Cowra Prisoner of War Camp 12

Item

Camp name
Cowra Prisoner of War Camp 12
Country
Australia
Short description
Cowra Camp 12 was a purpose built camp which began operation in June 1941 and was divided into four areas. Italians PoWs and internees were detained in Compounds A and C. Compound B was for Japanese while Compound D held Japanese officers, Koreans and Chinese from Taiwan (then known as Formosa). There were also 500 Japanese and Indonesian refugees and their families. The first arrivals lived in tents and helped construct some of the buildings. The camp eventually had its own set of regulation structures: sleeping barracks, kitchens, mess halls, showers and latrines as well as huts for recreation and ships. Detainees built a chapel and a fountain of their own initiative as well as playing fields, bocce courts and garden plots for vegetables. When the last prisoners left the camp in 1947 the timber structures were dismantled and part of the area reverted to private farmland. There are numerous remains on the site today: the control tower, garrison gates, a fountain and concrete foundations of ablution blocks and mess halls.
Related resources
Art making at the Cowra camp POW Camp
Cowra POW camp: legacy and heritage
Hand drawn map of Cowra Camp
An oblique aerial view of Cowra Prisoner of War (POW) camp
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Locality name
Cowra
City, town or suburb
Cowra, NSW
Operation start date
June 1, 1941
Operation end date
1947

Linked resources

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Items with "Place mentioned in document: Cowra Prisoner of War Camp 12"
Title Class
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