During World War II, Australian authorities established internment camps for three reasons – to prevent residents from assisting Australia’s enemies, to appease public opinion and to house overseas internees sent to Australia for the duration of the war.
Unlike World War I, the initial aim of internment during the later conflict was to identify and intern those who posed a particular threat to the safety or defence of the country. As the war progressed, however, this policy changed and Japanese residents were interned en-masse. In the later years of the war, Germans and Italians were also interned on the basis of nationality, particularly those living in the north of Australia. In all, just over 20 per cent of all Italians resident in Australia were interned.

Australia interned about 7000 residents, including more than 1500 British nationals, during World War II. A further 8000 people were sent to Australia to be interned after being detained overseas by Australia’s allies. At its peak in 1942, more than 12,000 people were interned in Australia.

Mt Disappointment State Forest was used to house some of the internees. The main camp was at what is known as No 1 Camp, a rough drawing of the camp and photos outline the conditions that the men lived in. As far as we know there were no women interred here. Life at the camps here was relatively easy, the men worked in the forest and had freedom to move around, often visiting Reedy Creek, but always returning to the camp, those interred at No 4 Camp made regular visits to Wallan, again always returning after these forays. This was very different to other camps, in particular the Loveday Camp in South Australia which was known as a harsh camp, where the treatment of the internees was poor and life was miserable for those incarcerated there.

During World War II many internees, particularly Italians, were released before the end of the war. Others were allowed to leave the camps after hostilities ceased. Internees of British or European origin were permitted to remain in Australia after the war, including those who had been brought from overseas by British authorities. Most of those of Japanese origin, however, including those who were Australian-born, were ‘repatriated’ to Japan in 1946.

History and Heritage of Camp No.2 – Bambara –  by Trevor Viénet
PART ONE
Introduction
The school camp known as Bambara has a fascinating history. The location was originally known as Baker’s Flat and later it became forestry Camp No. 2. It was handed over by the Forests Commission of Victoria on a lease to Camberwell Grammar School in 1963. Currently it is being utilized by The Salvation Army as a youth services camp.
No.2 Camp was established on Two Tees Road during World War Two to house alien workers and later Italian prisoners of war. Newspapers reported that in the last week of July 1942 a camp at Broadford was opened and that 50 aliens a week were being called up as forestry workers for wood production across Victoria.
Camp No.2 was located 2.5 kilometres west from Camp No.1, these two existing forestry camps were utilised and taken over for use as a Prisoner of War Camps (P.O.W.). It is believed the remaining Forests Commission personnel based at No.1 Camp moved up to Regular Camp on Main Mountain Road and Flowerdale Road, once the camp was established as a prisoner of war hostel.
Baker’s Flat
The location of Camp No.2 (Bambara) was originally known as Baker’s Flat; it was Mr. Baker’s grassed clearing sitting on the south side of Dabyminga Creek. We know little of the previous history of this site. It was likely an ideal place for a hut or home on the flats with some grazing area above Dabyminga Creek. Dabyminga is also referred to as Reedy Creek in the area close to the small township of Reedy Creek.
Forestry War Time Workforce

-Edited Information in this section kindly provided by Peter McHugh and Joanne Tapiolas

