australia’s youngest aliens.
On the invitation of the Archbishop for Melbourne Daniel Mannix, the boys, ranging in age from 8 to 14, came with their musical director Dr Georg Gruber and their teacher Dr Otto Sternberg.
Gruber and Sternberg were later accused of being Nazi sympathisers and interned for the duration of the war, while the boys formed the nucleus of the St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir.
Mannix arranged for each of the choir boys to be billeted to foster homes in the inner city and schooled at East Melbourne.
When the war ended most of the boys elected to stay rather than return to their war-torn homeland.
Vienna Mozart Boys Choir with Archbishop Mannix in 1939. Source: Canberra Times.
One of the pressing requirements placed on the Forests Commission during World War Two was to organise emergency supplies of firewood for heating and cooking because of shortages of coal, briquettes, electricity and gas.
Employing Prisoners of War was one part of the solution
The Forests Commission had first occupied a 14-acre site at Graytown, east of Heathcote in 1919, firstly as a worker’s camp, and then later as a sustenance camp during the 1930s Depression.
The site was acquired by Department of External Affairs and the Army in 1943 and converted into No. 6 Labour Detachment, also known as Camp #6, to house Prisoners of War to cut firewood for Melbourne.
The Graytown camp was surrounded by a double row of barbed wire fences about 6 feet high, with guard towers on each corner. The men were housed in tents with wooden floors. It had barracks, cookhouse, dining room and ablution block for communal use. There was a large sports field and a priest from Murchison visited every two weeks to hold Mass. Some men were allowed to visit a nearby church.
Camp #6 was first occupied on 30 March 1943 by 253 Italian prisoners captured in North Africa, plus a handful of Finnish merchant seamen who arrived on 21 July 1943.
Sailors were captured from the German raider Kormoran, which sunk off the Western Australian coast in November 1941 after a fierce battle with HMAS Sydney where both vessels sank.
The Germans were first housed at Harvey Camp WA, then Murchison Camp. On 4 September 1943, the crew of the Kormoran moved into Graytown to replace the Italians and Finns.
The Italian POWs had set a record for best day’s cutting of 110 tons of 12-inch blocks, but the German POWs raised the bar to 120 tons – using equal numbers of men and four saw benches.
It’s reported that the Germans at the Graytown camp initially enjoyed the outdoor work but became progressively dispirited as the war dragged-on, and their weekly productivity dropped dramatically.
To help improve morale an orchestra was formed by the POWs who also waited on tables rather than cutting timber.
Meanwhile, the German navy officers were housed separately at the nearby Dhurringile mansion. Tensions boiled over leading to a breakout in January 1945 when 20 prisoners tunnelled under the barbed wire. They were all later found.
All the German prisoners left Graytown on the 14 November 1946 and were repatriated back home to Europe when they eventually sailed from Melbourne on-board the Orontes in January 1947.
Like many other FCV camps, Graytown was used after war to house immigrants from the Baltic states.
Many buildings were still there until the late 1980s, but now only concrete footings and segments of barbed wire fence can be found.
He was born in Germany and as a teenager chose to pursue a career as a pastry cook.
Karl migrated to Australia in 1930 and worked in Melbourne at Ikinger’s cake shop in Brunswick. He then established his own business, the Embassy, which operated in Malvern until the late 1930s. He married Hilde Mayer in 1939.
But on 4 September 1939, Karl was detained as an enemy alien along with hundreds of other German residents.
Muffler and his father-in-law Adolf Mayer were among the very first Germans to be detained, being arrested the morning after war was declared largely because of their membership of the Deutsche Arbeitfront (German Labour Front) of which Mayer was president.
The group built a club house at Belgrave, occupied from 1934 to 1939, and while few in number, its members were considered to be Nazi sympathisers and had already come to the attention of the authorities.
Belgrave residents have been taking increasing notice recently of German gatherings. Occasionally young German men and women are heard singing Nazi anthems on the roads, and tall, blond Germanic types are seen in the streets or driving through in motorcars. The club building is well-equipped for guests, and has a wireless aerial, a concrete cellar, wide verandahs and other amenities. The swastika flag sometimes floats over the building.” – Sun-News Pictorial, 24.4.1938
When the activities of this Nazi club were raised in Federal Parliament, Prime Minister Joe Lyons dismissed it saying
“if we are concerned at the existence of a Nazi club in Australia we should also be concerned at the existence of the many Communist clubs”. – Argus 29.4.1938
The clubhouse and its fittings were stripped over the following fortnight.
