THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
they were ‘dressed in old army jackets dyed a mulberry colour so they could be easily spotted if they tried to escape’. And at Pirramimma, in McLaren Vale, a new grenache vineyard was planted by Italian prisoners of war. The 1944-planted Prisoner of War block still produces wine. Italian prisoners of war, mostly captured in North Africa, were widely employed to work on farms and vineyards in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. For many, their experience was a happy one. Although civilians were ordered not to fraternise with the Italians, many formed very strong bonds. At Cowra, in central New South Wales, the internment camp officially known as No 12 Prisoner of War Compound hosted a large number of Italian and Japanese prisoners of war. According to former telegraph operator Geoff Fuller, who was stationed at Cowra during the 1940s, the Italian prisoners in compounds A and C were allowed to make their own homemade wine, and several worked on local farms. Geoff Fuller was working in the telegraph office on the night of the 5th of August 1944 when Japanese prisoners attempted a mass escape. Although they had been treated well, the Japanese became convinced that their compatriots were coming to rescue them. ‘Schooled to die’, many of them believed that their comfortable detention and humane treatment ‘sprang from (Australia’s) secret fear of them’. At the sound of a bugle, over 1,100 Japanese prisoners, all dressed in burgundy-coloured clothing, ran amok on a ‘frenzied mission of self- destruction and death’ and were repelled with volleys of gunfire by army sentries. Some escaped, but 234 Japanese were killed, including many by suicide or at the hands of fellow escapees. Two Australian soldiers died. The rest of the Japanese prisoners surrendered or were rounded up over the next few days. The Cowra prison breakout shocked the community, as it brought the violence and futility of war to its doorstep. Wineries, short of ‘strong adult’ manpower and workers, recruited women, especially in cellars and bottling halls. They were paid on a sliding scale that reflected the age of the employee. Ursula Rosenberg, Rhonda Fowler, Ollie Bosenberg, and Addie Standishm, who were in their twenties, worked at Seppelts’ Château Tanunda in the bond stores and bottling halls. At this time, all bottling and labelling was done by hand. Typically, the bottles, many of them returns, were washed in large vats before being filled. And in 1944, Berri Co-op Winery and Distillery offered women and girls work in labelling, bottling, and vintage light cellar work. Although their contribution foreshadowed significant changes in the Australian wine workforce, South Australia’s Liquor Trades Employee Union attempted to halt the inevitable societal shift and employed bullying tactics nationally towards the growing female workforce.
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