Mt. Disappointment Forest camps supplied firewood and were strategically important due to their proximity to Melbourne and rail transport. During WW2 there was a manpower shortage and the continuity for the provision of firewood for the homes and industry of Melbourne was essential.
The Mount Disappointment State Forest had four camps known as Alien Camps, two of these camps (No.1 Camp and No.2 Camp) were later converted to be used as P.O.W. hostels.
It’s important to distinguish the subtle differences between groups of workers. Initially, the forestry workforce at Broadford was drawn from a pool of workers; ‘aliens’ who due to their status were unable to join the armed forces but were still a valuable pool of workers. It appears that the original employing authority was the Allied Works Council: Aliens Section, then in May 1943 a Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) was established and alien workers were directed to work under its auspices.
Forestry camps are often and incorrectly referred to as internment camps. Internment Camps were used for ‘enemy aliens’ who were considered to be a threat to national security, according to the National Security Act. They were arrested and held in internment camps until their release. In Victoria, Tatura Camps were internment camps.
Working in forestry were ‘aliens’ some of whom may have been ex-internees, and prisoners of war.
Unfortunately, these terms of ‘aliens’ ‘enemy aliens’ and ‘internees’ are often used interchangeably. To add to the confusion the different categories of people sometimes had lived in the same camps.
Prisoners of war, enemy aliens, aliens, and internees had different rights. For example, prisoners of war could be forced to work, while enemy aliens working for the CAC and internees were paid for any work they did. POWs were also subject to the standards of the Geneva Convention and modifications and further construction at (Broadford) Camps No.1 and Camp No.2 had to be completed for the prisoners of war. Many records (including those in old FCV files) as well as references, particularly those found on the internet, don’t clearly distinguish between the various categories and tend to muddle the terminology. But language matters.

PART TWO
Forestry Workers
-Civil Aliens Corps (CAC)
The Allied Work Council (AWC) established two corps: the Civil Constructional Corps (CCC) in April 1942 which was the civilian labour workforce, and the Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) in May 1943. The CAC was an alien and refugee workforce.
Regarding the CAC, War Cabinet approved this step as a means of relieving Australia’s worsening manpower shortage as the war progressed. The experience of the AWC was that the employment of hundreds of refugees and enemy aliens was better managed and controlled if it was administered by a composite corp.
The Allied Works Council controlled wartime projects such as construction, forestry, maintenance of camps, roads, aerodromes, railways and docks.
The Civil Aliens Corps (CAC) was established under the National Security (Aliens Service) Regulations. It was primarily composed of male refugees and enemy aliens, between 18 and 60, who were not interned, but were directed to work on infrastructure and defence projects. But there were still restrictions placed on them in that individuals did not choose their jobs but were rather ‘directed’ to specific industries of national importance. Jack Gillespie in his memoirs Wartime Wood Trail remembered that in one part of Victoria, the forestry supervisor ended up with a gang of 40 grocers from Melbourne who were not so used to such work.
Some men, like Karl Muffler –a German pastry cook from East Brighton, was arrested at the outbreak of war on the 4 September 1939 and interned at Tatura Camp until 20 June 1944. Upon release from internment, he was directed to work with the Civil Aliens Corps. Karl was assigned to Camp No. 2 in Mt Disappointment State Forest and his sketches of Camp No. 2 Broadford drawn in August 1944 offer an invaluable insight into the camp site and its buildings.
In July 1945, the disbandment of the Civil Aliens Corps was announced. Over 3000 men had been drafted to the CAC to include seven nationalities. The CAC workers at Broadford Camp No.1 had moved by June 1944 and Camp No. 2 by October 1944 to make way for the Italian prisoner of war workforce.
Prisoners of War (POW)
Prisoners of War (POW), unlike internees or enemy aliens, were enemy soldiers who had been captured or surrendered. Initially most of the POWs in Australia were Italians and Germans captured during the North Africa campaign. German and Italian POWs came directly from Egypt in 1941 and from 1943 – 1945 further transports of Italian prisoners of war arrived in Australia from India. By the end of the war, 559,000 Italians were held by the Allied Forces with 18,000 shipped to Australia.
In Victoria, nearly 1,000 Italian prisoner of war officers and their batmen were housed at Myrtleford in Prisoner of War Camps 5A and 5B. Murchison Camp 13 housed German and Italian POWs in four compounds each with a capacity for 1000. Many POWs were later allowed to work unguarded in local farms under a scheme named ‘Prisoner of War Control Centres without Guards’.
Sailors from the German raider Kormoran, which sunk off the WA Coast in November 1941, were housed in a POW forest camp near Graytown, Victoria while their officers were kept at the Dhurringile mansion. Later, large numbers of Japanese POWs arrived but they were mostly detained in NSW at Cowra and Hay Camps.
For the most part, prisoners of war were dressed in Australian uniforms left over from the First World War and/or salvage uniforms which had been dyed maroon.

