Hay Internment and POW camps

The first arrivals were 2,542 internees from Nazi Germany and Austria, most of whom were Jewish; they had been interned in the United Kingdom as enemy aliens when the possibility of an Axis invasion of Britain was at its highest.

Camps 7 and 8 were vacated in May 1941 when the Dunera internees left Hay; some were sent to Orange (NSW), others to Tatura in Victoria, and others to join the Pioneer Corps of the Australian Army.

[1] Hay Military Post Office was open from 4 December 1940 until 29 June 1946, defining the main period of use of the facility.

The internment at Hay of this assemblage of refugees from Nazi oppression in Europe was an important milestone in Australia’s cultural history.

[3] The 'Dunera Boys' are still fondly remembered in Hay: every year the town holds a 'Dunera Day' in which many surviving internees return to the site of their former imprisonment.