Sat 4 Feb - Albury
After a good night sleep, we woke to a very fresh 6 Deg. Noeleene was also feeling much better and the rain had stopped. I went for a nice long walk along the very quiet main street to the botanic gardens and up to the Albury and District War Memorial on top of Monument Hill which has fantastic views across the city and surrounding region. I returned to the room for a quick bite to eat and a brew then we drove 10km out of town to the Hume Dam where we walked across the 318m long, 51m high dam wall with great views across the dam and to the Murray River. When completed in 1936, the Hume Dam was the biggest in the southern hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. The power of the water being released below was staggering. The nearby caravan park also looked like a great place to note for a future visit.
From the Dam, we drove another 5km to the historical Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre. This former WW2 Army Base located on 320 acres between the Hume Dam and Wodonga was setup for receiving and training migrants to Australia during the post WW2 immigration boom. The camp opened in 1947 and operated until 1971, over which period it received more than 300,000 migrants. Visiting this place was very interesting, but it had a special interest for my 93 year old Uncle Helmut who now lives in a nursing home in Yeppoon. He and his wife transitioned through here almost 70 years ago when they migrated from Germany in 1953. It was especially exciting to find their Camp ID cards available online, complete with photos, arrival / departure and some other very interesting details.
Block 19 Bonegilla is all that remains of more than 24 such blocks that made up the Migrant Centre. My Uncle and Aunt were accommodated at Block 10. The stories told are amazing, but I am very fortunate to be able to still have my Uncle recall with clarity, his time experience there, unfortunately not with great fondness. After we finished our visit of more than 2 hours, we purchased three novels about women who passed through Bonegilla titled The Girl from Munich, The Last of the Bonegilla Girls and The Land Girls. From the camp, we drove towards Wodonga, taking a slight detour off the road along a narrow bush track to an unused railway siding where my Uncle and Aunt stepped off the train from Melbourne when they arrived 70 years earlier.
It was a fabulous morning, and I even called my Uncle twice to talk about it. Needless to say, he was thrilled. We stopped in Wodonga for a coffee and a walk around before returning to our room for a quiet afternoon. Dinner tonight was at the Soden Hotel, and unfortunately, for the second night in a row, Noeleene's meal was contaminated with seafood and she became very sick again after we returned to our room. It was another disappointing end to an otherwise fantastic day.
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| Uncle and Aunt on one of their walks from the Migrant Camp to the Hume Weir in 1953 |
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| The Hume Weir 1953 |
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| New temporary home at Block 10 Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre |
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New temporary home at Block 10 Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre
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Wow, what an amazing experience to step back in time and feel what it may have been like for aunty Magda and uncle Helmet.
ReplyDeleteWhat a story, would love to hear more over a glass of red when you return. Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteJust discovered the photos of our uncle's past and history. That's great to see.
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