PART THREE
Mount Disappointment Firewood Camps

Probably the best-known Forests Commission of Victoria (FCV) camps were in the Mt Disappointment State Forest which was then part of the Broadford District. Charles Pavey was newly appointed as District Forester in August 1939. He had been transferred from Heathcote.
Records of the camps are patchy, and shrouded by wartime secrecy, so unravelling the sequence of events is difficult, but the firewood camps included –
Camp No. 1 – was at the intersection of Allison Road, Flowerdale Road and Two Tees Road. It was built by the Forests Commission before the war to house unemployment men (sussos) during the Great Depression. It was being used by FCV crews, but they were required to move to “Regular Camp” which is situated on the corner of Flowerdale and Main Mountain Roads. Camp No. 1 was converted to accommodate 60 Civil Aliens Corp (CAC) workers and was occupied in July 1942. There were no security fences or guards. The men were not permitted to leave the precinct without permission but were known to visit Camp No.2 or make their way into Reedy Creek township. A bushfire dugout and charcoal kilns were constructed, and in 1944, a powder magazine was added to store gelignite used to construct roads. POWs moved into the camp on 19 June 1944. After the war the camp was repurposed as the main Forests Commission Victoria overseer school until about 1968. All the buildings are now gone, and the site is a popular picnic and campground. Some concrete slabs remain as well as the concrete cricket pitch.
Camp No. 2 – was on Bakers Flat at the corner of Two Tees Road and Tree 15 Road. It was purpose-built in about 1943 and designed to house 50-60 men. It was occupied by CAC workers on 19 March 1943. The camp contained in-ground charcoal kilns. Like Camp No. 1, Italian POWs moved into the camp on 29 October 1944 after it was upgraded. After the war it was briefly used by the FCV before being leased to Camberwell Grammar School in 1963 as the Bambara School Camp. In 2003 the lease was taken over by The Salvation Army. All buildings and infrastructure were destroyed in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
Camp No. 3. – was built on Mill Range Road next to a small dam. It was occupied in September 1942 and designed for about 35 men.
Camp No. 4. – was at 430 South Mountain Road, up from Heathcote Junction. It was built for 60 men and was occupied on 25 October 1943. No. 4 Camp housed about 50 internees; it was used to house refugees post war from Poland and Hungary.
Camp No. 5. – Not a Mt. Disappointment Forest camp, however known as Broadford Camp No.5, it was established in Broadford about October 1943. It housed about 15-20 men in sawmilling operations near the Broadford railway yards.
V12 Broadford Hostels. – Two major POW camps officially designated as Prisoner of War Control Hostel V12 were built in 1944 over the existing sites of Camp No. 1 and Camp No. 2. The first opened on 19 June 1944 and the second followed on 29 October 1944. The two camps were designed for 75 men each.
V18 Kinglake Hostel. – The new POW camp also designated as a Prisoner of War Control Hostel was built at Kinglake West. There were 10 large buildings including accommodation and ablutions blocks, a kitchen and dining room. It was occupied on 29 November 1944 by up to 150 men and was discontinued on 27 August 1945. The site was used after the war by the Forests Commission as its assessment school. The last of the original buildings were lost in the 2009 bushfires and the location is now a school camp.
With all this activity, firewood production from the Broadford District peaked in 1943-44. But not long after the completion of the five camps, the District Forester, Charles Pavey, complained in his annual report on the 23 August 1944 that the best of the CAC men had been drafted to northern Australia and production dropped, and never recovered. This was the main reason to rebuild the existing camps to house POWs, who arrived in 1944.

