Primary Sources

Japanese Cowra Trials [enquiry into the death at Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, of Harry Doncaster, Charles Henry Shepherd, Benjamin Gower Hardy and Ralph Jones, and a number of Japanese prisoners of war; charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira]

This poster, titled Today's migrants…tomorrow's Australians, shows a young man posing with a cricket bat, as well as three people identified as Dutch, German and Italian. The poster provides information about the advantages of accepting migrants to Australia. It was issued by the Department of Immigration, as sighted in the bottom left-hand corner.

Service record of Earlsford Bates

Snowy Mountains Scheme video looks at an Australian family's experiences in living in Kenny's Knob a remote construction camp providing labour for the Tumut 1 tunnel and power station.  Aubrey Place was the accountant for the French Consortium Etudes et Enterprises and his wife Nancy Place was the Post Mistress for the camp of 950 migrant men and 50 women and children. 

Mr. Davidson, M.L.A. and V.R. Kelly, who Fell from Deck into Water.

Japanese Cowra Trials [military Court trial of PWJA 145648, Yoshida, Hiroshi and PWJA 145535, Kanazawa, Akiro / Akira, 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra] [2.0cm; box 1]

Map of the rail tour from Sydney to Cooma and the southern highlands - 1955

Service record of Roy Gillam

This video provided by Aage Stavdal, the author of 'A Boy From Sauda, Norway' captures the story of a construction company contracted from Norway to build the first stage of the Mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme in Guthega Australia

Japanese Cowra Trials [outbreak of Japanese prisoners from Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, 5 August 1944 and arrangements for the inquiry

The Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales form the highest section of the Great Dividing Range, which runs from Victoria to Queensland. They are the source of some of Australia’s greatest rivers: the Murray, Snowy, Murrumbidgee and Tumut.

In 1937, in a report to the NSW Government on the electrical development of the state, the British engineering consultancy Rendel, Palmer & Tritton recommended building a 250-megawatt hydro-electric project on the Snowy River. However, the outbreak of the Second World War meant the proposal was not acted on.

In 1941 the newly elected NSW Government began an inquiry into the power-generating potential of the Snowy Mountains rivers and in 1944 a scheme was proposed to use the area’s water for power and irrigation.

This led to the formation of the Commonwealth and States Snowy River Committee, which began negotiations over water usage between the states.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme was the biggest public works engineering scheme ever undertaken in Australia using over 100,000 people from more than 30 countries. It created the first truly diverse and multicultural workforce Australia had seen.

• Evidence of former Axis soldiers marching on Anzac Day 2:10

Japanese Cowra Trials [inquisition held by the Coroner at the Court House and the Prisoner of War Camp at Cowra, 11-15 December 1944; 3 copies] [0.5cm each copy; box 1]

British civilian teacher served as Queen's Army Schoolmistress with Army Education Corps in GB, Germany and Singapore, Malaya, 1926-1942; internee in Muntok Internment Camp, Bangka Island, Bukit Besar, Irenelaan and Poentjak Sekoening Barracks Internment Camps, Palembang and Loeboek Linggau Internment Camp, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, 2/1942-9/1945

"O class tram 1268 in Castlereagh Street at Goulburn Street, Sydney, 1957.

Captured by the Japanese off Sumatra on 18 May 1942 - press-ganged into working at Pladjoe BPM refinery after Japanese occupation of Palembang

Documentary produced for the Snowy Mountains Scheme, digitised from a VHS tape that may have been an educational production or sold at a gift shop.

A story of the Snowy Scheme ... of people and their achievements 1949-1974

Produced by the Snowy Mountains Authority at Cooma NSW Australia

Workers' housing at BPM refinery Pladjoe Palembang, around 1930

Japanese Cowra Trials [transcript of Inquiry into deaths at Japanese Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra, heard 11-15 December 1944 by the Coroner at Cowra

Robertson's account of his wartime experiences including being interned in Palembang and working at Pladjoe

This newspaper article recounts Vincent Kelly's remarkable survival after falling 170 feet from the Sydney Harbour Bridge into Sydney Harbour while working on the bridge's construction. It describes the rescue by fellow workers, Kelly's injuries, and his account of the fall, as well as noting his earlier attempt to rescue another bridge worker who had fallen to his death.

 Australia’s greatest engineering undertaking, the Snowy River Hydroelectric Scheme, in the Southern Alps, is changing the geography of an area as big as Switzerland by completely altering the course of streams and rivers, and is intended to bring into agricultural production double the area now served by irrigation, and to provide double Australia’s present output of electrical power.

BPM refinery on the Moesi River, Palembang, circa 1930

Japanese Cowra Trials [charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira, Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, abstract of evidence] [2.0cm; box 1]