Loveday – Part 3: Tunnel

Loveday – Part 3: Tunnel

Barmera, South Australia. 1943-03-11/17. Detention cells of the 10th Australian prisoner of war and internment camp, loveday group. (Australian War Memorial)

Loveday internment camp had many escape attempts, the most notable being a tunnel dug from under a tent near a permitter fence, which came out on the other side of the barbwire fence, hidden by a bush.
The tunnel was deep enough underground that trucks passing over the top on the road did not collapse it. To get around the large amounts of dirt being pulled from the tunnel excavation, prisoners asked for permission to make a mud brick hut, which was granted. Surprisingly, no officers questioned where the dirt was coming from.

Internees used kitchen knives to dig the tunnels, and handkerchiefs to cart the dirt from the tunnel. The dirt that wasn’t used for mud bricks was spread around the camp day and night, without soldiers guarding the camp realising.

On 30 April 1942 three internees reported to a guard that they believed there would be a mass escape that evening. The three men were removed from the camp for their own safety. An inspection of the entirety of Camp 10 revealed the tunnel. It was believed that within a few hours of the report to the guard, the tunnel would have been big enough for the escape of hundreds of detainees. Soldiers filled the tunnel with water and collapsed it to prevent escapes and seal the exit route.[1]

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

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[1] Max Scholz, ‘As I Remember: The Loveday Interment Camp,’ (Barmera, 2004), pp. 32-33. ; 'Last Prisoners Have Left Loveday', Murray Pioneer, (23 January 1947), p. 1.

Loveday – Part 1: The Murder of Francesco Fantin

 Loveday – Part 1: 

The Murder of Francesco Fantin

 

 

In December 1942, The Sydney Tribune ran the headline ‘ANTI-FACIST MURDERED: Political Terrorism in S.A.’  World War II was raging, and in Australia, Japanese, Germans and Italian people had been segregated into internment camps with many arriving in the South Australian outback camp, Loveday, the largest camp of its kind in Australia.

Loveday was established in 1941, near Bamera, holding over 5000 internees, and 1500 staff comprised from the Australian Military Forces. It also held, at times, Prisoners of War. The camp was established by the Australian government to hold people it labelled ‘enemy aliens,’ typically, these were people from countries that Australia and its allies had declared war against.
 According to the Loveday Lives website, of 15000 internees across the group of camps during its usages, 7000 were in Australia at the outbreak of the war, and 8000 were transported from the United Kingdom and Dutch East Indies through arrangements by their government.[1]

 In June 1941 the 4^th Garrison Battalion arrived at Loveday to begin Guard duty. Later that month the first internees, a group of 458 Italians arrived at the camp from Hay in New South Wales.  In August 1941, the first international internees arrived, sent from Britain after the fall of France. The first Japanese internees arrived from the Northern Territory in January 1942, with Germans and more Italians arriving the same month.
In 1943, the camp reached 5382 internees. The camp closed in 1946 – for more information about the history of the camp and a timeline of significant events please visit: https://lovedaylives.com/

 

One internee at Loveday was Italian, Francesco Fantin. Fantin was born in San Vito di Leguzzano in North Italy in 1901. Fantin was a textile worker in Italy. The rise of Fascism in Italy saw Fantin become an anarchist and political militant. Fantin left Italy in 1927, arriving in Melbourne, before moving to Queensland where his brothers, Luigi and Alfonso had a cane farm at Sawmill Pocket, Edmonton.

In the 1930s, Fantin moved to Victoria, where he became active in the Labour and anti-fascist movements. He became a correspondent for the anti-fascist newspaper La Risoccossa. Fantin was arrested by Australian authorities in 1940 as a fascist. He appealed the decision but lost, and was sent to Loveday Internment Camp 14A at Barmera. Unlike other internment camps, Loveday separated internees by nationality, not political affiliation, which led to a political divide between those detained. Fantin stood with the anti-fascists and became a political leader, which led to constant harassment, abuse, and assault from fascist detainees.[2] Another detainee entered Fantin's tent and beat him senseless. Fantin reported the assault, but the authorities would not get involved.

