Tatura

The post office opened on 1 February 1875.{{Citation| last = Phoenix Auctions History | title = Post Office List | url = http://www.phoenixauctions.com.au/cgi-bin/wsPhoenix.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&filter=*Tatura* | access-date = 11 March 2021}} The Tatura Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1990.{{cite web | url=https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/lawrefrom/legal_services/final_report.pdf | title=Review of Legal Services in Rural and Regional Victoria | publisher=Parliament of Victoria Law Reform Committee | date=May 2001 | accessdate=12 April 2020 |pages=291–292}}

File:The Riboni family.jpg

Several internment camps were set up around Tatura, Rushworth, and Murchison (Dhurringile) by the Australian government during World War II. Four of these were for "enemy alien" civilians, and three were for prisoners of war. Australian law in 1939 designated people "enemy aliens" if they were Germans or were Australians who had been born in Germany; later, it covered Italians and Japanese as well.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8iWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22enemy+alien%22+%22australia%22+%22tatura%22&pg=PT132 | isbn=9780429513756 | title=Poetics and Politics of Shame in Postcolonial Literature | date=7 May 2019 | publisher=Routledge }} The majority of the "enemy aliens" were refugees fleeing the Nazis.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xY3_DwAAQBAJ&dq=tatura+internment+camp&pg=PT238 | isbn=9783110637533 | title=Realisms of the Avant-Garde | date=21 September 2020 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG }} Between 1940 and 1947, there were 10,000 to 13,000 civilians interned in the camps at different times.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8iWDwAAQBAJ&dq=tatura+internment+camp&pg=PT133 | isbn=9780429513756 | title=Poetics and Politics of Shame in Postcolonial Literature | date=7 May 2019 | publisher=Routledge }}

Before the war, Britain was home to around 73,000 Germans, who had left Germany due to the rising tensions and the rise of the Nazi regime in the country. Many of these were also young male Germans who had been in schools in Britain before the outbreak of WWII. In June 1940, France fell to Nazi Germany and Allied soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sea.museum/2020/09/06/behind-barbed-wire-remembering-the-dunera-boys|title=Behind barbed wire: Remembering the Dunera boys|website=Australian National Maritime Museum}} The British government ordered the internment of "enemy aliens" (unnaturalised people born in enemy countries). This included both long-term residents of Britain, as well as recent refugees who were fleeing Nazi oppression, all of whom were regarded as potential spies or Nazi sympathisers.

They were shipped out of the country in the middle of the war, predominantly to Australia (on HMT Dunera from Britain in September 1940) and Canada.{{Cite web|url=http://www.musiques-regenerees.fr/GhettosCamps/Internement/Australie/DuneraBoys_NationalLibraryOfAustralia.html|title=The Dunera Boys at the National Library of Australia|website=www.musiques-regenerees.fr}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bk4NAAAAIAAJ&q=tatura+internment+camp | isbn=9780726968037 | title=The Dunera Internees | year=1979 | publisher=Cassell Australia }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7_SlAEACAAJ | title=Papers of Eric Liffman | year=1940 }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqciMQAACAAJ | isbn=9781925495492 | title=Dunera Lives: A Visual History | year=2018 | publisher=Monash University }}

The camps, in rural Australia, were surrounded by two or three parallel rows of perimeter fences of barbed wire up to 10 feet in height, separated by Dannert wire (razor wire that formed in large coils which can be expanded like a concertina), and by 20-foot-high guard towers, manned by sentries with rifles, Vickers machine guns, or Bren guns, as well as by sentry-manned catwalks, with banks of floodlights 60 to 80 feet high.[https://www.army.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/history_directorate_of_prisoners_of_war_and_internees_1939_to_1951_part_three_0.pdf "Matters affecting both enemy prisoners of war and enemy internees"]{{Cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C57014|title=TATURA, VIC. 1943. BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS AND FENCES AROUND THE PERIMETER OF THE COMPOUNDS OF ...|website=www.awm.gov.au}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C57000|title=TATURA, VIC. 1943. BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS, BOUNDARY FENCE AND FLOODLIGHTS ON THE PERIMETER OF ...|website=www.awm.gov.au}} Soldiers were instructed that familiarity with Internees "should be avoided at all times". Tatura Internment Camps 3 and 4 were opened in 1940.