PART FOUR
Firewood Production
While being engaged in the CAC was sometimes regarded as “national service”, the aliens were paid a wage. The average male wage in Victoria in 1942 was about £5 per week. The aliens in the CAC camps cut an average of five tons a week, whilst an experienced axeman could cut 20 tons. Allegations were often made that the aliens were on a “go-slow”.
As Melbourne was still suffering from a severe firewood shortage and experiencing fuel rationing, the
Forests Commission and the Power, Fuel and Water Supplies Committee felt that it was necessary to examine the issue of pay for the alien wood cutters.
Under the existing arrangement with the CAC, single men were to receive no less than one pound per week, while married men were to receive no less than £4-11-0- per week. However, the aliens were not permitted to be paid more than £5-10-0 per week, regardless of how much firewood they cut.

PART FIVE

Camp No.2 History
Heritage Victoria’s- Statement of Significance Heritage details the history of Camp No.2. However, there are very few wartime photos of this camp. No. 2 Camp was occupied from March 1943. It was taken over by the army and enlarged and converted into a POW camp designed to hold prisoners. By October 1944 it was occupied by prisoners who were put to work in the forests.
Like No. 1 Camp, this camp also featured two sets of six charcoal burners, of which there were no remains. At the end of the war, the camps were abandoned and many of the huts were removed. One of the guests of Camp No.2 was the German, Karl Muffler. He was quite artistic and produced a few sketches of the Camp No.2.

Apart from roads and a telephone line to the nearest town of Reedy Creek, it was not unusual for internees and prisoners to wander off. There were no fences to lock inmates in at either No.1 Camp or No. 2 Camp.
Locals spoke of Italians that would walk down to Reedy Creek and socialise with locals who gave them better tasting food than what they experienced at the camps.
At the end of the war the camp was abandoned and then later was used by the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) as a forestry camp.

When the camp was no longer required by the Forests Commission of Victoria, a lease was created for a school camp. In 1963 Camberwell Grammar School seized the opportunity of having a school camp and renamed it Bambara: The place of trees. Bambara was officially opened in 1965.

PART SIX

1943 POW Camp Canteen Tokens
Maybe one day a coin token will be found in the Mt. Disappointment State Forest, a reminder of the time Italian prisoners of war worked and lived there.
1943 saw the replacement of paper money used in internment and prisoner of war camps with metal tokens. In research, we have been unable to find records or tokens that these were used at the two POW Camps in Mt. Disappointment, however government documentation indicates that coins were used at all camps and for a good reason as given below.
In February 1943, the Minister for the Army announced the introduction of metal tokens for use in internment and prisoner of war camps.
Memorandum 3rd March 1943, National Security Regulations, Prisoners of War and Internees –Canteen Tokens recorded: ‘It is intended that metal tokens shall be used for all prisoners of war and internment camps instead of paper chits.’
The reasons for their introduction are as follows:
a) To prevent bribery of guards
b) To prevent escaping prisoners and internees from having in possession any money which will facilitate their remaining at large
c) To prevent the use of prisoners’ and internees’ money for subversive purposes.

Thank you to Joanne Tapiolas for supplying the coin information, support with editing and contributions to recording the history of Italians in Australia in WW2. To learn more visit – https://italianprisonersofwar.com/tag/interment-camp- tokens-pow-currency/