Karl was interned at the Tatura Camp in northern Victoria for the next five years. He kept himself occupied decorating cakes and learning woodcarving and drawing.
Hilda was not interned but was issued with a travel permit with severe restrictions that kept her within 15 miles of the GPO.
On the 20 June 1944, Karl was released from internment but directed to work for the Civil Alien Corp (CAC). He moved to Camp No2 in the Mt Disappointment State forest as an enemy alien. He was released in 1945.
Muffler was naturalised in 1947 and remained in Australia until his death in 1996.
Karl did this sketch of Camp No 2, dated 9 August 1944. The site became known as Bambara when Camberwell Grammar took it over in 1963. Source: Museum Vic. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1346926FCV Camp – V12 Broadford No 2. Photograph taken by Jack Gillespie probably in the mid to late 1940s. Source: FCRPA Collection – Stephen Gillespie
Internees at Tatura, 1943. Karl and his father-in-law Adolf Mayer, back row, second and first from left. Source: AWM
There were at least 17 bush camps operated by the Forests Commission which held smaller groups of CAC workers. Over the period of the war its estimated that about 700 men cut firewood and produced charcoal to help ease Victoria’s energy shortage.
Probably the best-known camps used by the Forests Commission during “Emergency Firewood Project” were in the Mt Disappointment State forests, which was then part of the Broadford District. Charles Pavey was the newly appointed District Forester.
The Commission engaged enemy aliens registered with the Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) at its firewood camps, not Internees, which is a subtle but important difference. Although, from 19 June 1944, POWs were accommodated at Mt Disappointment and Kinglake West.
Confusingly, different names are often used to describe the same camp. The records of the forestry camps are also patchy, and shrouded by wartime secrecy, so unravelling the sequence of events is difficult, but the six firewood camps included –
Camp No. 1. – was at the intersection of Allison Road, Flowerdale Road and Two Tees Road.
The land was flat, and it had a good supply of water.
It was built by the Forests Commission before the war to house unemployment men (sussos) during the Great Depression. At the beginning of the war the camp was being used by FCV crews, but they were required to move to “Regular Camp”, which is situated on the corner of Flowerdale and Main Mountain Roads.
Camp No 1 was converted to accommodate 60 Civil Aliens Corp (CAC) workers and was occupied in May 1943. It was sometimes referred to as the “Strath Alien Camp”.
There were no security fences or guards. The men were not permitted to leave the precinct without permission but were known to visit other camps or make their way into Wallan.
A bushfire dugout and charcoal kilns were constructed, and in 1944, a powder magazine was added to store gelignite used to construct roads.
POWs moved into the camp on 19 June 1944 (see V12 Broadford Hostels below). It was then often simply referred to as “Broadford Camp”.
After the war the camp was repurposed as the FCV’s overseer school until about 1968. All the buildings are now gone, and the site is a popular picnic ground.
Camp No. 2. – was on Bakers Flat at the corner of Two Tees Road and Tree 15 Road.
It was purpose-built in about 1943 and designed to house 50-60 men. It was occupied by CAC workers on 19 March 1943. It was sometimes called “Reedy Camp”.
The camp had in-ground charcoal kilns and would have included a bushfire dugout.
Like Camp No. 1, Italian POWs moved into the camp during October 1944 after it was upgraded. (see V12 Broadford Hostels below). Camp No. 1 was also simply referred to as “Broadford Camp”.
Camp No. 3. – was built on Mill Range Road next to a small dam, about a mile south of the junction with South Mountain Road. It was occupied in September 1942 and designed for about 35 men.
Camp No. 4. – was on South Mountain Road, near the Kilmore water supply reservoir. It was built for 60 men and was occupied on 25 October 1943.
Camp No. 5. – was established at Broadford in about October 1943 and housed about 15-20 men in sawmilling operations near the railway yards.