Tatura Internment Camp 1, part of a Tatura complex of seven internment camps, was built by the Commonwealth on land that it acquired compulsorily from a farmer, with construction completed by February 1940.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy5qDwAAQBAJ&q=tatura+internment+camp | isbn=9780642279248 | title=Captured Lives: Australia's Wartime Internment Camps | date=August 2018 | publisher=National Library of Australia }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3JdEAAAQBAJ&dq=tatura+internment+camp&pg=PA69 | isbn=9781009020329 | title=The Architecture of Confinement: Incarceration Camps of the Pacific War | date=24 February 2022 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}

Among the more notable internees, interned by Australia for two years as "enemy aliens" in Tatura Internment Camp 3 starting with their arrival in 1940 as they fled Austria, were Jewish refugee from the Nazis (and artist and inventor) (Polish-Jewish) Slawa Horowitz Duldig, who had invented and patented the modern folding umbrella in 1929, along with her Polish-Jewish refugee sculptor husband Karl Duldig, and their daughter Eva Duldig (from the ages of two to four); Eva two decades later represented Australia at the Wimbledon Championships in tennis.[https://www.nationalfonds.org/files/content/documents/nf/Leseprobe_Eva-De%20Jong%20Duldig.non-searchable.pdf "To the other side of the world"], National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism.{{Cite web|url=https://issuu.com/rmitdesignarchives/docs/rda_journal_20_9.1_all64pp_pages|title= Vienna Abroad: Viennese Interior Design in Australia 1940–1949|volume=9|number=1|date=26 March 2019|author=Harriet Edquist |website= RMIT Design Archives Journal; Vol. 9, No. 1}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/6550362.html|title=Australian Musical Charts Family's Escape from Nazis in Europe|website=Voice of America|date=29 April 2022 |author=Phil Mercer}}

Similarly, artist Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack had been forced to leave Germany during the rise to power of the Nazis due to his part-Jewish heritage.{{Cite book|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hirschfeldmack-ludwig-10510|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Tim|last=Fisher|chapter=Hirschfeld-Mack, Ludwig (1893–1965) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|via=Australian Dictionary of Biography}} However, upon arrival in Australia he was deemed an "enemy alien", and interned in internment camps including Tatura, from 1940 to 1942.{{cite book | chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110637533-015/pdf | doi=10.1515/9783110637533-015 | chapter=When the Reality is Unreal: Camps, Towers and Internment | title=Realisms of the Avant-Garde | year=2020 | last1=McNamara | first1=Andrew | pages=223–244 | isbn=9783110637533 | s2cid=240799822 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/prisoners-and-internees/|title=Prisoners and internees | NGV|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au}} Another person interned as an "enemy alien" at Tatura was composer Felix Werder, son of a Berlin synagogue cantor.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYW2CgAAQBAJ&dq=%22enemy+alien%22+%22australia%22+%22tatura%22&pg=PT107 | isbn=9781742242163 | title=Peter Sculthorpe: The Making of an Australian Composer | date=October 2015 | publisher=NewSouth }}

In 1941, German Templers were shipped from the German Templer Colonies in Palestine and interned for the duration of the war.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QyGrtgAACAAJ | isbn=9780731625116 | title=The Story of the Beilharz Family: The History of a Family of Black Forest Farmers and Tradespeople, from the 15th to the 20th Century in Germany, in Palestine, in Australia | year=1988 | publisher=Heinz W. Beilharz }} After arriving in Australia on 25 August 1941, the Templers were housed in Camp 3 in Tatura. Using the experience gained during internment in Egypt in World War I, they quickly established a school and a kindergarten, as well and developed work routines to prevent depression. After the war, the majority of Templer families remained in Australia.{{cite book|ref=none|last=Wawrzyn|first=Heidemarie|title=Nazis in the Holy Land 1933–1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZ7oBQAAQBAJ|date=1 August 2013|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-030652-1|quote=In September 1939, the British Mandate government turned the German farming settlements of Sarona, Wilhelma, Bethlehem-Galilee, and Waldheim into large internment camps, while women and children from the German colonies in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa were temporarily permitted to remain in their homes under British and Jewish police surveillance. The four farming settlements were surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, guarded by Jewish and Arab auxiliary police (Hilfspolizisten) under a British commandant with a small staff. German women, children, and elderly men lived in these camps... [In 1941] The British authorities decided to deport more than 600 persons from the younger German families to Australia... They were imprisoned as enemy citizens in detention camps at Tatura in Australia’s Victoria state, where they remained until 1946–47... }} The Temple Society Australia was established in 1950.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgoFxfSTfYAC&dq=The+Temple+Society+Australia+was+established+in+1950.&pg=PA376 | isbn=9780521807890 | title=The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins | date=October 2001 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}

