Stefan Weintraub's top German jazz band!

Austrian artist Max Oppenheimer (1885-1954) painted in 1927, capturing the rough energy of a music that was taking Berlin’s nightlife by storm in the interwar era.

Max Oppenheimer, Weintraub's Syncopators, 1927. 

Jewish Museum Berlin

Used to illustrate brochures advertising Stefan Weintraub's (1897–1981) concerts in late 1920s, it showed the group as a quartet, though they often performed with 5+ musicians. Stefan Weintraub and Horst Graff, the founding duo, starred on the drums and saxophone respectively; and they were equally as talented on the piano or clarinet. Weintraub’s band stood out for their range of skills, both in their instruments and the genres of music they performed.

They played symphonic jazz, swing, waltz and schlager, catchy German-language pop songs, wittier than contemporary equivalents. Their biggest hits included My Sweetheart Wants to Take Me Sailing on Sunday and My Gorilla Has a Villa at the Zoo. Berlin’s most creative cabaret composer, Friedrich Hollaender, joined the band in the 1920s and replaced Weintraub on the piano.

They also performed with Josephine Baker and the Tiller Girls Dance Group, and unsurprisingly the Syncopators provided the musical strains to the defining song of the Weimar Republic’s cultural flourishing eg Marlene Dietrich’s Falling in Love Again (1930). Even better was when the band accompanied Marlene Dietrich’ cabaret songs in the famous film The Blue Angel (1930).

Marlene Dietrich and her favourite jazz band

Inside Story

See several other exiles who were brought about by the rise of Fascism, behind the Oppenheimer portrait of the band. The artist himself left Berlin in 1931, emigrating to Switzerland then US. The painting’s owner, prominent lawyer Hugo Staub, fled the city in March 1933, the artwork remaining in his Kurfürstendamm flat.

The rise of Nazism slowed the Syncopators’ booming career. Though the Nazis dismissed jazz as degenerate Negro music, for a few years the band continued to play Berlin venues under the name Die Weintraubs. However after seeing the Reichstag Fire in Feb 1933, the band decided to embark on an international tour (and never returned). Weintraubs Syncopators were never officially banned, but since the man whose name they bore and most of their members were Jewish, their future was doomed (Dümling).

These international musical celebrities of the 1930s left on a 4-year journey across Europe and Russia, in exile from the German Third Reich’s antisemitism. After successes in the Far East and Japan, they moved to Australia. This band of mainly Jewish musicians arrived in Sydney in 1937. The decision of some of them to stay brought them into conflict with the aggressively protectionist Musicians’ Union of Australia. The Union’s wish was to spread available work among a maximum number of Australian musicians, particularly in the difficult Depression-shadowed years of the 1930s. In a similar way, the counterpoint of nationalities within the group was a source of concern to the Australian authorities and grief to the musicians once war began.

Weintraubs Syncopators rehearsing

Weimar Berlin

When war came the men were forced to come to terms with a change in their status, from jazz celebs to enemy aliens. Accused of spying activities in Russia, they were interned, ending the band. In 1941 German, Polish and Chilean national members in its lineup were interned as Enemy Aliens. As Dümling discovered in the National Archives of Australia, a British officer had betrayed them as Soviet spies; for lack of proof for the allegations either way, the Syncopators were locked behind razor wire. Only after the war could most of the band’s members stay in Sydney but drifted apart, working as mechanics etc. Weiberg never played music professionally again. Read Albrecht Dümling The Vanished Musicians to see what happened to the other musos in Australia.

What happened to the art in WW2 and in the post-war years was unclear, but in 1962 the work was auctioned to an ex-Berlin property developer living in Canada, Hugo Staub. For 50 years it adorned his family homes in Montreal & Ottawa, then loaned to Canada’s National Gallery, The painting was sold with the permission of Staub’s descendants who received an ex gratia payment from the sale. The individuals linked together by Oppenheimer’s painting attended its unveiling in Berlin’s Jewish Museum in 2024, giving a sense of completion. To see the band return to the city they left behind, a day after the Reichstag fire, was essential.

Summary They could play 7 instruments each, and critics hailed them as the best jazz combo in 1920s Berlin; Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker were keen to secure them as their backing band. But after the Nazi takeover, and frustrating years of exile and internment in Australia, the legacy of Weintraub’s Syncopators was lost.

 A 100 years after opening, the Weimar republic’s best jazz band returned from Canada to the city that had once adored them, not in real life but on canvas. Now it is on permanent public display in Berlin’s Jewish Museum where the public can see the men safely return to the city they had left behind, after the Reichstag fire. Many thanks to Philip Oltermann who wrote Celebrated again: Portrait of German Jazz-age Pioneers Lost.

Read Silences and Secrets, Australian Experience of the Weintraubs Syncopators, 2013, by Kay Dreyfus

Alice Waten violin star Australia & Russia

Judah Waten (1911-85), born in Odessa, was a famous author and leftist pol­i­t­ical activist in Melbourne. His mother Nechama was concerned to give all her children a musical education. Odessa was a Russian heartland for music, and many of the great violinists of the C20th came from Odessa, incl Nathan Mil­stein and David Oistrakh. Judah was my mother's beloved cousin.

Alice and her beloved violin

Limelight

In Australia Judah married Hyrell McKinnon and had a child, Al­ice (1947-2022). Judah was a famous nov­el­ist, but music was part of their life every day. Hyrell and Judah were proud when Al­ice began to fulfil her promise as a viol­in­ist.

After studying with Eberhard Feltz at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik, Alice gained a master's degree from Moscow Conservatory teach­ers, David Oistrakh and Valery Klimov. She had ch­am­ber mus­ic coach­ing from Moscow’s Borodin String Quartet

Before returning to Australia, Waten taught at Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Chetham's Specialist Music School in Manch­es­ter. And she was actively invol­ved in many teaching seminars: Lux­em­bourg Conser­vat­ory with Daniel Shafran and Igor Ozim, and Juilliard School.

Back in Aus­tr­alia, she became a founding member of the Australian Cham­ber Orchestra in 1975 and held­ the Principal 2nd Violin for 10 years. In this era she undertook ex­tens­ive tours across Europe,  Australasia and Asia. She held various pr­in­­cipal roles and leaving an indelible mark on Australia's musical landscape as a performer. But her int­erest in training young viol­in­ists was a con­stant ambition from early in her own car­­eer.

