We entered a website competition to celebrate the Year of the Older Person.  First Matthew and I (Alex) decided on what we were going to do.  We agreed on the History of World War II in our local area.  We decided on some questions we wanted answers to. We looked in books, asked people and also went to Maria Island (which didn't help much). We wanted to find out about the older persons in our community to celebrate their contribution on the Internet.   
We would like to thank Kath Ferguson who gave us most of our infomation. 
World War II
What was the impact of the war on the Orford area?    
Families often didn’t hear for 18 months to 2 years. They’d hear that the relatives were in POW camps and the Red Cross would ensure they got food parcels and letters from home.   
During the war there was :   
    no power   
    no sealed road   
    telephones as we know them   
    no vaccinations   
    few wirelesses (radios)   
    no exotic fruits.  
 .  		 People would gather at someone’s house who had a wireless and listen to shortwave broadcasts from overseas to see how the war was going. Most families had a special case with all their special items in - photos, marriage and birth certificates, wills etc ready to pick up and take if they had to get out in a hurry. 
Did any troops came to Tasmania, how many troops came?  
A reported sighting of a submarine in the sea between Maria and Triabunna has been confirmed in recent years. A local farmer was looking around his sheep one night and saw a funny light between Maria and the mainland, he was sure it was not a fishing boat. The moon came out and he thought he saw a periscope.   
 		 Food tins were also found on the East Coast of the Island where the Japanese may have landed for fresh water.   
Some of the enemy who were taken prisoner overseas were sent  to Tasmania. Many of these were Italians who were stationed at Brighton but the well behaved ones were sent out to work on farms.   
There were four at Buckland two worked on Sally Peak and two at Birchgrove. These POWs were sent home after the war and at least one tried to come back afterwards. 
How did the locals help in the war?   
Some people were involved in essential industries to the war effort instead of going to fight. Farming was one of those industries, but people on farms were often part of the military in the area. Some of the young men were in the local Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) if they were to young also and did their bit there until they could go overseas.   
 Every vehicle had to be stopped, each person asked their name (even if you knew the person) and asked what their business was. This was all written down.   
The VDC practiced with small arms but guns were scarce. Grenades were practiced with up Paradise Gorge. Because the men were away the women had to do the fruit picking.   
Many people from the area joined up at the same time because of recruiting drives by the army and they would often be in the same battalion. Life went on during war time, rationing made planning ahead essential e.g. sugar for jam. People helped each other lots for example when a set of twins were born many people in the community gave things to help their mother out.   

  

 

 Farmers tried to help families in England. There they couldn’t get dripping (animal fat) for their bread so farmers in this area would collect dripping and carefully pack layers of raw eggs in the fat and seal this in kerosene tins and send it to England. The receiving families were very grateful and some sent gifts after the war was over.  
There was a farmer who at 26 was a member of the VDC, he remembers having to watch for the Japanese. He was one of the guards on the old bridge. There was a timber sentry box.   
It was hard for the families at home, men weren’t  allowed to write an ordinary letter home they couldn’t write anything that if it fell into enemy hands might use. Letters were read by officers in the army and a black pen was used to cross out any information that might be useful to the enemy.  Spies might have been in the local area, People were even careful about what they said. 
 
What kinds of weapons and how many were made in the area?   
There were no armament plants in this area but some in Hobart and large ones in Melbourne some locals worked in these. Boats were built in Hobart for the war effort
  
 		 Can we still find wartime things around the area?  
The enemy was expected to come by air, sea or road,  the only road is the Tasman Highway (not sealed then) the army decided they’d need to be able to block the road in the event of invaders. Holes were drilled in the rock up Paradise Gorge and explosives placed in the holes so that they could cause a rock fall to block the road if need be. 
Do we have any war heroes here?  
We have quite a few War heroes still living in this area. We know this because a lot of ex soldiers turned out to the ANZAC Day March this year.  
 
 
 This page was created by Matthew and  Alex.
 We would like to thank Mrs Kath Fergusson for her local help, the Australian War Memorial Web site for the use of a picture and J.F. Guilmartin Jr. for a picture from his web site.

 

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