 In 1942, near sunset, on November 16, Fantin was drinking from a water tap. He was alone when fascist supporter, Giovanni Bruno Casotti, a detainee who had arrived only two weeks prior from Western Australia, assaulted him. There are two versions of events, which I will discuss in part two.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2024

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[1] ‘History’, Loveday Lives, (2023),  https://lovedaylives.com/history/.

[2] Paul Nursey-Bray, 'Fantin, Francesco Giovanni (Frank) (1901–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fantin-francesco-giovanni-frank-12912/text23327.

Red Triangle Day - WWI

Red Triangle Day

In an effort to raise money for Australian soldiers overseas during World War One, the Y.M.C.A (Young Men’s Christian Association) began the Red Triangle campaign in 1917.
The campaign spanned all of Australia and rolled out through South Australia over many months.

In Adelaide, the Adelaide Citizens Committee became involved in the fund-raising effort and through the dedication of 700 female volunteers, raised over two and half thousand pounds in one day on May 24th, 1917.
This was achieved by closing off sections of Rundle Street and Gawler Place and holding a market. A procession of troops, bands and decorated cars also added to the atmosphere of the day.

As the State began to embrace the Red Triangle Day appeal, it was decided that its official “day” would be August 31st across the State.

A gala day was held in Mount Barker in August 1917, which became an all-night fund-raising event held at The Mount Barker Town Hall.

Kapunda celebrated Red Triangle Day on September 1st, 1917. The Kapunda celebration featured a button unique to their celebration, which is extremely rare and collectable today.

Peterborough (then known as Petersburg) celebrated in September 1917, proudly supported by the Burra Ladies Band. This was the first time a “Lady’s Band” had ever played a concert in Peterborough. This led to large crowds gathering in the Town Hall later in the day to hear the ladies sing, while local ladies sold pins and flowers to raise money for the Y.M.C.A.

Stansbury, on the Yorke Peninsula, celebrated Red Triangle day with a fete on August 31st, 1917.

Through the cooperation of the State War Council, The Minister of Education and the Children’s Patriotic Fund a fund-raising competition in South Australian schools raised money for the Y.M.C.A. Red Triangle Day appeal. The reward for the winning school was a large banner proclaiming their effort and the honour of knowing they were supporting the Australian war effort overseas.

The Red Triangle appeal carried over into 1918, with Unley, in June 1918, being canvassed with a door to door sale of a unique Red Triangle pin created for the day. A small gathering of locals also attended a small musical show at the Unley City Hall headquarters. 

In May 1919, Red Triangle Day continued in Port Pirie with a football match between the Smelter Imperials and the Y.M.C.A.

The August 1917 appeal in Australia raised £159,037 28 (that’s around $14,198,000 in today’s money).

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

References

1917 'RED TRIANGLE DAY', The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser (SA: 1880 - 1954), 3 August, p. 2. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147702293
Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1889 - 1931), Saturday 21 July 1917, page 8
1917 'Y.M.C.A. WAR WORK', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA: 1910 - 1924), 1 August, p. 8. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124859553
1917 'RED TRIANGLE DAY', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA: 1910 - 1924), 2 August, p. 3. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124859820
1917 'THE COUNTRY.', The Register (Adelaide, SA: 1901 - 1929), 4 August, p. 5. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60466404
1917 'RED TRIANGLE DAY APPEAL', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA: 1895 - 1954), 4 August, p. 34. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87607153
1917 'Advertising', The Mail (Adelaide, SA: 1912 - 1954), 4 August, p. 3. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64042545
1918 'ONLEY RED TRIANGLE DAY.', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA: 1910 - 1924), 8 June, p. 4. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124550031
1919 'RED TRIANGLE DAY.', Recorder (Port Pirie, SA: 1919 - 1954), 28 May, p. 2. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95415489
1917 'RED TRIANGLE DAY.', Petersburg Times (SA: 1887 - 1919), 5 October, p. 3. , viewed 30 Dec 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109504664

Port Adelaide Torpedo Station

photo: flinders.edu.au

The City of Adelaide’s coastline has long been protected by fortifications such as Fort Largs and Fort Glanville from seaborne threats. In the 1880s South Australia had its own ship The Protector, which safeguarded incoming passenger and cargo ships from seaborne enemies.
The ship was commissioned, in part, because of pirates and pressgangs working from Kangaroo Island and Port Adelaide, but also because of the ever-present threat of war from Prussia, which in those days, was paranoia that hung over the colony from the other side of the world.