 Australian Chamber Orchestra rehearsal

Alice playing the violin in the centre chair, aco

At the Sydney Conservat­or­ium of Music Alice rose to be Associate Professor, together with Norwegian Ole Bohn and Romanian Reiner Schmidt after an international search involving 130 applicants. Among Waten’s students were some of Australia's most notable violin­ists Richard Tognetti, VC artist Suyeon Kang and Dr Robin Wilson. Wil­son is now him­self a pe­dagogue for the new gener­at­ion of young Aus­tralian violin­ists, in­cl­uding VC Rising Star Christ­ian Li. And she taught Melbourne Sym­ph­ony Orchestra Co-Concertmaster Sophie Rowell and Anne Horton, both of them members of the Australian String Quartet. Sydney Sym­ph­ony Orchestra Associate Concert-master Sun Yi and Principal Sec­ond Vio­lins Marina Marsden and Kirsty Hilton.

Richard Tognetti wrote that young violinists requ­ire a mentor, both a musical ins­tr­uct­or and psy­ch­ologist. He first entered Alice’s class in 1977 at 11. He was suitably challenged; little did he know about the rigorous Russian Violin School and her Russian language skills.

Alice brought di­scipline, historical sense, sarcastic wit, real love and support, perfect for both cocky teenagers and affected mus­icol­og­ists. As his curiosity grew, Tognetti dec­ided to try to learn from the mu­sic­ology de­partment. In time Alice help­ed him to get to study with the ce­leb­r­ated S­lav­ violinist & pedagogue Igor Ozim at the Bern Conser­vat­ory, an­ot­h­er very strict teacher from the RVS. His praise for Tognetti was always about how well Alice had taught him.

teaching in the Strings Dept, Sydney Conservatorium

The Strad

Back at home she held teaching positions in Melbourne at the Aus­tr­alian National Academy of Music and was seen as a devoted, tireless and fierce pedag­og­ue, awesome and terrifying at the same time. She possessed a hawk-like prec­is­ion when it came to spotting something that needed to be fix­ed. She was the driving force behind countless Austral­ian music­ians throughout the world, still committed to this art.

In 2022 Alice Waten sadly died at 75. For years, Waten had held positions at prominent Australian instit­ut­ions including Australian National Academy Of Music and the Austral­ian In­­stitute of Music in Sydney.  Her legacy lives on in the car­eers of her students performing and teaching in Aust­ral­ia and around the world, finding success both as orch­est­ral musicians and as solo­ists. Waten had a profound impact on them; she was a liberator of spirits, a cour­ageous creativity and intense mot­iv­ator, and they in turn cont­inue to foster the musical growth of fur­­th­er gener­at­ions.

America's Cup: Australia's yacht won 1983

America’s Cup history began around Britain’s Isle of Wight as the Royal Yacht Squad­ron’s £100 Cup, awarded to the race winner. Comm­odore of the Ro­yal Yacht Squa­d­ron, Earl of Wi­l­ton, had invited the Americans to take part in 1851, the first for­eign yac­ht to enter the race. The Americans played up the rad­ic­al new design of their yacht and hinted they had a secret weapon i.e a new hull design AND less sail aloft. In any case, the race was won by the schooner America rep­resenting the young New York Yacht Club.

The two ships, Australia II and Liberty

With this single victory, America transformed yachting into an in­ternational competition. The New York Yacht Club Commodore John Cox Stevens and his syndicate members sold the winning schooner before returning home. They donated the trophy to New York’s Yacht Club in 1857 under a Deed of Gift: that the trophy would be a perp­etual challenge cup for friendly competition between nations.

The New York Yacht Club’s first defence of the Cup took place in 1870. Britain repeatedly challenged for the Cup, with one compet­it­or, Sir Thomas Lipton, mounting five failed challenges from 1899-1930. As years passed, the hope of breaking this extraordinary winning streak made the America’s Cup even more desirable.

Britain and Canada were the only nations to challenge for the Cup until 1962 when an Australian syndicate headed by Sir Frank Packer and based at the Royal Sydney Yacht Club challenged, in Gre­tel. Al­though the Amer­icans won again, the competition was close; in fact Gretel was the first boat to win an America’s Cup race for decades.

The Australians sailed in 1970 on Gretel II but again failed. Serious Australian involvement st­arted when entrepren­eur Al­an Bond entered the Cup challenges in 1974 with South­ern Cross. Southern Cross and Aust­ralia had failed in their previous attempts, but they prov­ided crucial training for the team and for John Bert­r­and, future captain.

 Training on Australia II   

Before the Australians could chall­enge for the Am­er­ica’s Cup, they had to beat the Canadians, Fr­ench, British and others. So the crew, based in Per­th and rigorously trained, prepared themselves for the series of races to det­ermine the final challen­g­er. In the 5 mon­ths leading up to the Cup, Australia won 47 of the 56 qualif­y­ing races.

Alan Bond bankrolled Royal Perth Yacht Club’s entry, Aus­tralia II which was built in Perth by local boatbuilder, Ben Mil­ler Lexcen. The most noted advance was Lexcen’s new winged keel design which was se­cretly tested in Holland, out-performing regular keels. The team kept it a secret, exposing only at the end.

Patent for the keel

The 1983 America’s Cup race was a best of 7 race tournament. Skip­pered by John Bertrand, Aus­tr­alia II lined up ag­ainst America’s Li­b­erty, skippered by Dennis Con­ner until the race was cancelled due to weat­her problems. Race I was started the next day, but Aus­t­ral­ia II was tr­oubled by eq­uip­ment failure. Lib­erty won by 1 min­ute 10 seconds. The Austral­ians’ Race II was also marred by eq­u­ip­ment failure, with Conner winning by 1 minute 33 seconds.

Race III was abandoned as neither yacht could complete the course in the time limit, and was restarted the next day. Australia II won by 3 minutes and 14 seconds, which brought jubilation to the Austral­ians and their fans. Howe­ver when Liberty won Race IV, it might have been all over for the Australian cam­paign. Australia II had to win every one of the next three races to take the Cup. In Race V, the Americans were winning yet they lost their ad­vantage due to equipment failure. Australia won by 1 minute, 47 seconds. Race VI made history by Australia winning. It was the first time a defender had gone 3-all, the biggest winning margin recorded.

Bond(L) and Bertrand acknowledge the fans

  
2,000 boats watched the vital Race 7, which was post­­poned due to unstable weather. The Austral­ians started well in the delayed race but Liberty increased its lead at every mark. Designer Ben Lexcen couldn’t bear watching so he went below on the Bond laun­­ch, Black Swan. Lexcen was only alerted to Australia’s amaz­ing comeback by the screaming of those on board the officials’ boat. Two vital dif­f­erences let Australia II regain the lead. The spin­naker was set and held better than Liberty, and Australia II found a few extra winds. Once in the lead, Liberty attacked vigorously on the final leg, tack­ing 45 times in attempting to regain the lead. But the Australians won by 41 seconds. Against all the odds Austr­alia II became the first non-American yacht to win the Cup!

