Loveday Camp 14

Camp 14 was one of three main prisoner of war and internee camps in South Australia (the others being Loveday Camp 9 and Loveday Camp 10).

All were located at Loveday, in South Australia's Riverland, approximately 30 kilometres from Renmark.[1] The camp was divided into four compounds and held Axis prisoners from various battlefields around the world, including Papua New Guinea, the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa. The camp guard was provided by members of 25/33 Garrison Battalion, a militia unit of the Australian Army.

The four compounds were numbered and prisoners were divided into their specific nationalities. 14A held Italian prisoners, 14B and 14C held Japanese prisoners and 14D held German and Italian prisoners. Prisoners first started to arrive at Camp 14 between the months of January and February 1942.

Its most famous inmate was Oskar Speck, a German kayaker who paddled from Germany to New Guinea in the 1930s.[2][3] In September 1939, he was detained as an enemy alien on Thursday Island and was interred in Brisbane, then in Tatura, but after escaping and being recaptured in 1943, he was sent to Camp 14.[2][4] Another well-known internee was Italian anti-fascist activist Francesco Fantin who was killed in 1942 by pro-fascist inmates.[5] Fantin was the only known death due to murder in the camp.[6]

The camp officially closed in 1946, when the last prisoners were repatriated to their home countries.[7]

See also

References
  1. Loveday Internment Group : : Colour footage from Camp 14 at Loveday : [digital video disc], retrieved 3 October 2023
  2. "Oskar Speck, the Nazi who kayaked 50,000 kms to Australia | Australia Explained". www.australia-explained.com.au. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  3. "The Loveday Trilogy Part 1 | Oskar Speck". ABC listen. 23 August 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  4. "Oskar Speck". Loveday Lives. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  5. Nursey-Bray, Paul, "Francesco Giovanni (Frank) Fantin (1901–1942)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 3 October 2023
  6. "The Loveday Trilogy Part 2 | Francesco Fantin". ABC listen. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  7. "Italians Leaving Loveday". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 16 September 1946. p. 9. Retrieved 3 October 2023 – via National Library of Australia.

34°17′11″S 140°27′15″E

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