In 1941, Major Julian Layton arrived from England on a mission. Layton, a Jew like many of the Dunera internees, managed to secure the release of many of them if they enlisted in the British or Australian Army.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctpzEAAAQBAJ&dq=julian+layton+australian+army+jewish&pg=PR12 | isbn=9781350185159 | title=The Holocaust and Australia: Refugees, Rejection, and Memory | date=28 July 2022 | publisher=Bloomsbury }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhM7AwAAQBAJ&dq=julian+layton+australian+army+jewish&pg=PT262 | isbn=9780750958561 | title=Four Thousand Lives: The Rescue of German Jewish Men to Britain in 1939 | date=3 March 2014 | publisher=The History Press }} At the end of the war all of the Dunera internees were released.

Monte Punshon, an Australian teacher who could speak Japanese, was a warden from 1943. Punshon looked after the compound set aside for those who could not speak English and for the school in the camp. Punshon was belatedly decorated for her kindness by the Japanese government when she was over 100 years old.{{Citation |last=Furphy |first=Samuel |title=Ethel May (Monte) Punshon (1882–1989) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/punshon-ethel-may-monte-15788 |access-date=2024-02-21 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}

Also notable were the crew of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, taken prisoner following the battle between HMAS Sydney and the Kormoran. They were housed at Camp 13, Murchison, and Dhurringile mansion. There were also about 500 German civilians detained during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941 and housed initially in the Loveday, South Australia, camps, before transfer to the Tatura camps in 1945.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NpI1DQAAQBAJ&dq=Kormoran+tatura&pg=PA292 | isbn=9781775593027 | title=False Flags: Disguised German raiders of World War II | date=August 2016 | publisher=Exisle }}

The Tatura German Military Cemetery ({{Coord|36.4304|S|145.2055|E|display=inline}}) is the final resting place of 351 German civilians and servicemen who died during internment in World War I and World War II.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/14043/tatura-german-military-cemetery/|title=Tatura German Military Cemetery | Cemetery Details|website=CWGC}}

Tatura possesses a humid subtropical climate, but borders an oceanic climate and a temperate semi-arid climate (Köppen: Cfa/Cfb/BSk). The town experiences very warm summers and cool winters.{{Cite web |url = http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/maps/averages/climate-classification/?maptype=kpn |title = Climate classification maps: Köppen - all classes |website = Bureau of Meteorology |access-date = October 4, 2024}} Average maxima vary from {{convert|29.8|C}} in January to {{convert|13.0|C}} in July, while average minima fluctuate between {{convert|14.4|C}} in January and February and {{convert|3.1|C}} in July. Precipitation is low, averaging {{convert|482.4|mm|in|abbr=on}} per annum. Rain is spread across 104.6 precipitation days. The town experiences 110.0 clear days and 109.0 cloudy days per annum. Extreme temperatures have ranged from {{convert|44.8|C}} on 25 January 2019 and 7 February 2009 to {{convert|-6.8|C}} on 26 June 1965.{{cite web |url = https://www.farmonlineweather.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=81049 |title = Tatura Inst Sustainable Ag Climate (1942-2024) |website = FarmOnline Weather |publisher = Australian Community Media |access-date = October 4, 2024}}