PART SEVEN

WW2 RUBBISH PIT FOUND AT CAMP NO.2
In 1943, No.2 Camp was built for 40-50 German aliens. In October 1944, Camp No. 2 was converted to a Prisoner of War (POW) Camp for 75 Italian prisoners of war. On the 7 August 1945, No.2 Camp Prisoners of War vacate the camp.
Approximately 20 years ago, the camp caretaker was putting in a new fence bordering Two Tees Road at the Salvation Army’s, Camp Bambara. This camp was originally known as Camp No.2. Whilst digging a fence post hole the caretaker pulled out broken glass. The area was dug up and revealed a rubbish dump from the past. There were numerous broken bottles and other debris. He managed to collect a box full of unbroken bottles that he retained.
A cubic metre of debris was removed and placed in a large bin to be taken away to landfill.
Recently the bottle collection was scanned using AI. This confirmed that the bottles were all from the war years-1940s. Bottles such as a brown Skipping Girl featuring a raised image of “Little Audrey”. Another bottle was an Australian Glass Manufacturing (AGM) brown bottle that contained Bonnington’s Irish Moss Cough Syrup.
There were several clear milk bottles that have a wide opening. This style of wide neck milk bottles was used between 1930 and 1950.These bottles originally had a cardboard lid inserted into the rim. One milk bottle showed on the bottom a code of F1297 that possibly means the glass bottle was manufactured on the 297th day of 1941. This bottle has been donated to Wandong History Group for their museum collection.

PART EIGHT

The Camberwell Grammar School Era
BY THEIR DEEDS- 1986 by Dr. Ian Victor Hansen- Reference to Camberwell Grammar School Camp- Bambara
The Camberwell Grammar School’s camp ‘Bambara’ was officially opened on 7 November 1965: it had been called Bambara almost from the beginning of the negotiations for its lease. ‘Bambara’ is an indigenous word, meaning a ‘Place of Trees’ and the site is certainly that. In hot weather the tall eucalypt forest stands erect and breathless, without motion, a musky scent from heath and underbrush all-pervasive, in winter the mountain mists drift in a different kind of stillness above the creek. The opening ceremony was performed by the Chairman of the Forestry Commission Mr. A.O. Laurence) and chairman of the school council, Canon Holt, dedicated the camp. Parents and friends of the school attended this ‘family picnic’ day and applauded thinly among the towering trees as the site was declared ‘open’. But in the case of most official openings, Bambara had by then been operating for many months. Work had been completed on the kitchen, toilet block and sleeping hut and additional water tanks had been installed. During weekends and school holidays boys from Grade 6 and form 1 had attended camps, fathers helping to staff them, and three form 2 camps had been run, each for a term time week: Bambara was already serving the school well.

On the morning of 16 July 1966, it was the new headmaster’s first Saturday at his new school. A.D.P. Dyer was given the news that the kitchen/mess hall at Bambara had been destroyed by fire. The school magazine, The Grammarian described the incident as devasting and heartbreaking. At the time of the fire the kitchen/mess hut was covered with snow. The school group using Bambara that weekend had gone off for a hike and on their return later in the day found a long rectangle of smouldering ashes and iron girders twisted into forlorn shapes. A glowing log had apparently rolled from the fireplace. The camp had only been opened eight months before. Heartbreaking. But not so for everybody. The minutes of the School Council and of its Executive and Financial Committee treated the loss almost casually: it was in fact just what they wanted. They would now be able to replace the Forests Commission structure with a building better suited to the needs of the school.
No time was wasted, and the new custom-built kitchen and dining/multi-purpose hall was completed within five months almost to the day. And the school would not use gas again: negotiations were soon finalised to make the camp all-electric. A tilt of the head and there was something vaguely familiar about the new school building: in its outline it was neo-Scandinavian, a small wonder. For the school parent architect with the very Scandinavian name of Nick Veltjens had generously offered his services of design.

Camberwell Grammar School’s Cadet Corps
Many smaller Australian Cadet Corps in government high schools and technical schools were disbanded in the mid-1970s because they were unable to continue; even Haileybury College and Wesley College disbanded their detachments. Camberwell Grammar School’s corps survived. And survived to serve.
In 1976 during the annual cadets’ camp at Bambara, a boy from Assumption College in Kilmore fell to his death from a high cliff near Strath Creek Falls. Local police and ambulance personnel felt unable to offer direct assistance and told the Assumption College master-in-charge that no professional help could be available until the following day. The distraught master appealed to the Cadet Unit. Camberwell Grammar School boys went to rescue, taking over five hours to recover the body and carry it up to the top of the gorge. A letter of thanks to the school from Bro. George Reed of Assumption College spoke of these boys whose manliness and courage I will always remember.