 Another form of protection for the colony was the torpedo station situated at the North Arm of the Port River, which operated from 1877 until 1916. This outpost had several buildings and a jetty that extended into the Port River. It was connected to other defence sites by a telegraph line.
  In 1905, an English built torpedo boat was commissioned to the small base, a 12 ton, 63-foot vessel that only saw service for less than a decade, when it was decommissioned and scrapped.

6" naval gun, originally mounted at Torpedo Mine Station 1885-1916 on Port River
Image:
History SA

 Until 1961, the residents of Port Adelaide had believed that the Torpedo station was a myth. That was until a 6-inch naval gun was found by the Port Adelaide Council buried deep in the mud.
The gun was taken to the Birkenhead Naval Reserve, where it lay until 1994 when it was moved to the Council Depot in Tracy Street.

 
  In 1996, the now semi-restored gun was moved to Birkenhead and was placed on Cruickshank’s Corner. In 2012 the gun was moved into the custodianship of the Port Adelaide Historical Society. They moved the gun into the Port Adelaide Maritime Museum, where it still resides today.

© Allen Tiller 2016

Celebrating South Australian's – Yett Soo War Way Lee

Celebrating South Australian's – Yett Soo War Way Lee

 Yett Soo War Way Lee was born in Tungkun near Canton in China in 1853. The son of a rice-miller, Way Lee married early and had a son with his wife, named Yett King Sum.

By 1874, Yett Soo had made his way to Sydney Australia. He had travelled alone, and whilst in Sydney lived with his uncle Way Kee. He travelled the eastern states seeking education in schools in Sydney and Brisbane, before making his way to Adelaide.

  In Adelaide, he studied English language at the Adelaide City Mission and founded his own company “Way Lee Co.” an import company bringing in Tea, china and other imported goods and fireworks.

Way Lee's business was hugely successful in an era when the rise of racism against the Chinese in Australia was steadily on the rise (which would eventually lead to the anti-Chinese riots in gold mining towns like Ararat in Victoria )

 Way Lee's business was incredibly successful he opened stores right across the South Australian colony and in the Northern Territory and New South Wales. In South Australia, his main store was located in Rundle Street, but he also had a store in Currie Street. Stores could also be found in South Australia at Quorn, Hawker, Millicent. In New South Wales at Beltana, Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Wentworth and Menindee and in the Northern Territory at Daly River.

Way Lee was a supporter of his community often giving money to local charities, and supporting local events. He always supported Chinese New Year, offering dinners for Adelaide's dignitaries and politicians and supplying fireworks for  celebrations.

Way Lee was the first Australian to really open the way for trade between China and Australia. A fighter for the rights of Chinese immigrants, he fought for Chinese settlers to be offered a district solely for Chinese use.

 Way Lee also offered to bring to Australia, Chinese labourers to work at the Daly River Plantation in the Northern Territory.
 Way Lee was a great promoter of education to the  Chinese community, and worked hard to improve the working conditions and rights of his Chinese compatriots in Australia. He also worked to stop the import of Opium into the colony.

 Way Lee also raised money, and donated much of his won money, to be sent back to China to help feed people after chronic flooding, then droughts that were decimating the people of his homelands.

Way Lee was a Freemason and a respected member and leader of the local Chinese Community. He offered homes for many Chinese immigrants in Adelaide, way houses until they could afford better homes themselves.

 In 1889 Way Lee married Margaret McDonald, and together they had 4 children, Vera, Pretoria, Lily and Jack.

He spoke openly in the public about the treatment of his fellow-countrymen in Australia by the Government, law and people and is quoted as saying “The Australian people are always very kind to me, but the law worse then the people”.