V12 Broadford Hostels. – Two major POW camps were built in 1944 over the existing sites of Camp No. 1 and Camp No. 2. The first opened on 19 June 1944 and the second followed on 29 October 1944. The two camps were designed for 75 men each.
V18 Kinglake Hostel. – The new POW camp was built at Kinglake West. There were 10 large buildings including accommodation and ablutions blocks, a kitchen and dining room. It was occupied on 29 November 1944 by up to 150 men and was discontinued on 27 August 1945.
With all this activity, firewood production from the Broadford District peaked in 1943-44. But not long after the completion of the five camps, the District Forester, Charles Pavey, complained in his annual report that the best of the CAC men had been drafted to northern Australia and production dropped, and never recovered. This was the main reason to rebuild the existing camps to house POWs, who arrived in 1944.
Firewood Production.
The workers in the CAC camps cut an average of five tons a week, whilst an experienced axeman could cut 20 tons. Allegations were often made that the aliens were on a “go-slow”.
As Melbourne was still suffering from a severe firewood shortage and experiencing fuel rationing, the Forests Commission and the Power, Fuel and Water Supplies Committee felt that it was necessary to examine the issue of pay for the alien wood cutters.
Under the existing arrangement with the CAC, single men were to receive no less than one pound per week, while married men were to receive no less than £4-11-0- per week. However, the aliens were not permitted to be paid more than £5-10-0 per week, regardless of how much firewood they cut.
In one account, the wife of Antonio Silvio wrote to authorities advising she had three children, and her husband only received £4-11-0 per week, less 15 shillings for the camp mess. She complained it wasn’t enough to live on.
On 9 October 1942, higher rates of pay were issued to replace the military rates set in April. But under the new terms the aliens were to be paid in accordance with their output, at the rate of 6/3 per ton of firewood cut.
The new order was introduced on 21 October 1942, and immediately the Forests Commission saw the firewood output improve, so that by the end of February 1943 the men were cutting an average of 9.2 tons per man each week
But it was still felt that the men were capable of cutting more wood, but that the ceiling on their potential earnings £5-10-0- per week was a big disincentive to improve output.
A Forests Commission report on the “Employment of Aliens on Firewood Cutting” identified that many of the men cut their maximum amount of firewood in three days and then made very little effort to cut any more.
The Commission estimated it would need 500 experienced axemen, 800 quality CAC workers, plus another 1500 POWs to meet the demand for firewood. These numbers were simply not available.
Kinglake and Broadford POW camps.
The loss of manpower to northern Australia in late 1943 was the impetus for the Forests Commission to ask the Federal Authorities and the Army to change the emphasis from CAC Camps to Prisoner of War camps. The decision was made in April 1944 to convert the existing No. 1 and No. 2 camps to house low security Italian POWs.
Three POW hostels were built, with two at the existing camp sites No 1 & No 2 at Mt Disappointment which were rebadged V12 – Broadford Hostels and another new camp, V18 at Kinglake West.
Ex-army buildings were transported to Kinglake West from Ballarat with labour from a CAC camp at Eden Park near Whittlesea. FCV Forester Murray Thomson oversaw the new camp.
The POW camps had to meet the higher standards of the Geneva convention and needed more work. The extra construction work required to make the change to POW facilities meant that firewood production again dropped off, which was made worse by a cold and wet winter.
By 19 of June 1944 the conversion of the existing No. 1 camp was complete and was occupied by 75 prisoners of war. No. 2 camp followed soon after.
The camps were officially termed “Prisoner of War Control Hostels (PWCH)” and were approved for specific projects such as cutting firewood or producing charcoal. There were no barbed wire fences, but remoteness in the bush was the main security measure for the POWs.
The first group of Italian POW arrived at V12 Broadford on the 19 June 1944. The second group followed on the 14 August 1944 and on the 5 October 1944, Chaplain Viriglio Zubiani arrived to provide for the spiritual welfare of the Italians. The next group arrived on the 29 October 1944 while the last group arrived at Broadford on 3 December 1944.
An advance party of Italian POWs arrived V18 Kinglake West on the 29 November 1944. A second group arrived on the 3 December 1944, with some being transferred from V12 Broadford. The main group arrived at Kinglake West on the 10 December 1944.
It was noted that although the prisoners had no previous experience in firewood cutting and were unable to speak English they readily adjusted to the task at hand and seemed to “take a great interest in it”.