In Australia, Race 7 was in the wee hours of our morn­ing; still, much of the nation watched the historic victory on tv. Australia erup­t­ed, captivated by the Newport Rhode Island drama!! Pre­viously of in­t­er­est only to yacht­ies, The Am­er­ica’s Cup had energised the ent­ire public. The 1983 chal­l­enge was seen as a summer-long epic that wiped wars, politics and economics from the pages of news­pap­ers. It evoked the spirit of ANZAC heroism in WW1.

Alan Bond accepting the trophy

New York Yacht Club

 
In Sept 1983 Australia II made history when the oldest sporting trophy in the world, America’s Cup, was wrested from the Amer­icans for the first time in 132 years. In May 1984 the Federal Cab­inet proudly bought Australia II from Alan Bond!! In 1988 the race material was bought by the Australian government for $2,000,000, and accessioned into the National Museum of Australia coll­ection. The yacht was displayed in Fremantle before a new home in Sydney, the Australian National Maritime Museum, was prepared.

In 1995 the Australian government offered the yacht back to Western Austral­ia, recognising the value of conserving objects in their or­iginal homes. A purpose-built facility to house the yacht became a museum in 2002, located on Victoria Quay in Fremantle.

40 years on, Austral­ia II skipper John Bertrand 76 and thriv­ing, is chairman of Sport Australia Hall of Fame and Pres. Swimming Aust­ral­ia. For people who remember 1983, the Amer­ic­a’s Cup, its skipp­er and the most popular prime minister Bob Hawke, became part of the nation’s culture.

 Western Australian Museum  

The Australia II team had a reun­ion in 2023 in Perth to mark the 40th anniversary of their win. The incredible 1983 team flew in from around the world.

Indian Pacific tourist train across Australia

The first Indian Pacific, a great transcontinental rail adventure, first left Sydney for Perth in 1970. Thous­ands of well-wishers gat­h­ered a few days later to welcome its safe arrival in Perth, cap­it­al of Western Aust­ralia. It was the first time one train had been ab­le to complete the 4,352 ks journey from ocean to ocean, using a common rail gauge.

Few train journeys are as epic as the Indian Pacific. From Sydney on the east coast across the entire continent to Perth in the west, it pass­es through landscapes as varied as the spectacul­ar Blue Mountains and end­less flat deserts. Expect comfortable cabins, excellent food and fascinating day trips.  The train's programme below is by Alissa Jenkins

Gold Twin Cabin with private facilities

Day 1: Sydney to outback New South Wales/NSW. Board at Sydney's Central Station and settle into the cabin, to spend the afternoon taking in the scenery as it transforms from skyscrapers and traffic lights to the forested valleys and sandstone cliffs of the stunning Blue Mountains. Listen to the audio commentary option.

The journey's west bound service to Perth includes an off-train ex­cursion in the majestic Blue Mountains, with visits to the majestic Three Sisters at Echo Point and spectacular Jamison Valley. As the evening sun sets behind mountain ranges, enter the more arid regions of NSW, characterised by hardy Australian mulga tree and vast plains. After dinner in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant, meet fellow guests in the Outback Explorer Lounge for a welcome drink. 

Queen Adelaide Restaurant, 

Indian Pacific

Outback Explorer Lounge

enjoy new friends, great drinks and great views

Aussie Trains

Day 2: The morning begins in Broken Hill, formerly a booming mining town which inspired artists for ages with its distinct­ive desert landscape. On a 1-hour walking tour, explore the city's icon­ic Living Desert Sculptures then visit the Pro Hart Gallery to learn all about a most celebrated Australian artist whose works capture the outback. 

After an onboard lunch, the afternoon journey continues into the green and golden fields of South Australia's food bowl. Choose bet­ween off-train excursions: 1] spend the afternoon and ev­ening in picturesque Bar­ossa Valley or McL­aren Vale wine reg­ion, the char­m­ing heritage town of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills or 2] a priv­ate guided tour of the South Australian Museum. Then all guests re­join the train in Adelaide to begin the trip across the continent.

the flat and treeless Nullarbor Plains

S.M.H

 

On the eastbound service, including a morning stop in Adelaide, ex­cursion options include an Adelaide city coach tour, a pro­gressive breakfast at the famous Adelaide Central Markets, a guided tour of Adelaide Oval or a city and river precinct walking tour. Enjoy the in-cabin music channels and the journey audio commentary.

Day 3: Greet sunrise at the striking, raw beauty of the Nullarbor Plain. Taking its name from the Latin for No Trees, this vast outback pl­ain has stunned generations of Australians and vis­itors alike. A endless expanse of rusty earth and har­dy outback sh­rubs, the Nullarbor covers 200,000 square ks of South Australia and Western Australia and is considered a bucket list experience.

 Off-train dinner at Rawlinna, W.A 

Journey Beyond Rail

Entering Western Australia in the afternoon, cross­ Australia's most famous plain with a special dinner in the rem­ote outpost of Rawlin­na. Here guests are invited to disembark and partake in a tradit­ional long-table dinner under the bright stars of the outback sky.

Surrounded by nothing but vast sheep stations, this is one alfresco dining experience to remember. The Indian Pacific east­bound service (Perth->Sydney) offers an additional excursion in the wild west gold rush town of Kalgoorlie.

Day 4: The morning scenery transforms as the train cont­in­ues via the picturesque Avon Valley, a patchwork of rolling hills and wind­ing streams. After passing fertile farmland, the journey ends as Per­th's outer city limits appear. The P.M choice is to take an optional upgrade tour to explore Perth, admiring magnificent city views fr­om Kings Park, travel along the Swan River and pict­uresque fore­sh­ore park­lands, Subiaco’s trendy boutiques and res­t­aur­ants, and Clare­mont with its upmarket shopping and famous Mil­l­ion­aire's Row. Enjoy the WACA Cricket Ground, Town Hall, Perth Mint, Parliament House, Crown Casino and Barracks Arch. 

Thank you Alissa Jenkins.

**

The review here is mine. I am something of a problem traveller to staff since I don’t eat meat, but the food alternatives were delicious. And the alcohol serv­ice was very good with quality wines which we shared with a lot of great new peo­ple on the trip! Even better, while travelling away from home, vis­itors could focus on local foods and wines from the very regions the train was passing through.

The cabins were clean and fresh, but too small for spouse and I who found it a bit tight to move around together. So leave your excess stuff elsewhere. Thankfully the onboard staff were fantastic, really mak­ing every eff­ort to be friendly and helpful in what must have been demanding work.

