The three men in the front row of this image are Ernie Ranson, Maurie Hogan and Bert Dowell.

These local men from north-western Victorian town, Tatura, were part of the wave of young Australians who joined the war effort in the 1940s. In addition to local volunteers, the camps also produced a number of recruits who served as part of the 8 Employment Company after their release from internment. It is unknown whether these three men survived the war as their deaths were not definite, being declared to be ‘lost in action.’

This framed canvas depicts Camp 2 at Tatura, painted by artist Dr Leonhard Adam in 1942.

Dr Leonhard Adam was an accomplished anthropologist and lawyer in Berlin and London before his status as an ‘enemy alien’ saw him dispatched to Australia on the HMT Dunera. Like Adam, many of the internees detained at Tatura were academics, artists and professionals who attempted to maintain these aspects of their pre-war lives through camp schools, clubs and artistic expressions.

Despite these efforts at normality, the isolation of the rural Australian landscape and constant reminder of confinement, as pictured in Adam’s work, were omnipresent.

Behind the Fence, was produced by the ‘Singapore Group’ of prisoners of Camp 3.

The Singapore Group, were based near the town Rushworth and mostly consisted of German, Palestinian and New Guinean families. Contrary to their name, the ‘Singapore Group’ were predominately Jewish men, women and children who had fled Nazi Europe to find temporary safe harbour in Singapore before being dispatched to Australia in 1940 by the British colonists.

Written in English and in German, the native languages of the internees, the publication was entertainment for many during their incarceration.

This sketch of the 19 century Dhurringile Mansion was drawn by an unknown internee in 1939.

In the early years of operation, the mansion was rented from a local resident to house German and Italian alien civilians before being repurposed as a Prisoner of War lodging facility for German prisoners from August 1941 until July 1945.

This sketch was bestowed to a Garrison member Arthur Severino, and was subsequently passed down to his son William and so on. In an example of historic recurrence, the property has been used by the Victorian Government as a minimum security prison from 1965 to the present day.

This photograph was taken in the year 1940 at Camp 3, near Rushworth.

Camp 3 housed family groups from Austria, Germany, New Guinea, Palestine as well as enemy Australian citizens. As in other camps, the domesticity of life continued behind wired fences.

This photograph depicts Dr Sturzenhofecker, Dr Reitmeair, Dr Rubitschung and a dress maker Mrs Dehnel and many others, several of whom became teachers at the Camp 3 children’s school.