By the end of 1944, there were over 300 Italian POWs in the camps. In addition to cutting firewood, they improved roads, built water supply dams and water races, maintained fire breaks and dug outs. They required very little supervision.
But by the second half of 1945, and the end of the war in sight, the camps were being progressively closed.
As the “employer”, the FCV was required to pay the Army one pound per week for each man, as well as the cost of food. The Army was to supply all food at contract rates, plus 15%, and together this was to form the minimum payment. The Commission was not responsible for security, insurance, medical attention or accidents, and the Army was required to equip the men with blankets, clothing and mess utensils.
The Italian Consul to Melbourne, Mario Luciolli, reported that conditions were excellent as far as hygiene and other facilities were concerned in a camp which he visited. His preliminary report regarding the employment of prisoners of war cutting firewood said that preparations for the camps were proceeding well. But he reminded the Forests Commission of the importance of conforming very closely with the rules laid down in the Geneva Convention.
There were also some Australian Army staff at the prisoner of war camps in addition to Forests Commission staff, who acted as supervisors and trainers.
At the Kinglake West camp there were at least two interpreters, one of whom was an alien who had been sent to construct the camp. He stayed on to help supervise the wood-cutting gangs.
Forests Commission officers learnt enough rudimentary Italian to communicate basic instructions to the prisoners, as well as some of the distinctive regional words for different tools.
Two Italian Sergeant Majors, Raffaele Sbarra and Pasquale Greco, were valuable inclusions. They maintained good order and conduct of the men, and it was reported the relationship between FCV staff, and the POWs was mostly cordial, although there is an incident of a POW threatening a forestry supervisor with an axe.
It appears that discipline was not a problem, as the forest camps offered a relief from the monotony of confinement; and the prospect of escaping and “going bush” was filled with too many uncertainties.
But local wildlife sometimes supplemented the monotonous rations.
Although, after starting well, the Commission found that the prisoners of war were not performing according to expectations.
By June 1945, the Forests Commission proposed curtailing the POW operations. With the end of the war in sight, the prisoners showed little promise of improving their productivity, reflecting the problems that the Commission faced throughout this period trying to motivate non-voluntary and unpaid labour.
In 1945, with a mild winter, and good production in other parts of the state, the overall State firewood situation improved.
POW Escapes.
There were two groups of Italian POWs who made a break for freedom from V12 Broadford. The first group of four men escaped on the 17 February 1945 after leaving camp a rabbiting trip and were captured four days later on the 21 February, on the Hume Highway, 14 miles from Seymour. They were returned to Murchison Camp and given 28 days detention.
The second group of five escapees from V12 Broadford were “at large” from the 24 September to the 26 September 1945. Their records show they were “recaptured and marched in V12”. There is no disciplinary charge on their records, and they continued to serve at V12 Broadford until the hostel closed on the 15 December 1945.
Meanwhile, German officers were housed separately at the nearby Dhurringile mansion. Tensions boiled over leading to a breakout in January 1945 when 20 prisoners tunnelled under the barbed wire. They were all later found.
Post war camps.
The war in the Pacific ended on 2 September 1945, but 66 Italian prisoners at Camp No. 1 (also known as V12 Broadford) were given approval on 16 October by the Director General of Manpower to stay with the Forests Commission to continue cutting firewood.
However, Camp No. 1 finally closed to the POWs on 15 December 1945 when the last of them left.
But cutting of firewood continued from Camp No. 1 with the arrival of postwar immigrants and refugees from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, or “Balts” as they became known.
It was reported in the Argus newspaper in July 1949 that Camp No. 1 had all the modern conveniences. Workers lived in army-type huts with electric light, comfortable beds, plenty of blankets, and a mess that turned out three-course dinners under the direction of Chef Frank Chute who had previously served with the 2/8th Bn in the AIF.
Camp No. 1 was later transformed into the Forests Commission training facility for overseers from about 1946 and remained in use until the early 1970s. The site is now a popular camping ground.
Camp No. 2 (also known as V12 Broadford) was vacated by the POWs on 7 August 1945. It was used briefly used by the FCV before being leased to Camberwell Grammar in 1963 as the Bambara school camp. The site was destroyed in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. The Salvation Army took over the site in 2003.