I loved visiting places that I have never visited before. Broken Hill is Australia’s oldest mining town, important for its silver, lead and zinc. The rich history is well recorded at museums and memorials, a true representation of the Australian outback, with red, rocky terrain and desert. And the art scene is booming, both modern and indigenous.

Sydney to Perth took 4 days which might have been a bit long for some people, but the most exciting part was to carefully watch the changing landsc­ape of this vast country passing by the window. Sur­prisingly for me (because I love forests and open oceans), I actually loved the memorable changing unique scenery ac­r­oss the Nullarbor.

The off-train experiences were amazing, espec­ially under the stars at sheep station Rawlinna, with fires, food and wonderful live mus­ic. On board there was a resident singer who also provided lots of entertainment.

Shakshuka for luscious Sunday brunch

Shakshuka probably came from Africa’s Maghreb, the regions of North Africa along the Mediterranean Sea. Plus note that the word meaning shaken comes from the Tunisian dialect. An alternative history is that shakshuka came from Yemen or Ottoman Emp­ire in the C16th when Hernan Cortés brought tomatoes to the area as part of the Columbian exchange. This makes sense since the use of tomatoes and peppers didn’t happen there until the mid-C16th. 

Shakshuka placed on the table 

Tala Soubra

Shakshuka has long been a staple of Tunisian, Libyan, Alg­er­ian and Moroccan cuisines, later adopted by Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as national dishes. The dish incorporates a wide variety of spices, beyond what is mentioned below, due to whichever spices the various Mediterranean nations favoured.

Can shakshuka be recorded as an ultimate brunch item? Indeed.. it is colourful, healthy, quite cheap and takes only 30 mins to prepare and cook. Here is the delicious recipe from Tala’s Website, but I've made it slightly more savoury.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 red capsicum, diced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 large tomatoes, cut into 8 each
4 large very red tomatoes, chopped
4 eggs
feta cheese
chopped parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
salt
black pepper, grated

METHOD See the photos 
Step 1: Place a cast iron skillet on the medium stove and add the olive oil. Then add the onions, salt and black pepper and cook until lightly translucent (c3 minutes). Add the capsicum and pap­rika, and cook for 1 minute. Add the chopped tomat­oes and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and stir for 1 minute.

Step 2: Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to the grated tomatoes and mix. Add the tomato mixture to the base and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes while stirring occasionally. Taste check to see if you would like to add more salt and pepper.

Step 3: After 20 mins, make a small well with a spatula in the tom­ato sauce. Crack the eggs into the well, cover the sk­illet and cook eggs cook to your desired consistency. Sprinkle plenty of feta cheese on top and chopped parsley. Finally serve the sh­akshuka out of the skillet with challah bread (or French baguette, sourdough bread, bagels) to mop up the sauce, last important component. 

Give everyone warm challah slices,

with luscious interiors and melted butter (if requested)

The shakshuka in Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty uses a ton of peppers, cut into big, chunky strips. The finished dish almost resembles an Italian peperonata, with a sweetness to match. Michael Solomonov's version, from his book Zahav, uses half as many bell peppers. David Lebovitz  takes a different tack: no bell peppers at all, only hot chiles to spice the tomatoes (see Serious Eats).

I prefer shakshuka late on a Sunday morning brunch with the family, but don’t let your grandmother watch you eat with messy fingers and dripping bread. In Melbourne try the following restaurants: Cumulus Inc in the City, Buba Local Shuk, St Kilda or Nogga Café, Balaclava. In Sydney try Shuk in Bondi North, Grandma’s At McEvoy at Alexandria or Kepos Street Kitchen in Redfern

Yoram Gross: best Aus children's films

Yoram Gross (1926–2015) was born in Krakow Poland, to a Jewish family. He lived during WW2 under the Nazis, with his family on Oskar Sch­in­d­ler’s list of humans rescued from slaughter in 1944, but the Grosses survived by moving hiding places dozens of times.

Dot and the Kangaroo, 

1977, yoramgrossfilms

The Camel Boy

1984, IMDb

Yoram’s first love was music, studying at Krakow Uni post-war. He then studied film under Jerzy Toeplitz at the Polish Film In­stitute. In 1950 he moved to Israel, working as a newsreel and docum­entary cameraman, and later as an independent film producer and dir­ect­or. His first full-length feature, Joseph the Dreamer 1961, be­ing successful at a number of international film festivals. His com­edy One Pound Only 1964 set the box office record of the year. 

Thanks to newscom.au, we know that in 1968 Yoram, Sandra and the children migrated to Sydney. They est­ab­lished Yoram Gross Film Studios which became into a respected prod­uc­er of animation for cinema and television. Then he produced film clips for my best weekly tv mus­ic show,  Bandstand. At Sydney Film Festival in 1970 he won an award for The Politicians in the Best Austral­ian-Made Film category. Realising that there were no Australian films for child­ren, he decided to fill that gap.

In 1977, Gross made his first animated feature. Dot and the Kangaroo used an aerial image technique of drawings over live action backgrounds, filmed in NSW’s Blue Mountains. Although the film was much like other animated children's musicals starring animals, the film was essentially Australian in its use of symbols and accents eg it referenced Indigenous Australian culture in scenes disp­lay­ing anim­ation of cave paintings and aboriginal dancing.

In 1992, Yoram continued his interest in animating Australian Children's Classics, with the release of "Blinky Bill", based upon the Australian children's classic by Dorothy Wall. This film introduced the popular Australian koala to the rest of the world as a "real personality", and Blinky Bill, already well loved by generations of Australians, has become Australia's Animated Ambassador to millions of children around the world. Blinky Bill has generated one of the most successful merchandising programs ever initiated in Australia, bringing in millions of dollars in export earnings to the country. 

Blinky Bill

1992,  yoramgrossfilms

Gross acknowledged his animation style was old fashioned and had been superseded by computer-generated imagery. But the Australian Cen­tre for the Moving Image said Gross’ animations were dis­t­inctive and offered a freshness and simplicity that could be lost in the more com­plex visual world of computer-generated imagery. And I say his animal characters are more lovable.

In The Camel Boy (1984), young Ali and his camel-driver grandfather Moussa were part of an expedition through the Australian Outback. Aus­tralia has had camels since the mid-C19th but now they were faced with prejudice. Luckily Moussa's knowledge and the hardiness of his camels in the horrible desert conditions quickly proved vital to both the success of the expedition and the survival of its members.

Dot helped her native animal friends in Dot and the Koala (1984) when Bruce the koala told her of plans to build a massive dam that would destroy their environment. But the local farm animals believed that the creation of the dam would catapult their small country town into the C21st. With both sides fighting for what they believed was right, Dot's plans to wipe out the dam were jeopardised by the mayor Percy, a pig and local detectives Sherlock Bones the rat, and his mate Watson the cat.