Way Lee died in 1909 of chronic nephritis and amyloid disease on August 21^st 1909. Many of Adelaide's population travelled to West Terrace cemetery to witness the funeral of Way Lee, expecting odd Chinese death rites, but they were bitterly disappointed, as Way Lee was buried under common Presbyterian funeral rights.

For more on Yett Soo War Way Lee, please visit the following links:

adb.anu.edu.au/biography/way-lee-yet-soo-war-9015

www.chia.chinesemuseum.com.au/biogs/CH00005b.htm

migration.historysa.com.au/biography/yett-soo-war-way-lee

© Allen Tiller 2015

Extreme Emergency Causing Notice – Kapunda – South Australia

Extreme Emergency Causing Notice – Kapunda – South Australia

Lord Palmerston Hotel - Main Street Kapunda

During World War Two, the Japanese military had spread its army across Asia, marching towards Australia with a ferocity never before witnessed in modern warfare. City after city fell to the Empire as they moved ever southwards. Singapore fell, and soon Australian soldiers were fighting even closer to their Island, and the threat of coastal invasion became much more real and terrifying.

 By 1942 however, the tide was beginning to turn, and it was now the Japanese who were beginning to worry, so much so in fact that they began to evacuate their own people from possible invasion points by moving them to their furthest north Island of Hokkaido.

 If the Japanese had of made it ashore and invaded Australia, the South Australian Government had devised a plan that would come into action if an “extreme emergency causing notice” had to be served, which would demand all banks in South Australia  in metropolitan areas would have to transfer their head office, or State headquarters, if the banks head office was interstate, into country regional areas as a means of isolating them and making them harder to capture before important documents could be destroyed.

Bank of Adelaide - 1907 - Kapunda

 The clearinghouse for Associated Banks in South Australia was to find its new home in Burra, where several of the States banks were already represented, these being the Bank of Australia, The National Bank of Australasia Ltd, and the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd.

 Banks that were choosing to station their headquarters in other towns, would also have to have a representative stationed in Burra to change their cheques through the clearinghouse.

  Other banks were choosing other regional areas, the Bank of Adelaide made plans for its administration to work from Saddleworth whilst the Adelaide office would be moved to Kapunda, the headquarters to Balaklava and its Port Adelaide, Hindmarsh and Rundle Street branches would all be moved to Angaston in the Barossa Valley.

English, Scottish and Australia Chartered Bank - Kapunda 1871

 The Bank Of Adelaide also made plans to move its Enfield, Keswick and Unley branches to Freeling, whilst its Hindley Street, Pultney Street and Gouger Street branches were to go even further north to Spalding, and the office on North Terrace to Booborowie!

 The English, Scottish and Australian Bank Ltd was looking towards Clare, while the Head Office of Sydney based bank the Commercial Banking company of Sydney Ltd, was looking to go south to Naracoorte. The Commonwealth Bank made moves for Waikerie, and our very own State Bank had chosen Yacka as its escape plan.

The Savings Bank of South Australia chose Kapunda, and made moves to secure buildings in the town, one being the former Baptist Church on Hill street (now the Kapunda Museum) of which the basement, measuring 60ft by 40ft, and having two stair wells was considered extremely valuable to the bank, but they also needed somewhere to use as accommodation for the staff they would need to move the former copper mining town.

 The bank also purchased the once grand Lord Palmerston Hotel which was situated in the main street of the town, and after service as a hotel, and horse sales yards, became the Kapunda Coffee Palace before falling into a state of disuse and neglect.

Kapunda's Main Street circa 1880

 The Hotel, on the ground floor had a bar, dining room, four other rooms and a kitchen, and on the first floor another 11 rooms that could be used as bedrooms, more than ample for the staffs requirements if ever the move had to take place.

 Fortunately for South Australia the Japanese never got this far, and an “extreme emergency causing notice” never had to be served.

War Tunnels

War Tunnels

A new train and train line, with a newly completed viaduct and tunnels in Belair, was quite an achievement. Although, South Australian's did not expect to see men standing around in the fields near Blackwood, wondering why their new shiny train could not make it up the steep incline, and so it was in 1883 when 200 of Adelaide's most proper gentleman were invited on the first trip of Adelaide’s new train line into the Adelaide Hills (As reported in the Observer March 17th 1883).