The fate of Camps 3, 4 and 5 after the war is not known.
The last of the V18 Kinglake West group departed on the 26 and 27 August 1945. The site was used after the war by the Forests Commission as its assessment school. It later became a commercial school camp but the last of the original buildings were lost in the 2009 bushfires.
Summary
At the end of the war in 1945, the use of alien labour through the CAC scheme and prisoners of war based at Broadford and Kinglake West was finished.
The men had given a valuable service to the people of Melbourne through their efforts to maintain firewood and charcoal supplies.
For the Government, the Forests Commission proved itself an effective organisation for engaging enemy aliens and the prisoners of war.
The Commission which was by then well experienced in the management of labour camps, both before and during the war, offered the ideal opportunity to absorb some of the of post war refugees.
Thanks to Joanne Tapiolas, Trevor Viénet and Karen Christensen for their assistance with this complex story.
Eleanor Bridger (1994). Labour and internment camps in the Victorian forests, 1930-1945. Thesis Master of Arts in Public History. VGLS.
Camp No 1. c 1945. FCRPA CollectionCamp No. 1. 1962. Photo: Noel Fraser. Source: FCRPA CollectionCamp No 1. Source: Wandong History Group.Photo of reunion after the war. Source: Wandong History Group.
Kinglake West as the FCV assessment camp. c 1950. Source: FCRPA Collection.
Camp No 1. Unknown date and source.
Layout of Camp No 1. Late 1960s. Source Trevor Viénet.
On 1 September 1939 war broke out across Europe, which was followed by the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini’s declaration of war on the 10 June 1940. Then on 7 December 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed Pearl Harbour, starting war in the Pacific.
With the renewed conflict, combined with the terrible memories of the previous war still raw, there was an outbreak of fear within the wider Australian community.
Australians felt geographically isolated and alone. They also feared invasion which led to the introduction of the National Security (Aliens Control) Act in September 1939. Importantly they overrode all other State and Federal laws.
The Australian policy was drafted in accordance with one developed in Britain, reflecting Australia’s continuing reliance on Britain during the War.
Each State applied the national regulations slightly differently, but all aliens were required to register, and their travel was restricted.
It’s important to distinguish the subtle differences between groups. Firstly, there were aliens who were permitted to remain at home, but with travel restrictions. Then there were enemy aliens who were required to register with the Civil Alien Corps (CAC). Some enemy aliens were arrested and interned in special camps, and lastly there were Prisoners of War (POW).
Unfortunately, these terms are often get used interchangeably. To add to the confusion the different categories of people sometimes lived together in the same camps.
Prisoners of war, enemy aliens and internees had different rights and authorities treated them differently. For example, prisoners of war could be forced to work, while enemy aliens working for the CAC and internees were paid for any work they did. POWs were also subject to the standards of the Geneva Convention.
Prisoners of war and internees were held in camps behind barbed wire fences and the Department of Army kept meticulous records for each person. In time, some placements to work camps for prisoners of war did not necessarily require barbed wire.
There is a common misuse of the term “internee” when discussing forestry workers. Forestry workers as a member of the Civil Aliens Corps were not internees. They were civilian aliens. Some might have previously been interned, but at the time of their enrolment in the Civil Aliens Corps they were no longer classified as an “internee”.
Men who worked in the Civil Aliens Corps were employed by the Allied Works Council which had a different reporting and administrative system, and not all records are freely available or were appropriately archived.
Many records (including those in old FCV files) as well as references, particularly those found on the internet, don’t clearly distinguish between the various categories and tend to muddle the terminology. But language matters.
Enemy Aliens and Internees.
With the outbreak of the War in Europe in 1939, and later Japan in 1941, thousands of Australian residents suddenly found themselves identified as potential threats to Australia’s national security.
The war led to panic that tens of thousands of Australian residents might become sympathisers, saboteurs or spies.
Sweeping national security laws were aimed at identifying and isolating anyone deemed by military intelligence as a security risk. There were limited rights of appeal.
It was not only Italians, Japanese and Germans who were identified, but also Greeks, Russians, French, Maltese, English and many other nationalities.