In 1992 Gross' Blinky Bill film which quickly became a global success, and was soon awarded the prestigious Order of Aus­tralia for his contribution to the nation’s film industry. [Local woodlanders were carrying on with their life as normal.. when two men cleared the entire forest with their tractor. The an­imals evacuated as the trees fell down and homelessness continued. Bl­inky rescued the young female koala Nutsy from the fallen trees. They both run into Mr. Wombat who explained to him about his life].

Through their Yoram Gross Film Studios in Sydney, Gross had made 16 animated features and 12 TV series, bringing to life characters such as Dot and the Kang­ar­oo and the lovable Koala, Blinky Bill. Alas for me, my sons thanked me for taking them to the cinema for years, then said they'd be going by themselves from 1992!! 

Only in 1992 did Yoram Gross Film Studios start making animated TV ser­ies and in 1996 he sold a 50% stake in the company, with a view to expansion, to Australian exhibition and distrib­ut­ion comp­any Vill­age Roadshow Ltd. As his TV series and feature films sold in­ter­nat­ionally, German company EM.TV acquired the Village Roadshow stake in 1999, buy­ing out the founders in 2006 and renaming the company as Flying Bark Productions. Flying Bark continues to make films and TV series based on Gross creations.

Yoram Gross in Sydney, 2007

Australia's leading animation producer and director died in Sydney in 2015, aged 88. He was survived by his wife, 2 children and 5 grandchildren, a rare outcome for a Holo­caust sur­v­ivor. His legacy will live on with the Sydney Film Fest­ival’s annual award for the Best Animated Feature, named for Yoram Gross.

Australian Utopia in Paraguay part 2

After the crises of the Maritime Dispute in 1890, Shearers’ Dis­pute in 1891 and the Great Depression of early 1890s, many in Austral­ia’s work­­­ing class believed that their nation could never be a work­ingman’s parad­ise. Some were drawn to a utopian settlement in Paraguay. 

William Lane, c1892

Wiki

British-born William Lane (1861–1917) was the popular editor of Bris­bane Work­er newspaper, inspiring the 1890s Aust­r­al­ian la­bour move­ment. Lane loathed oppr­essive industrial laws, dan­g­erous work pr­actices and Chinese migrat­ion. He loved the Women’s Suf­frage Mov­e­ment, progressive taxation, and ut­op­ian societies.

Why did the New Australia Move­ment chose the remote nation of Parag­uay, full of jungles. The New Aust­r­alia Ass­oc­iation originally thought farming would be best in Argent­ina, but that government was unhelpful.

After a long dictatorship, Paraguay had declared war in 1865-70 ag­ain­st its neighbours Brasil, Argent­ina and even Ur­ug­uay. Dev­ast­ation fol­l­owed when two-thirds of Paraguay’s popul­ation were dam­aged or kil­led. The nat­ional govern­ment offer­ed mig­rants desirable land grants, to boost its popul­at­ion of fit young men and help the local economy.

This was the first-ever organised emigration project from Australia, but was op­posed by lo­cal newspapers. So the group continued working and seek­ing members, and pub­lis­h­ed the monthly Journal of New Aust­ra­l­ia commenc­ing Nov 1892. Men had to pay £60 each to join the colony, a large out­­lay! Still, Lane signed up 238 shearers, farmers, stock­men, un­ionists and their families. The Co-operative bought the S.S Royal Tar, intend­ing to transport many ship­loads of members to the new par­adise. They  all gathered in Sydney, but the NSW government used all its mar­it­­­ime rul­es to delay the first voyage.

 
In July 1893 the tall ship finally sailed, across the Pac­if­ic, round Cape Horn and up the Arg­entine coast. In Sept, 500 Aust­ralians arrived in Paraguay’s capital, As­uncion. From there they cont­inued by train to their promised land, facing bul­l­ocks, wag­ons, riv­ers and mosquitoes until they arrived. 75,000 hect­ares of FREE land, but nothing like the arable land they’d wanted.

Eventually the Royal Tar sailed from Ad­el­aide with an­ot­h­er ship­load of emigrants for Paraguay, the utopia of equality, fairness and comm­unal liv­ing. But while many of the settlers seemed both skil­led and well motivated, some New Aust­ralia set­t­l­ers were not well suited to rural life, couldn’t toler­ate grim condit­ions and spoke no Spanish.

Alas Lane was an autocrat; his controlling lead­ership style was al­ready clear aboard ship. His strict rules bann­ed alcohol or soc­ial­ising with local women, very difficult for the single shear­ers. And there were few single Australian women. But even with Lane’s total control, how horrible that committed men were expel­l­ed!

New Australia soon comprised a few small villages and farms but many settlers left to seek a better city-based life. In response to falling numbers and failing finances, and appalled by the behaviour of the young shearers, Lane left.

Par­aguay’s gov­ernment was still generous, granting Lane’s second group another area of land in the south. This even more faithful group of 63 Chr­istian soc­ial­ists moved to a new set­tlement, Cosme 72 ks away, st­ar­ting to clear the bush, buil­d­ houses and plant crops. And a shop soon opened.

Cosme's first shop

University of Sydney

Cosme’s philosophy had the aims of an idealistic society: 1] ev­eryone was equal­, with commitment to the sup­erior­ity of English speaking whites, 2] lifelong marriage and 3] tee­total­ism. Even in the 1890s, this was a strange mix­­ of radicalism and conservatism, perhaps following the views of Australian working-class move­ments th­en. But it was difficult.

Cosme Monthly was a small news journal, from Nov 1894-Dec 1896, hand­written by William Lane. All issues were 4-6 pages, some print­ed by Trade Union Printers of E. London. Subscript­ions for Cosme Month­ly were accepted at Trades’ Halls in all Australian capitals, showing propaganda and progress reports. Regarding social life they reported danc­ing classes, gala nights, cricket matches, chess ga­mes, the Lit­erary and Social Union and school dates for the 22 pupils. 

Cricket match, Cosme

The sett­le­ment’s dire situation could be seen in the final issue (June 1904) of Cosme Month­ly headed: Consider Before Coming: Intend­ing migr­ants to Cosme should carefully consider the foll­owing

Health: The work here is entirely manual, the summer climate is trying and the food is very limited.
Temperament: Disappointments in the industries are common in Cosme; af­­t­er 10 years, still in debt. Our popul­at­ion decreased since last May

One of Aust­ral­ia’s most fam­ous writ­ers, Mary Gilmore, was a colonist who ed­ited the newspaper, taught Cos­me’s ch­il­d­ren and married a settl­er. Gilmore, who’d always bel­ieved in social­ist ideals, wrote about her time in Paraguay saying “It wasn't a succ­ess, however it was a gr­eat exper­ien­ce. Under Lane’s dictat­or­ship it would never work!”