{{Weather box

|location = Tatura ({{coord|36.44|S|145.27|E}}, {{convert|114|m|ft|abbr=on}} AMSL) (1964-2024 normals & extremes, rainfall to 1942)

|metric first = Yes

|single line = Yes

|Jan record high C = 44.8

|Feb record high C = 44.8

|Mar record high C = 39.6

|Apr record high C = 35.0

|May record high C = 26.3

|Jun record high C = 21.5

|Jul record high C = 22.5

|Aug record high C = 26.0

|Sep record high C = 33.7

|Oct record high C = 35.6

|Nov record high C = 42.1

|Dec record high C = 44.0

|Jan high C = 29.8

|Feb high C = 29.5

|Mar high C = 26.4

|Apr high C = 21.6

|May high C = 17.2

|Jun high C = 13.9

|Jul high C = 13.0

|Aug high C = 14.8

|Sep high C = 17.6

|Oct high C = 21.2

|Nov high C = 24.9

|Dec high C = 27.7

|Jan low C = 14.4

|Feb low C = 14.4

|Mar low C = 12.0

|Apr low C = 8.4

|May low C = 5.7

|Jun low C = 3.7

|Jul low C = 3.1

|Aug low C = 3.9

|Sep low C = 5.4

|Oct low C = 7.6

|Nov low C = 10.4

|Dec low C = 12.5

|Jan record low C = 4.7

|Feb record low C = 4.9

|Mar record low C = 3.3

|Apr record low C = -1.0

|May record low C = -3.2

|Jun record low C = -6.8

|Jul record low C = -6.0

|Aug record low C = -4.1

|Sep record low C = -3.0

|Oct record low C = -1.1

|Nov record low C = 0.5

|Dec record low C = 2.0

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 35.0

|Feb precipitation mm = 31.8

|Mar precipitation mm = 34.3

|Apr precipitation mm = 35.5

|May precipitation mm = 44.1

|Jun precipitation mm = 44.8

|Jul precipitation mm = 46.6

|Aug precipitation mm = 46.1

|Sep precipitation mm = 42.3

|Oct precipitation mm = 47.5

|Nov precipitation mm = 39.8

|Dec precipitation mm = 35.1

|year precipitation mm = 482.4

|unit precipitation days = 0.2 mm

|Jan precipitation days = 4.9

|Feb precipitation days = 4.4

|Mar precipitation days = 5.4

|Apr precipitation days = 6.7

|May precipitation days = 10.2

|Jun precipitation days = 12.1

|Jul precipitation days = 14.1

|Aug precipitation days = 12.8

|Sep precipitation days = 10.6

|Oct precipitation days = 9.5

|Nov precipitation days = 7.7

|Dec precipitation days = 6.2

|Jan afthumidity = 36

|Feb afthumidity = 37

|Mar afthumidity = 40

|Apr afthumidity = 49

|May afthumidity = 61

|Jun afthumidity = 68

|Jul afthumidity = 68

|Aug afthumidity = 61

|Sep afthumidity = 56

|Oct afthumidity = 48

|Nov afthumidity = 40

|Dec afthumidity = 37

|Jan dew point C = 10.2

|Feb dew point C = 11.1

|Mar dew point C = 9.9

|Apr dew point C = 8.8

|May dew point C = 8.4

|Jun dew point C = 7.1

|Jul dew point C = 6.1

|Aug dew point C = 6.0

|Sep dew point C = 6.8

|Oct dew point C = 7.3

|Nov dew point C = 7.8

|Dec dew point C = 8.8

|Jan sun = 313.1

|Feb sun = 276.9

|Mar sun = 269.7

|Apr sun = 222.0

|May sun = 156.1

|Jun sun = 126.0

|Jul sun = 130.2

|Aug sun = 170.5

|Sep sun = 198.0

|Oct sun = 248.0

|Nov sun = 270.0

|Dec sun = 297.6

|Jan percentsun = 70

|Feb percentsun = 73

|Mar percentsun = 71

|Apr percentsun = 66

|May percentsun = 50

|Jun percentsun = 43

|Jul percentsun = 42

|Aug percentsun = 51

|Sep percentsun = 56

|Oct percentsun = 61

|Nov percentsun = 64

|Dec percentsun = 66

|source 1 = Bureau of Meteorology (1964-2024 normals & extremes, rainfall to 1942)

}}

Organisations in Tatura include Tatura Milk Industries, Goulburn-Murray Water's corporate headquarters, Jacobs Engineering Group, the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, as well as major regional processing plants for multinational corporations such as Unilever and Snow Brand Milk Products.Trevaskis Engineering is a sheet metal manufacturer, established in 1959 and employing around 50 staff, manufacturing grain handling equipment and other bespoke items for the agriculture sector.

