Children’s observations of Loveday

by Ann McLachlan
Children interacted with many of those who were at the Loveday Internment Camp be they prisoners of war, guards, locals and more.
Their memories were recorded in local newspapers and oral histories.

One of these children was Trevor Shiell who now lives in Alice Springs in Central Australia.  Trevor contacted me after hearing me speak with Ian McNamara about the camp on the ABC’s Australia All Over program one Sunday morning.  He recalled how his father was the head of the power station at the camp and he was friends with Colonel Dean.  He said as a child he visited Loveday with his father and remembers having dinner with the colonel and talking with Japanese prisoners of war.  They taught him a number of Japanese words.

The local newspaper “The Murray Pioneer” had a Young Folk’s Own Section, which featured children’s letters sent to a character known as Mopoke.
Loveday tour guide Max Scholz who delivered milk to the internment camp and eventually wrote a book about it in 2005 was a regular contributor.  His observations about Loveday encouraged other children including Betty Bishop, Myra Nitschke and Lorna Cook to send in their observations.  Peter Travers and his siblings were the Loveday school headmaster’s children and Bernadette Boyle was a daughter of one of the Loveday camp guards.  They both gave an insightful look into life at the camp in letters they wrote to Felicity in the Five Stars Club section of the Southern Cross newspaper.