This week, Roy has decided to show you a different type of place. So often when Roy and I go out and about we are visiting a place where there is lots to see. Yet not all historical places are actually like this. Sometimes, whatever was there has long gone, leaving very little behind, other than 'lumps and bumps' in the landscape. Often these sorts of places were built to be transient, serving a purpose and then simply being dismantled or left to fall apart. Though there might not be a lot left to look at, sometimes they have the most interesting stories. One such place is Bathurst Migrant Camp.
If you would like to visit Bathurst Migrant Camp it was once standing where Rossmore Park is today. In fact the Bathurst Sheep and Cattle Drome now stands where the migrant camp once was! At the entrance to the park there is a memorial to the migrants who passed through the camp, but there is little more intact evidence of the sites history. There are concrete lumps and rubble piles dotted over the landscape though, and you can see these are where buildings once stood. Many of these are overgrown with plants, but they stand up in the landscape as lumps and bumps, for those who know to look for them. If you would like to see what the camp originally looked like there is an aerial photograph on display at the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre.
Although the Migrant Camp was an important part of the history of Bathurst, it was remarkably short lived, only operating for the few years between 1948 and 1952. Before this the site had been an army camp, and many of the Migrant Camp buildings were a reuse of buildings from this earlier period. The accomodation was somewhat uncomfortable, being metal sheds, old wooden army barracks or tents, all of which were cold in winter (it often snows in Bathurst) and hot in summer. For the migrants though, they were all there was as there was a building shortage at the time. Single people slept in dormitories and married couples had partitioned off areas, but the walls were flimsy and privacy was very limited. There were also a lot of people in the buildings. By the time the camp closed in 1952 there were 11 building 'blocks' with accommodation for just over 6000 people!
Yet life in the migrant camp was not all bad. The camp was not a prison and a bus went through the camp to pick people up and take them into Bathurst itself, mainly for shopping. People were learning English and readying themselves for their new life in Australia. There was a 'picture theatre' which showed afternoon movies for the children and evening movies for the adults, and there were also loudspeakers in the camp which played the radio and carried announcements in a variety of languages. Food was plentiful compared to war torn Europe where most of the migrants had come from and celebrations like births, christenings and birthdays were celebrated by the migrant community. In fact, the migrant camp gained the reputation of being 'the place to be' on New Years Eve in Bathurst! The people who lived in the camp were also able to work on various handcrafts which could be used to furnish homes when they moved on from the camp and there many memories associated with the hand weaving of rugs. If you would like to learn more about Bathurst Migrant Camp, click here.
