Loveday – Part 4 – Camp 10

The Loveday Internment Camp complex was the largest construction of its type in Australia, and the only purpose-built World War II internment facility in South Australia. It comprised a garrison barracks and administration building, camps 9, 10 and 14; a piggery and other farming facilities, and included three woodcutting camps at Katarapko, Woolenook Bend and Moorook West.[1] Other Internment facilities were a temporary facility at Keswick Army Barracks in 1939/40. Gladstone Gaol was used for Italian detainees, who worked forestry jobs at Wirrabara and Bundaleer. There was also a temporary internment camp at Sandy Creek that housed Italian detainees who worked on farms in the Adelaide Hills. Before this, the camp had been constructed to house American troops. A section of fence from this camp still exists on Williamstown Road.[2]

Camp 10, accepted detainees from, June 1941 until January 1944, when all detainees were transferred to camp 14. At the end of the war, most of the structures at the camp were sold and relocated, however, the camp 10 cell block remains in situ. The cell block was built originally as a two-cell facility but was later expanded to six cells. Detainees housed here were for crimes inside the camps, such as espionage, physical violence against other inmates, disobedience, and escape attempts. Australian soldiers with the 25/23 Garrison Battalion, due for court-martial hearings also spent time in these buildings. (One, who worked in the mail room, was accused of opening Red Cross packages sent to detainees and stealing their cigarettes.)[3] These three detained Australian soldiers inscribed their names on the cell’s walls.[4]

Camp 10 was officially closed on 9 January 1944. It was then converted to a Detail Issue Depot (DID). DIDs were used for storing and distributing basic supplies to the various camps.[5] The camp was closed in 1946, and individual campsites were sold as properties. In 1947, the piggeries and 43 acres of land were sold to ex-servicemen.[6]

In 1989, The General Headquarters site at Loveday Internment Camp Complex was entered into the South Australian Heritage Register. In 1991, an archaeological survey was conducted at the location. The Loveday Internment Camp Committee is investigating the potential of turning the former cell block into a tourist attraction.[7]

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

[1] Camp 10 Detention Cell Block – Loveday Internment Camp Complex., Department of Environment and Water, (2020), p. 14.
[2] Ibid., pp. 2-3.
[3] 'Prisoners' Camp Allegations', News, (28 April 1944), p. 3.
[4] Camp 10 Detention Cell Block – Loveday Internment Camp Complex., Department of Environment and Water, (2020), p. 19-20.
[5] The Details Issue Depot, Australian War Memorial, (2023), https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ART21450.
[6] 'Loveday Camp Closing', The Advertiser, (21 January 1947), p. 2.
[7] Loveday Internment Camp, Berri Barmera Council, (March 2023), https://lovedayinternmentcamp.au/.