Three Viénet brothers attended Camberwell Grammar School and enjoyed the Bambara Camps. It was common for parents to drop off or pick up the students from the camp. The sleeping hut building contained five rooms. Four rooms contained four bunk beds, accommodating eight people. The right-hand side last room where Norma Viénet in the image below is standing is the teachers’ and fathers’ room that contained four single beds.
Bambara Camp Activities
School groups and cadet units used the site for many years. The school camp had its own traditions of activities that included a three-mile-long run course. Boys had their run times recorded and kept by the school. The course started above the bridge over Dabyminga Creek at the north end of the camp on Tree 15 Road. The bridge was destroyed by fire on 7/2/2009. Students ran along Tree 15 Road until it entered the intersection of Murchison Spur Road and Two Tees Roads. The course required you to turn right and follow Two Tees Road back to the camp with the finish line at the Mess Hall veranda.
There was also an obstacle course, and a bastardised game of football called Bambara Rules. The football field had no boundaries and was divided in the centre by the creek. The ball was thrown up in the centre of the field which was on top of the bridge. The goal posts were selected trees each side of the uphill tracks. Injuries were many as boys crashed into the creek.
Bushwalks and night hikes were a common activity. Year 10-week camp included a three-day hike. Common destinations for walks included Strath Creek Falls (for a short period these falls were named Murchison Falls), often the walk to the falls included a climb up the side of the waterfall. Risk management today would consider this an extreme risk. Other risky walks were to Strath Fire Tower in the closed MMBW water catchment area, of course we climbed the tower. This fire tower has since been decommissioned and dismantled. On one walk I recall that we followed an old timber tramway that went to Reedy Creek, the rotten sleepers with their nails still survived after 50 years of abandonment.
Camp activities included billy boiling competitions, yabby catching in the dam, rock climbing in the quarry and fire prevention work. In the dam, methane gas was stirred up with a big stick and caught in a glass jar. It was then ignited. Bambara was certainly a place of learning and fun.
My favourite activity was the flying fox that crossed over the dam. It started high on the hill near the quarry and ended on the other side of the dam. Boys were given instructions from teachers as to when to let go for a relatively safe landing in the middle of the dam. As with many activities there was an element of risk. The days of the Flying Fox ended when a lad failed to drop his legs to brake himself on the other side of the dam. He smashed into a tree where the rope terminated and broke his arm.

The Huts
The students at Bambara Camp were divided into four teams of up to eight boys. The name of the groups was based on the room/hut that they were sleeping in. Name of the huts were Wombats, Cockatoos, Magpies and Kangaroos. The names were displayed on the doors of the huts.

THE DIARY OF A 12 YEAR OLD AT BAMBARA SCHOOL CAMP IN 1970
Ian Freeman wrote about his Form 2 (Year 8) week-long camp at Bambara, 20-23 April 1970. No sightings of flying saucers in the forest at this school camp, however the class teacher from Camberwell Grammar was the Rev. William Gill. Bill Gill was famous for his sighting of a flying saucer (UFO) that occurred in June 26 & 27, 1959 in Boianai, New Guinea. He was an Australian Anglican missionary, along with 37 members of his Boianai mission, they experienced the UFO sighting on two nights. Gill made notes about the experience, which appeared in the news. The Story appeared in the media in August 1959; it caused a sensation.
It was apparently solid and circular with a wide base and narrower upper deck. The object appeared to have four ‘legs’ underneath it. There also appeared to be about four ‘panels’ or ‘portholes’ on the side of the object, which seemed to glow a little brighter than the rest. At several intervals, the object produced a shaft of blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about 45 degrees. Bill Gill told some of his students at Camberwell Grammar School about the experience. He said that there were faces in the port holes looking out. They waved their arms up at the flying saucer and to their surprise the ‘Aliens’ waved back.