Australian farm workers in Cosme

Courier Mail

Cosme’s sense of lost ideo­l­og­ical and fin­ancial invest­ment must have been heartbreaking. Within a few years most of the fam­­­ilies star­t­ed to move else­where in Parag­uay, sailing to UK or returning home. Event­ually the settle­­ments were dissolved as a coop­erative by the Par­a­guay government, and settlers who stayed were given their own private land. Lane res­ig­ned as Chairman in June 1899 and left. But even now, there are des­cendants of the original New Aust­ral­ians in Paraguay, with names like Jones or with red hair.

5 years after leaving Australia, Lane ditched his socialist utopia and moved to N.Z where he returned to journalism for a right-wing newspap­er!! From N.Z, Lane was invited by the Aus­tralian Work­ers’ Union to be­come editor of the Sydney Worker. He was back with the Australian Lab­our movement but he only for 3 months because his views were no long­er comp­at­­ible with Labour values. He’d ad­voc­ated a strong imper­ial­is­t­ic line during the Boer War!! When WW1 started in 1914, this became a plat­form for rabid British patr­iot­ism and anti-German views. Lane was rel­uctant to talk about Parag­uay but died in Aug 1917 anyhow.

The New Australia & Cosme Collection in NSW’s Powerhouse Museum analy­ses the socio–politics of late C19th Australian colonial society, his­tory of our labour movement, migration of culture between nations, and Paraguay’s New Australia utop­ian settlement. See the Migration Herit­age Centre with its Cosme Monthly, a great source of contemp­orary settlement information.

Summary
Paraguay was trying to rejuvenate its economy by off­ering immig­rants free land, tax exemptions and farming assistance. Paraguay made a deal with Lane’s New Australia Co-operat­ive Assoc­iat­ion - that he’d receive c230,000 hectares of land in exchange for 1,200 migr­ants. Nueva Aust­ra­lia started off well (1893) and within the first few years, the col­ony had prominent re­sidents. But by 1902 the utopian dr­eam had failed, due to William Lane’s autocracy and due to the tough South Am­er­ican jungle. Some of the or­ig­inal sett­l­ers moved to an Australian community c70 ks away and others moved away totally.

There aren’t many descendants of the original Austral­ians left in Nueva Australia/now Nueva Londres, but there is still an Aust­ralian flag on the welcome sign. 

Quokkas - Australia's lovable marsupial

Scientists believe that marsupials evolved in Nth America, sp­read to Sth America and thence to Australia, formerly con­nected continents. Most marsu­p­ials died out in the Americas, beaten by placental mammals, but they thrived in Aust­ral­ia. By the time Sth America, Australia and Antarctica separated millions of years ago, Australian mammals had evolved.

A quokka family on Rottnest Island,

Wiki

Australian quokkas were first discovered by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh in 1696. One of the first Eu­r­op­eans to reach these shores, he met the strange animal near the Swan River, and across mainland SW Aus­tr­a­l­ia in swampy shrub­lands. These quokkas were still abun­d­ant when Eur­op­eans col­­onised the reg­ion in the early 1800s, but a cen­tury later th­eir numb­ers had fallen. They were hunted and lost in large strips of min­ing, farming and bush­fires. The main enemy was the red fox, deliber­ately int­ro­d­uc­ed in the 1930s for hunting. Alas quokka num­bers on mainland fell to c2,000, most­ly liv­ing in small and isolated populat­ions in forest and coastal heath between Perth and Albany.

de Vlamingh had named the isl­and near the Swan River: Rat’s Nest. This is where most quokkas are now, on Rottnest Is­land west of Perth. Quokkas survived there via a fluke: In the late 1830s, the Aust­ralian gov­ern­ment de­­sig­n­ated the island as an Abor­iginal penal colony. The pr­ison kept both main­­­land Eu­ropeans AND red foxes isolated for so long that when quokkas did move in, the natural environ­ment was carefully prot­ected. Today Rot­t­nest has c10,000 quokkas.

The other quokka home in W.A is Bald Island, near Albany. Suc­cess on Bald Island was from quokkas finding plentiful food sources but few predators.

There are 334 surviving marsupial species today, 200+ of them nat­ive to Australia. Our quokkas are special; they are covered with short, coarse brown-grey fur over most of the body, have short round furry ears, small black, naked noses and a short, muscular tail. They are the smallest wallaby species, and like kangaroos, they hop, round­ed and hunch­ed.

Mother carrying joey in her pouch, San Diego Zoo

Unlike the vast major­ity of the world's placental mammals, mars­upial fe­m­ales give birth to tiny embryos that compl­ete de­velopment out­side their mothers' bodies in a mars­up­ium/pouch. Female quokkas give birth to a sing­­le joey a month after mating, the joey remaining in the pouch for c6 months. It continues to feed at its mother's teats for another 2 months but once weaned, the joey ventures off alone.

Quokkas are nocturnal. They fanned out in small family groups across their scrub­­by habitat searching for food. At midnight, the animals stop­ped forag­ing but con­tinue eating, chewing one leaf at a time until sun­rise. These crea­tures love to climb small trees in search of the next meal, browsing herbivores who favoured grasses, leaves, stems and bark. On Rott­nest Is, their diet is primarily succulents or wattle leav­es. They can go for long periods without food or water, as they store fat in their tails for emergencies. They spend their day sleeping in groups, rest­ing behind the protection of plants’ spikes and escaping predators.

Quokka climbs a tree to eat leaves. 

San Diego Zoo

Quokkas were recently added to the International Union for Con­ser­vation Threat­ed Species List, given their popul­ation decline due to hab­itat loss. Other serious threats were foxes, dogs and mainland cats, further damaging the creat­ures vulner­ab­le from Dingos c4,000 years ago and Eu­r­o­pean Red Foxes in 1930s. Today there are recovery signs on the main­land due to Dept of Parks & Wild­life’s feral-proofing tasks. Act­ion was taken to reduce Red Fox numbers, thus contributing to some quokka protection.

Human impact also effected quokka numbers. Clearing for agricultural dev­elopment, spread of housing and logging have contributed to reduced numbers, as well as camping, and controlled burns before the bushfire season.

A quokka weighs 2.5-5 ks and is 40-54 cs in length, one of the smallest wallab­ies. Main­land populations cluster around dense streamside veget­at­ion but also be found in shrub­land and heath areas, around swamps. Quok­kas prefer a warm climate but are adapted to changes on Rottnest Island.