The Tatura Show is held yearly in March and International Dairy Week (which is the second-largest dairy show in the Southern Hemisphere) in January each year attracting over 6,000 exhibitors, vendors and onlookers from Australia as well as overseas. The Taste of Tatura Food and Wine Festival is held on the first Sunday in March.

Tatura Hot Bread won prizes in the Professional Section of The Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph in 2006, and again in 2007.[http://www.ouyenvanillaslice.com.au/ The Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph]

Tatura has many sporting facilities located within the town, including Australian Rules football ovals, soccer fields, cricket pitches, tennis courts, Lawn Bowls greens, a multipurpose indoor stadium and the 18-hole golf course of the Hilltop Golf Club.{{Citation | author= Golf Select | title = Hill Top | url = http://www.golfselect.com.au/armchair/courseView.aspx?course_id=990 | accessdate = 11 May 2009}}

The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Goulburn Valley Football League, the Tatura Bulldogs.{{Citation|last=Full Points Footy |title=Tatura |url=http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/Tatura.htm |accessdate=25 July 2008 |url-status=usurped |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705035002/http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/tatura.htm |archivedate=5 July 2008 }}

Tatura tennis club hosts an annual labour day round-robin tennis tournament on the grass courts each March.

Tatura soccer club participates in the Bendigo amateur soccer league.

Tatura is home to the Tatura Racecourse Reserve, where the Tatura & Shepparton Racing Club Inc hosts a minimum of three full TAB race meetings each season, including the Italian Plate Festival in December – a celebration of the local Italian community and culture – and the Tatura Easter Cup. The Cup day also features the Mark Goring Memorial race, honouring jockey Mark Goring who died of injuries sustained in a fall at the Tatura track in 2003.{{cite web| url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/13/1041990231375.html| title = Jockey Goring dies of fall injuries| date = 14 January 2003}}{{Citation|last=Country Racing Victoria |title=Tatura & Shepparton Racing Club |url=http://www.countryracing.com.au/index.php?option=com_club_info&club=50&Itemid=80 |accessdate=7 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019080156/http://www.countryracing.com.au/index.php?option=com_club_info&club=50&Itemid=80 |archivedate=19 October 2007 }} As well as a Western & Quarter Horse arena and Club rooms, the Reserve is a thoroughbred training facility, with grass and sand track, and swimming facilities as well as practice barriers and jumps schooling course. 20 Racing Victoria-licensed trainers are registered to the Racecourse. In addition to race meetings, the club also runs regular official trials and jumpouts (unbroadcast trials).{{Cite web|url=http://www.countryracing.com.au/tatura-shepparton-racing-club|title = Home}}

Tatura has two primary schools serving both the town and surrounding areas: Tatura Primary School is a public school located south of the town centre, whilst Sacred Heart School is a private Catholic school located on the town's main street. Due to Tatura's proximity to Shepparton, secondary education options include Notre Dame College, Shepparton,Goulburn Valley Grammar School,and Greater Shepparton Secondary Collage.

Tatura is located 20 minutes from La Trobe University Shepparton Campus as well as the Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE, which both offer a range of tertiary and TAFE courses for the Goulburn Valley.

The main print publications distributed within Tatura include the daily Shepparton News, the weekly The Adviser Shepparton, the weekly Tatura Guardian, and the monthly Tatura Bulletin.{{Cite web|url=http://taturabulletin.com.au/|title=Tatura Bullletin - The community voice|website=taturabulletin.com.au}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Tatura, Victoria}}
• [https://www.taturamuseum.com/ Wartime Camps and Irrigation Museum]
• [http://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaette/taturaaustralien.html Tatura German Military Cemetery]
• [http://www.tatura.com.au Tatura Milk Industries]

{{Towns in the City of Greater Shepparton}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Towns in Victoria (state)

Category:City of Greater Shepparton