MONTHLY MEETINGS are held at BURNSIDE CITY UNITING CHURCH, Portrush Rd, TUSMORE – 7.30 to 8.30-9pm
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 7: WOOLENOOK WOODCUTTING CAMP BY RUTH ROBERTS
SA’s Loveday Internment Camp was set up for male WWII Japanese internees between 1942 and 1945. Situated near Barmera, this Riverland camp housed only men and proved highly productive by farming animals and crops for food.
The Riverland was a critical food production area and the pumping stations had to be kept working at a time of acute fuel shortages. A return to steam power was the obvious solution but most men capable of woodcutting had joined the Forces. This presented the Japanese internees with an opportunity for paid work.
There were three woodcutting camps, Katarapko, Moorok and Woolenook. Woolenook above Renmark became the most enduring.
The speaker: Ruth Roberts has been providing kayak tours and camps for schools and tourists in Woolenook area since 2014 and has taken every opportunity to build her knowledge about the camp. The site of the woodcutting camp is easily reached by boat but few details are available to casual passers-by which she hopes to rectify. She has interviewed locals who had visited the active camp when they were children; and found interesting references in publications at the State Library of SA and the National War Museum. With this knowledge she hopes to bring the story of Woolenook back to life.
Ruth Roberts is a registered nurse with an MBA who runs a tour company in the Riverland and enjoys history.