Quokkas, on average, can live for 10-15 years. They are able to breed from c18 months of age. On the mainland, female Quokkas can produce c18 babies in a lifetime, with 2 joeys born each year. But on Rottnest Is, with a shorter breeding sea­son, Quokkas only give birth once a year.

Wild Quokkas live in areas defended by dominant mal­es. In other areas, territ­ories were less evident and larger, over­lapp­ing groups of 25–150 adults formed around water, sharing a c40-acre territory. The older males fight to dom­inate both fem­ales and youn­ger mal­es; a male's pos­it­ion in the hierar­chy deter­mining his access to food, shade and females

Quokkas are not afraid of humans; they have broken into Rottnest homes to steal food. The animals can be approached so closely that they regul­arly nip children’s fingertips. NB travellers should not actually touch any quokkas, or they could be fined by local authorities.

On the other side of the continent, visit Featherdale Wildlife Park in Western Sydney. And thank you to the Australian Museum in Sydney. 

Melbourne’s literary cult­ure may fade: Hill of Content closing

Albert Bert Spencer (1886-) was born in Balmain Sydney, younger son of Henrik Henry Spencer, a Danish labourer and his wife Al­ice. The father died when Bert was a toddler, meaning the 3 sib­lings were raised by a struggling mother. 

Hill of Content bookshop, 

Bourke St Melbourne

Spencer’s mot­h­er was the inspiration for all his endeav­ours, intro­d­ucing him to the won­d­ers of reading, and she borrowed books from neighbours since there was no money to buy them. He went to Waverley Public School where he be­gan his life-long love of poetry, with sup­port from a sympathetic teacher. At 14 he was forced to leave school to work in a boot factory, cutting out boot up­pers. Luckily he left after 8 months to become a messenger-boy with the book sellers and publishers, Angus & Robertson.

Spencer fell in love with a girl he planned to marry. They courted for se­v­eral years but she died in her early 20s. In Jan 1909 Spencer mar­ried pianist Eileen Rebecca O'Connor at Woollahra Pres­byterian Church.

For 22 years (1900-22) at Angus and Robertson's, Spencer learned the trade from its Australian masters, George Robertson and his employee Fred Wymark. He regularly delivered books to home of David S Mitchell, whose amazing collect­ion formed the Mitchell Library.

Spencer became head of Angus and Robertson's Second-Hand De­partment, and the confidant of Sydney collectors like Sir William Dixson and Sir John Ferguson, Robertson's son-in-law and compiler of the 7-volume Bibliography of Australia.

Not wanting to open in op­p­osition to his long-time employer, Spencer decided to open instead in Melb­ourne. He borrowed £1000 from collector H.L White, uncle of not­ed author Patrick White. The money was lent without surety, but Spen­cer was able to pay it back with interest in 3 years. 

Melbourne was going through recession then, and gangsters were known to haunt the city’s narrow laneways. Spen­cer was told it was risky to open a bookshop in seedy areas, so he sought a positive name for his new shop. The name came to him during a walk in the Fitzroy Gardens when he was given a name for the new shop; the elm-trees and plane-trees said call it Hill of Content (1922). 

Spencer also had the support of Melbourne collector, F Hobill Cole and of George Robertson himself. Cole found him a shop at the top end of Bourke St, while a Robertson man de­signed and meas­ured the shelvings. And so in 1922 founder Bert Spencer opened the Hill of Con­tent. The shop was small (33’ x 19’) and the fam­ily lived behind the premis­es. At this time the Aust­ral­ian Parl­iam­ent sat at the Victorian Parl­iament Building one block away in Sp­ring St; meanwhile the State Parl­iament sat in Royal Exhibition Build­ings, so prominent politicians frequented the shop as well.

Every section of the bookshop is appealing to visitors

Fortunately Spencer handled the dispersal of the private lib­raries. The spectac­ular Rob­ert Sticht collection arrived the year Sp­en­cer opened in Melbourne and helped ensure the shop’s success. Then two other two libraries, F Hobill Cole and H.L White, were added. Sp­encer also maintained contact with his old Sydney coll­ect­or-friend Sir William Dixson, and attracted the custom of Melbour­ne's notables.

In 1927, with the lease exp­iring, Spencer asked the owners to dem­olish the old buil­ding and erect a new 3-storey one. Very quick­ly, the new shop emerged as a major out­let for second-hand and fine new books. Its customers in­c­luded stars eg Dame Nellie Melba, Lionel Lindsay, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Governors, medicos and lawyers. The shop expanded to cover 2 floors of the building built by Spencer in 1928, with its staff eyeing off the third floor, currently occup­ied by Collins Book­sellers head office! Thus this book shop became its founder's enduring legacy to Melbourne.

Spencer hoped his son would join the business but, after sur­viving 5 years of RAAF service, Greg Spencer was discharged and died in a car crash. This was tragic for Spencer and alth­ough he ran the busin­ess for c4 more years, he was grieving; in 1951 he sold Hill of Content to Angus & Robertson.

After he busied himself for months supervising the transfer of Dix­s­on's collection to the NSW State Lib­rary. Spencer later issued cat­al­ogues and sold books privately from his San­dring­ham home and wrote his memoirs. His book was published as Hill of Content: Books, Art, Music, People by Angus and Robert­son in 1959. It high­lighted the Sydney and Melbourne literary worlds from the turn of the century to WW2’s end. Both chatty and nostalgic, his book re­veal­ed the pleasures and prej­udices of their generation. Spencer also wrote good portraits of oth­ers eg David S Mitch­ell, George Robertson and esp­ecially Henry Lawson.

He was supported by help from friends and neighbours, but his last years were saddened by the deaths of his wife 1964 and daughter. He died in 1971.

Remember his shop had been purchased by Collins Book­sell­ers and man­ag­ed the company store from 1952. The owners of the Collins franchises in Sale and Bairnsdale organised franchisees to create a new company to buy the business and franchise rights. The Watts and Johnston fam­ilies bought the Hill of Content, which now operates as an independent store under the Collins umbrella. Its man­ager have complete autonomy to buy, market and sell the books that best reflect the tastes of the shops’ dedicated clients. Hill of Cont­ent has enjoyed a period of steady growth over the last 20 years, more than doubling the turnover.

Readings’ staff encourage book-based conversation, mak­ing recommend­at­ions based on what a read­er was seeking. The staff knew the stock and showed more interest via in-shop author ev­ents. Indep­endent book­­sell­ers surv­ived bec­ause of customer loyalty, but they knew their customer base and ordered strat­egically. 

Shoppers loved the book­mark with the AH Spen­cer quote on one side and the signatures of famous visitors on the other: Sidney Nolan, Louis Armst­rong, Fred Wil­liams, Patrick White, Barry Humphries, E Annie Proulx, Robin Boyd etc.