By November 1939, over 12,000 potential threats to national security had been screened by Victorian Authorities. They included:
Men who were naturalised British subjects but of Italian or German descent, and living in Australia, could be drafted into the armed forces. They were often used as Interpreters.
Men who were resident in Australia, but were not naturalised British subjects, had to register as aliens at the beginning of hostilities.
Aliens only became an enemy alien when their country made declarations of war. Some were later arrested and interned, while others were required to register for the Civil Aliens Corp (CAC).
Women and children who were identified as aliens were not generally interned unless they were seen as a particular threat.
Enemy aliens also included some civilians and refugees who were transported to Australia by its overseas allies.
Military Intelligence grouped all aliens according to their suspected security risk. The categories broadly covered people who were suspected of espionage; or who were suspected of belonging to the Italian Armed forces; had any association with Communist organisations; or a foreign political organisation such as the Fascists; or criminal gangs such as the Mafia.
In addition, those who were involved with shipping, transport and communications, factories for war materials and any other operations with an opportunity for sabotage were included in the screening.
All leaders of influence within the Italian community, such as the Church, and all Italian males of military age were included.
Some “aliens” were interned because they were “educated” and authorities felt they were capable of leading an uprising while others who were illiterate were interned because they were likely “followers”.
Seventh Day Adventists were also swept up in the process.
Aliens were required to register with authorities and obtain permission to travel or change abode within their local police district.
Restrictions meant that aliens were not permitted to be in possession of firearms or other weapons; cameras or surveying apparatus, any apparatus capable of signalling, any carrier or homing pigeon, motor cars, motorcycles or aircraft, or any cipher, code, or other means of conducting secret correspondence.
In addition, it was an offence for aliens to speak in a language other than English on the telephone.
The regulations were divisive and encouraged the public to report suspicious activity. Many members of Melbourne’s Italian community recalled being reported for just speaking Italian by their neighbours.
Midway through the war, more than 12,000 people – mostly men, but some women and children, were held in internment camps. They included about 7000 Australian residents, including 1500 British nationals.
A further 8000 people were sent to Australia to be interned after being detained overseas by Australia’s allies. Italians and Germans arrested in the United Kingdom, Palestine, Singapore and the Malaya Straits and New Guinea were also brought to Australia for internment.
A famous group of Jewish refugees that were interned included 2000+ Dunera Boys, and about 600 chose to stay in Australia after the war. Other examples include the Vienna Boys Choir who had been touring in Australia at the outbreak of the war but were placed under the care and guardianship of Archbishop Daniel Manix in Melbourne.
The Government released many internees before the end of the war. Others could leave the camps when fighting stopped. Those from Britain or Europe could stay in Australia. But most Japanese, including some who were born in Australia, were sent back to Japan in 1946.
Civil Aliens Corps (CAC).
The Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) and the Civil Constructional Corps (CCC) were established in 1943 as a civilian labour force under the Allied Works Council (AWC).
The War Cabinet approved this step as a means of relieving Australia’s worsening manpower shortage as the war progressed. It was felt that aliens and ‘British subjects’ who were not eligible to enlist in the Australian armed forces, were a valuable labour force and as such be directed to work in projects of national importance.
The Allied Works Council took overall control of wartime projects such as construction, forestry, maintenance of camps, roads, aerodromes, railways and docks.
The Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) was established under the National Security (Aliens Service) Regulations. It was primarily composed of male refugees and enemy aliens, between the ages of 18 and 60, who were not interned, but were directed to register for work on infrastructure and defence projects.
The men needed to pass a medical and fitness test, and many were exempted on these grounds. Personal hardship was also a reason for exemption.
Many were exempted because they worked in reserved occupations such as manufacturing or farm labourers.
Overall, across Australia, less than 10% of all enemy aliens were employed by the CAC.
While being engaged in the CAC was sometimes regarded as “national service”, the enemy aliens were paid a wage. The average male wage in Victoria in 1942 was about £5 per week.
The CAC was disbanded in May 1945 and many men transferred into the Civil Construction Corps (CCC).
Prisoners of War (POW).
Prisoners of War (POW), unlike internees or enemy aliens, were enemy soldiers who had been captured or surrendered.
