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Focus questions
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What do the Grace Building and Cowra Prisoner of War Camp site reveal about the influences on life in Australia leading up to and during World War II? |
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How do the influences revealed by these places contribute to our understanding of: Australia’s relations in the region and the world; the impact of war; Australian defence and security issues; past and present attitudes of Australians to conflict in the world? |
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What is being preserved in these places; who decided what was important and should be kept; and how is it being done? |
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The Grace Building – built between 1928 and 1930 – and the Cowra Prisoner of War (POW) Camp – constructed 1941-42 – are both linked to Australia’s military and defence alliances during World War II.
The 1920s were a time of nation building throughout Australia. It was towards the end of this decade that the Grace Building – one of New South Wales’ interwar treasures – was built. When construction commenced, the firm of Grace Bros enjoyed the status of largest retail concern in Australia as well as the largest per capita retail sales anywhere in the world.
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| Turbulent times in the 1930s saw the decade begin with economic depression and end with war. Under the National Security Regulations the Grace Building was requisitioned in 1942 and was occupied by allied military personnel stationed in Sydney. The ground floor façade of the building was boarded up and an air-raid shelter was constructed in the basement. Prior to this a system of tunnels – running beneath York Street to Circular Quay and Victoria Barracks – was built. The Grace Building became the Australian headquarters of the United States Armed forces – and of General Douglas MacArthur , Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific. |
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In the central tablelands of New South Wales – at the rural township of Cowra (population 3 500 prior to World War II) – the first internees were marched into the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp on 15 October 1941. Prisoners lived in tents until April 1942 when accommodation huts became available.
The Cowra POW Camp was built to contain Italian POWs captured by Allied Forces during World War II. The camp – established by the British Military Board – was part of a nationwide system of prisoner-of-war confinement and enemy alien containment. In all, there were twenty-eight major camps in Australia.
Source: NSW State Heritage Inventory
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