Wendy Harmer spoke to her new memoir

"Lies My Mirror Told Me"

and she autographed her books.

It was held by the same family for 73 years and now is the right time to sell. After over a century, the Hill of Content will likely be used for other retail or hospitality opportun­ities. It will be auct­ioned on 7th March, fetching ?$6 million but now Melbourne’s literary cult­ure may fade. Melbourne, an international city of literat­ure, has long been a city with many book­shops. On­-line book sales are cheap and con­venient, but a reader loses much of what a real bookshop used to off­er. On-line depots are NOT cultural cent­res.

Rural Cowra: Jewish deportees, Italian & Japanese POWs

Following Nazi Germany’s enactment of the infamous Nuremberg Laws in 1936, expatriate Jewish organisations sought to help as many pot­ent­ial victims out of Germany and Eastern Europe as poss­ible. The USA, Britain and Shanghai China became potential sanct­uaries. 

Japanese prisoners of war, 12th Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra 

July 1, 1944.

Australian War Memorial

Location of Cowra, Hay and Tatura camps

in S.E Australia

Museums Victoria

In Australia, Jewish leaders begged Canberra to take Jewish re­fug­ees. And in Dec 1938, after Nazi occupation of Austria and Czech­os­lovakia, Joe Lyons’ Federal Labour government agreed to take an un­pre­ced­ented 15,000 desperate Jews. Yes, it came with condit­ions: The usual £500 landing fee was reduced for those with rel­at­ives in Aust­ralia and less for those with sponsors, IF all Jewish immigrants were the responsibility of the local Jewish communities.

Early in WW2, the majority of internees in Australia were herded into old internment camps, the Germans and Italians being estab­l­ished at the old Holsworthy Barracks in NSW. As the num­bers grew, new camps for prisoners of war were needed. By Sept 1940, the gov­ernment had completed 4 com­pounds at Tatura (Victoria), 3 at Hay and 1 at Cowra (NSW), 3 at Loveday (S.A) and one at Harvey (W.A).

Since they were Ger­man and Austrian citizens, the Jewish refugees who'd arrived with swastikas on their pass­ports were initially regarded as Enemy Aliens and threatened with int­er­n­ment. But how could they be Nazi symp­ath­is­ers if they were fleeing Nazism? Soon they became Friendly Aliens.

Cowra (pop now 10,000) is a pleasant town in a farming dist­rict 314km west of Sydney; it has two important war tales to tell. The first was the story of a settlement that became a haven for Jew­ish refugees who had fled Europe early in WW2. These were German Jews who had initially fled to Britain to es­cape Nazi persecution and were imprisoned on the Isle of Man. In 1940 Australia reached an agreement with Britain to accept c3000 German, Austrian and Hungar­ian young male prisoners, mainly Jewish. They were sent from Britain aboard the ship HMT Dunera. On arrival in Melb­ourne in Sept 1940, 500 deportees were tran­s­ferred to Tat­ura internment camp while the remaining males went north to Sydney and thence to Hay’s camps.

What the refugees needed in these horrible wartime conditions was food: vegetables, poultry and sheep. So the Australian Jewish Wel­f­are Service est­ablished two companies: 1. Mutual Farm Ltd and 2. Mutual Enterprises Ltd, to set­tle the refugees into ag­ricultural enterprises. This would satisfy the gov­ern­ment’s requ­ire­ments and guarantee the newcomers would not weigh on Australia’s economy.

The ref­ug­ees were largely city-people and few had worked on the land. The main training initially took place at Chelsea Park in West Sydney where 200+ people lived. Meanwhile 25 families mov­ed to their own properties, while 28 couples and 63 young men went into rural employ­ment.

Mooringa, a 100-hectare property outside Cowra, was pur­ch­ased by Mutual Farms in Sept 1940. The Mooringa Set­tlement disapp­ear­ed but historian Graham Apthorpe has re­corded an amazing era of WW2 history in his book, A Town at War. Apth­orpe interviewed 4 key people: Harry Kramer-Crom­er, Claude Newcombe, Margit Scouller and George Bluth. 

4 Jewish deportees working in Cowra

Australian War Memorial

Italian Prisoners of War installing a new filtration trench 

for their POW Camp septic system.

Digger History

Austrian Kurt Pisk (b1937) and his parents Fred and Anna Pisk fled Vienna after the Mar 1938 Anschluss/an­n­exation by Hitler. During their time at Mooringa, the Pisks were allocated two It­al­ian POWs to help them with farm-work. In fact the refugees were all hel­p­ed by local families, as was seen in the collection of rare photos Apthorpe found in Cromer’s photo album. [NB Mooringa  re­f­ugees were for­bidden cameras, cars and guns, in case they used them to advantage Australia’s enemy].

The photos in the Cowra Shire Council showed the refugees learning how to create life on the land. They were shown building their huts, cutting gum trees into fence posts, working with horses and learn­ing to plough & harvest. Of all the German-speaking Jews seeking a safe life in WW2, these were lucky ones.

They were still under surveil­lance of course. Regulations insisted that the Mooringa Jews travel weekly by horse-drawn sulky to the lo­c­al policeman in Cow­ra. So the sensible serg­eant, realising the Jews weren’t a risk to Allied security, told them to report monthly. The community at Mooringa totally ensured safety once the Jewish men were all­owed to enlist in the Australian armed forces, in Feb 1944.

News of the Cowra Outbreak,

Aug 1944.

Cowra was also known for holding 1,104 Jap­an­ese POWs, guarded by the 22nd Garrison Battalion. In response to in­formation that the prisoners were planning a mass outbreak, not­ice was given that all Japanese prisoners of low rank would be trans­fer­red to Hay Prisoner Camp. In Aug 1944, a prisoner ran shout­ing to the camp gates. Soon a bugle was heard when pris­oners, armed with knives and improvised clubs, rushed from their huts in a suicidal mission. Sentries opened fire but hundreds of pris­oners hacked the wire fences and escaped into open country, while others set fire to the huts. This was the Cowra Breakout, a desperate event that resulted in 231 Japanese dying and 108 wounded; 3 Australian soldiers were killed and 3 wounded. It was the lar­gest, most tragic WW2 prison escape on Australian soil.

In 1964 Cowra became an official Japanese War Cemetery when the re­mains of all the Japanese who had died in Aust­ralia were raised, transported and buried together. A gathering was held at Cowra to memorialise these Japanese men, and to build the World Peace Bell. Cowra’s lovely 5 hec­tare Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre were opened in 1979, and expanded in 1986.

Japanese Memorial Gardens, Cowra

Japanese War Cemetery, Cowra

Traces of War