Most of the POWs initially sent to Australia were Italians and Germans captured during the North Africa campaign, in Eritrea, Abyssinia, Greece, Albania and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Italian prisoners sent to Victoria were initially held at Murchison Camp #13, which had four compounds each accommodating 1000 men.
An Italian officers’ camp was also built at Myrtleford Camp #5, comprising of two compounds for 500 men each. Myrtleford had a strong and respected Italian-community – mostly tobacco farmers and many POWs were later allowed to work unguarded in local farms.
Sailors from the German raider Kormoran, which sunk off the WA Coast in November 1941, were housed in the first instance at Harvey Camp WA, then Murchison Camp followed by a POW forest camp near Graytown, which was known as No. 6 Labour Detachment Graytown. The German officers were kept at the Dhurringile mansion
Japanese POWs captured in New Guinea were transferred through Gaythorne Camp in Queensland first, then Cowra Camp NSW, Hay Camp NSW and some were sent to Murchison Camp.
For the most part, prisoners of war were dressed in Australian uniforms left over from the First World War which had been dyed maroon. The Italian POWs complained about the colour, to be told that this was the only colour to successfully dye over khaki.
Camps.
Camps were established across Victoria. The level of security and standards of construction varied depending on the category of the inmates and the security risks.
Many were repurposed camps which had previously been used by FCV workers during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Victoria had POW camps at Dhurringile Mansion, Camp #13 near Murchison, Camp #6 near Graytown, Camp #5 near Myrtleford, as well as camps at Tatura, Rushworth and Rowville in eastern Melbourne.
The camp at Graytown, which housed German POWs, was used to cut firewood.
Most of the higher security internment camps were in the Goulburn Valley, with two at Tatura and two at nearby Rushworth, because food was plentiful and there was a good supply of water. They were also far enough away from the coast to deter escapes.
Both POW and Internee camps were enclosed with barbed wire and had guards.
Dozens of smaller facilities without guards were also located across Victoria.
Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) workers often enjoyed more relaxed camps with Stanley Huts or tents in remote forests without fences or guards. The camps were often relatively temporary in nature.
CAC workers accrued holidays and subject to permission were allowed to take holidays. They were allowed to go into town on a weekend, though limited finances often limited this to a fortnightly or monthly visit.
Initially POWs, CAC men and Internees were housed separately, but there are many records of the groups being mixed which adds to the puzzle.
Additionally, but separately, there were also dozens of low security internment and CAC camps for enemy aliens. Together they held between 4000 to 8000 people.
There were at least 17 bush camps operated by the Forests Commission which held smaller groups of CAC workers. Over the period of the war its estimated that about 700 men cut firewood and produced charcoal to help ease Victoria’s energy shortage.
Thanks to Joanne Tapiolas for her help with this complex story.
In January 1942 the Forests Commission identified seven Internment and POW camps for 2000 men to cut firewood but about 17 smaller camps were eventually established. Their location is not fully known. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8230153
Virgilio Zubiani (PWI47824) was an Italian Chaplain. National Archives. Source: Joanne Tapiolas
Italo Rossi (Army) PWI 62562 – Born: 6 July 1916 at Cortona Arezzo. Captured on 4 January 1941 at Bardia Libya. Interned on 18 February 1941 in India. Arrived on the MT VERNON on 26 April 1944 at Melbourne. POW at Broadford Camp. Departed Australia on the OTRANTO on 10 January 1947 for Naples, Italy. Source National Archives
Armando Rosignoli (#25557) was at Camp No 1. At the conclusion of the war on 3 May 1946, he was sent to V22 camp at Rowville. National Archives. Source: NAA. Joanne Tapiolas
By March 1945 it was reported that the nationalities of POWs in Australia were –
18,000 Italians
1,500 Germans
4,000 Japanese
There were three levels of camps –
Prisoner of War & Internment Camp (PW & I Camp) – Administrative and Parent Camp (e.g. Tatura No 2.)
Prisoner of War Control Hostel (PWCH) – Operated like a small camp and established for specific projects. (e.g. Broadford and Kinglake firewood camps).
Prisoner of War Control Centre: Without Guard (PWCC) – Placement of prisoners of war on farms.
Prisoners and Internees were often moved between States so it’s tricky to give a definitive number of POWs in Victoria at any one time.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 
