Children

Table of Contents

Children

As an ex Army camp, Bonegilla was not initially designed to cater for families and children. This, coupled with a spate of child deaths in 1949, albeit from pre-arrival conditions such as malnutrition and gastroenteritis, prompted immediate improvements to the centre’s hospital and living facilities.

Special accommodation blocks were set up for families, with heated rooms, bassinettes, hot plates, feeding rooms, toy house, and play equipment. A crèche and kindergarten were built to assimilate the young and helped with language and social skills.

There was also a Create Leisure Centre for children, sports activities, and Lake Hume for swimming.

Initially, there was no school for the children of displaced persons and they had a four-five week ‘holiday’ though some did attend language classes with their parents.   The Bonegilla State School opened in 1952.

Most former child residents remember Bonegilla fondly and as a big adventure. It was a place for climbing trees and going barefoot. They recall childhood fears of sunburn, swooping magpies, spiders, possums, bull ants and snakes; They did not have the concerns of their parents.

Quotes

It was part of a big adventure before settling into a stable home again.

- Monika, Age 6, Germany, 1961.

We as children lived in paradise – freedom, fresh air, lake in the summer, tennis, girls club, cinema at weekends. Plenty to eat. Ice-cream on Thursdays!

- Laima McAdle, Parents worked at Bonegilla

There was a special pole where any dead snake would be hung up by the block supervisor to warn us about them. That didn’t always work, as several young migrants actually collected live ones and kept them in shoe boxes under their beds

- Ute Bierbaumer, Austria, 1957