Thread: Searching for war prisoner details

DURING World War II possibly hundreds of Italian prisoners of war (POW) were employed on Eyre Peninsula farms and by the railways and now a Tumby Bay woman hopes to create a booklet on their short time in the region.
Colleen Pedler has been gathering information about the POWs for a booklet to go in the National Trust Museum.

“I’m just wanting to know whether they kept in contact with people and stories about when they were here and how they settled down,” she said.

The region’s control centre for the POWs was at Tumby Bay, at the back of the old doctor’s house.

Already Mrs Pedler has come across some interesting tales, such as a POW hanging spaghetti over a fence to dry.

Her own memories are limited, but she remembers a POW giving her and her brother chewing gum - “we were the only kids in the district with gum”.

Some orders the defence force gave to the control centre in Tumby Bay give a little insight into how the prisoners were treated.

Orders covered food, including saying the Italians needed little meat and preferred spaghetti, macaroni or soup.

On Sundays the POWs were permitted to go freely one mile from the property from 10am to 4pm, but they were not allowed to go to any town or enter shops or houses other than on the property; and they were required to wear the issued maroon clothing at all times.

One family took their POW to the local show without the maroon shirt and they were reported.

Another POW had to be taken to Tumby Bay for stitches, without wearing his maroon shirt, and this was reported too.

Any information can be sent to Mrs Pedler, at the Tumby National Trust Museum.

Originally Posted by Antipodean Andy

Eyre Peninsula as in South Australia?

I presume so.