Tatura Irrigation & Wartime Camps Museum, Tatura
Brass cornet with a canvas carry bag.
Historical information
After WW1 the Wilhelma Templer village bought ex WW1 German Armed Forces Brass instruments for their own Brass Band. The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from having more than a 10,000 man army thus creating a flood of unwanted instruments with no one having cash to buy them. With the deportation in August 1941 by the British Mandate of most Templers from Palestine to Australia, one of the young bachelors, Gustav Reichert, obtained permission to bring these instruments to Tatura. This he did and, in Camp 3, a band was reformed to entertain members of both internees and often, Camp Authorities.
Gustav enjoyed playing the double brass with the Melbourne Templer Brass Band in the 1960-1970's. The above instruments have semi-rotary valves, as traditionally French Horns do, unlike most Anglosaxon bands, where piston valves are used almost exclusively. Yet in German the name Piston is commonly used for cornet.
Though battered, these instruments are all still serviceable for their intended use, some more so than others. Their canvas carry bags offered little protection.
The group comprised 1 double bass, 1 Euphonium, 1 valve bass trombone, all in C, 3 baritones in Bb (German tenor horns), 3 cornets in Bb, 1 soprano cornet in Eb, in all 11 instruments. Some of the got "lost".
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