Shedding light on a dark time
GROWING up with a fascination of Italian prisoners of war, it wasn’t until decades later that Joanne Tapiolas turned her passion into awardwinning work.
Ms Tapiolas received the 2020 John Oxley Library Award from the State Library of Queensland, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the appreciation of Queensland history.
Ms Tapiolas said it was nice to win an award for following her passion.
“I was born in the Burdekin and my childhood memories were stories of Italians up in Home Hill who were growing vegetables for the armed forces,” Ms Tapiolas said.
“About five years ago I thought I’d like to find out more about it, I wanted to satisfy my curiosity as an adult. As a child I used to think it was such a long way, Italy to Home Hill.”
Ms Tapiolas, who researched World War II Italian prisoners of war in Australia for nearly five years, said she uncovered things she didn’t expect.
“When I looked into it was a much bigger scheme than I could have ever imagined,” she said.
“While I was looking into prisoners of war in Home Hill, I found out it was happening all through southeast Queensland. Families down there would have two to three Italians on their property working.
“Because there was an acute shortage of labour across the country because of the war, the government made a scheme to utilise Italian prisoners of war.”
Ms Tapiolas said 13,500 Italians were captured by the allies in countries such as Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Greece and Egypt were working across six states in Australia during World War II.
The former history teacher said her research led her to talking with numerous families who were involved in the scheme.
“Australian families and farmers have been in contact with me to talk about the Italians they had working on their farms. I’ve also had Italian families from 10 different countries get in touch with me and tell me about their fathers and grandfathers who were prisoners of war in Australia.”
Ms Tapiolas said many of the prisoners of war returned to Italy at the end of 1946 and early 1947.