With the outbreak of World War One, the Sleeps Hill tunnels and railway line became very important to our wartime communications, and to transport between States. Armed military guards were posted at either end of the tunnels to stop any espionage attempts.
When the war ended in 1919, a new line was installed, and the railway lines were removed from the old tunnels (the last train ran through there on August 11th, 1919). Instead, the tunnels now served as a picnic and exploration area for many local people.


In 1932, an enterprising young man came up with the idea of using the tunnels to grow mushrooms. He removed the gravel floor and brought in tons of fresh dirt. He planted his first crop, looking to a bright future of all-year-round fresh mushrooms for South Australia.
However, it wasn’t to be, as unforeseen causes saw his business take many blows. Firstly, an endless supply of unwanted brown snakes found their way into the warm, dank tunnels. Then mould and fungus disease obliterated his crop...and to top it all off, vandals broke in a destroyed what little he had left.
His mushroom dream finally ended after an outbreak of the fungus “Chatomium” spread through his crop, a disease brought to South Australia from infected mushrooms from Herefordshire, England.

In 1938, the old tunnels now stood empty once again. In 1942, the Japanese bombed Darwin, and an outbreak of invasion hysteria captured the South Australian government. They decided the old Sleeps Hill tunnels would be the perfect place to hide the State's many artistic treasures and important documents.
Plans were made, and the shorter of the two tunnels was overhauled with ventilation shafts, electric lighting, and thick brick walls at either end with heavy iron doors.
A Jarrah platform running 700ft and 18 inches high was installed running the full length of the tunnel. Next, the tunnel was divided in half down its width and divided into sections. A small hand cart was then used to place the State's treasures into their new homes.
Armed troops stood guard as endless trucks of treasures arrived to be unloaded and hidden from the Japanese threat. War records on microfilm, Government x-rays, taxation documents, and other Government papers were stored inside the tunnels, alongside some of our most valuable art collections.

The Government spent a lot of money on this new storage facility, which housed not only our state treasures and documents but also a travelling painting of King George VI, which happened to be in Australia at the time. Elaborate fire safeguards were installed, and the facility was constantly monitored by the military for dampness, mould and pests.
The other tunnel played a lesser role and became storage for an arsenal of weapons and ammunition; it too was heavily guarded by our military.
The war ended, but this did not stop the military from using the 1st tunnel for the following few years.

There has long been rumour and innuendo that some of our treasures never made it back out of tunnel 1, but I am assured by a source I spoke to recently that everything was accounted for and returned to its proper place after the threat of war diminished.


Bibliography: 

1883 'OPENING OF THE LINE.', The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 - 1889), 17 March, p. 2.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33758328

Belair Train Tunnel

  Belair Train Tunnel

A horrific accident occurred on February 8, 1928, during the building of new train tunnels that were to extend the Belair train line through the Adelaide Hills.

  Six men lost their lives, and three men were injured when a landslide hit the tunnel as men were working on it.

The men killed:

Mr Charles Wilkinson

Mr William Kilmartin

Mr Robert Cafferty

Mr Paul Patt

Mr Charles Smith

 Mr Garrett Costello

The men injured in the incident also included two rescue workers. The injured workers were; Mr John Whittenbury, Mr Arthur Newcombe, Mr Ambrose Gledhill, and rescue workers, Mr Gallaghan and Mr J McCarthy.

  If the incident had occurred any later in the day,  the tragedy could have been much worse. The heavily-laden express train to Melbourne was due to pass through the cutting, but was rerouted as news of the accident hit Adelaide Railway control. Any later and the train would have crashed into the through the worksite, unable to stop!

  There is every possibility that one, or all, of these men, now haunt the currently used train tunnel, which has become the home of urban explorers and graffiti artists. As with all ghost stories, there is probably an element of urban legend that has grown around the area, and that plays a heavy part in the traditions of hauntings in the tunnels. 

© 2014 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

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