Tatura prison camps matched it with best footballers in the region post-WWII

As fathers, sons and brothers returned home from fighting overseas, the camps — there were seven in total — at Tatura momentarily remained as the 8000 prisoners were slowly processed.

As the region looked to move on from the horrors and trauma caused by WWII, football became an obvious and accessible form of entertainment for the soldiers and the public.

Camp 1 and Camp 13 decided to form football sides, with 1 joining Kyabram District Football Association and 13 aligning itself with Goulburn Valley League.

Andrew Crawford has been a passionate sportsman and follower within the region all his life.

Now in retirement, Crawford said he spent much of his time volunteering at Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum and recently found himself falling down the rabbit hole of the region’s soldier football clubs.

“I lived in Toolamba West for 63 years and I have retired into Tatura for the past seven years,” Crawford said.

“I have been a member of the museum for probably eight years now.

“I have always been pretty keen on sport — today I was playing bowls (for Tatura-Hill Top).

“I have always played football and cricket, so that triggered my interest to look further into the Camp 13 Football Club and the Camp 1 footy team.”

An afternoon spent delving into the region’s respective newspapers from 1946 gave Crawford an insight in to how the two sides performed during the season.

Crawford said Camp 1 and Camp 13 had some of the highest participation rates in their respective leagues to start the football year.

“(The soldier-footballers) would have been from all around Australia probably, they were just guards at the prison camp, so they could have come from anywhere,” he said.

“Camp 13 used the (Tatura) footy ground, I’m not sure where Camp 1 played.

“There’s not too many people around that you can ask that would remember.”

Camp 1 played the Kyabram District Football Association home and away season in blistering fashion, with the soldiers undefeated across all 11 matches with a percentage of 457.2.

Camp 13 — which had former VFL players littered throughout — was also impressive in Goulburn Valley League as it sat on top of the ladder with a record of 12-2 in the lead-up to finals.

As soldiers were slowly returned home and sent away from Tatura, the two sides began to be depleted and the performances started to drop away.

Despite some players departing the side, Camp 1 booked a spot in the grand final after defeating Undera by one point in a back-and-forth thriller.

However, after stopping in Shepparton for some post-game celebrations, the side left and the team’s bus crashed between Shepparton and Mooroopna.

Six passengers were treated at hospital with 19-year-old William Woodhead dislocating his hip.

One section of the paper caught Crawford’s eye: an advertisement for the Goulburn Valley League grand final between Camp 13 and Nagambie.

Fans didn’t have to reach too far into their pockets for admission, with tickets costing two shillings for adults and free entry for children.

Camp 13 went down by 33 points in the decider to the Lakers.

Crawford said with its depleted side, 13 was unable to match it with its opposition’s depth of talent.

“They got beaten in the grand final against Nagambie,” he said.

“The names mentioned in the Nagambie grand final side are pretty well-known footballers like Finigan, Forbes, Nolan, Heaphy, McDonald.”

Fortune fell in Camp 1’s favour as the unlikely ensemble of soldiers defeated their rival Undera, 14.8 (92) to 13.10 (88) in a memorable grand final.

Camp 1’s Clifford booted eight goals in a match-winning performance.

Neither Camp 1 nor Camp 13 would field a side after 1946.