PART NINE

Camberwell Grammar Exits Bambara Camp and The Salvation Army Moves In
When the school pulled out of its commitment to Bambara it was a sad day for those that had fond memories of their days at the camp. The reason they pulled out was that the younger teachers missed the mod cons of city life, and it was hard work feeding and organising activities for the kids. Risk management practices for outdoor education in schools had also changed for legal reasons. It was a lot easier to go to camps that provided professional outdoor education teachers. The caretaker’s cottage went to Euroa with the last caretaker as part of the caretaker’s retirement package. It was later replaced with a different house when in 2003 the lease for the site was handed over to the Salvation Army.
The 50-bed bush setting on five acres of land was managed and operated by Westcare with help from Ford employees that have given their time to develop and maintain the site. Bambara provided an outdoor experiential learning environment where children, young people, their families and carers could spend time together to begin to heal and build new relationships. It was to provide an alternative living and learning experiences for young people with high-risk behaviours to get away from the city with a trusted worker with a view to minimising risk-taking behaviour and beginning to explore the reasons for the behaviour.
A tree came down on the replacement caretaker’s house with a koala attached to the tree. Strath Creek Falls was in full splendour and the quarry next to the camp was flooded by the water coming down Long Gully. Four years later it was a firestorm that hit the camp. The koala population disappeared; destruction was overwhelming.

Bambara was destroyed during the Black Saturday bushfires of 7 February 2009, Ford continued to provide assistance in a rebuilding strategy. Community groups and regular users of Bambara kept a keen eye on the progress as the loss impacted on a large portion of the community. Despite the loss of Bambara in the Black Saturday bushfires, Westcare committed to rebuilding the majestic bush retreat, however the impact of Black Saturday also effected government policy and viewpoint on the use of leased sites for residential purposes in high-risk bushfire areas.
Camp Bambara was established as a refuge for young people from socially vulnerable backgrounds in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Initially, Westcare supported these youths by taking them to the Murray River, but the lack of continuity highlighted the need for a dedicated space. In 2003, The Salvation Army Westcare took over the site from Camberwell Grammar School, creating a stable, natural environment where young people could receive long-term support.
Ford Australia played a significant role in developing the camp, with volunteers assisting in land clearing, asbestos testing, painting, and construction. Their efforts accelerated Westcare’s 10-year development plan, completing it in just five years. By early 2009, the camp was fully operational, providing a vital space where young people could heal and grow.
However, in February 2009, the Black Saturday bushfires completely destroyed Camp Bambara, reducing all its facilities to ashes. While no one was present at the time, the loss was devastating.
Rebuilding efforts began immediately, with the Victorian government assisting in clearing debris, Ford workplace donations funding portable cabins, and architects designing new structures. The redevelopment took years, but The Salvation Army remained committed to restoring the site. Today, Camp Bambara once again serves as a refuge for young people, their families, and carers, offering a space to escape daily pressures, heal from trauma, and build lasting relationships.
New era for Camp Bambara, a significant amount of effort has been placed into the space, with a very clear plan under The Salvation Army’s Model of Care to ensure that it is a safe haven for vulnerable children and young people. Designed to support their physical, emotional, and social well-being, Camp Bambara provides a safe and nurturing environment for those facing challenges such as family breakdown, homelessness, and mental health struggles. The outdoor setting plays a crucial role in reducing stress, improving mental health, and fostering resilience. Nature-based activities promote problem-solving, teamwork, and self-reliance, helping young people develop essential coping strategies. Additionally, being in nature provides a break from technology and social pressures, allowing them to reconnect with themselves and others in a meaningful way.
The ongoing support from organisations such as Ford, Optus, and the Property Industry Foundation has been instrumental in maintaining and developing the camp. Their contributions help sustain the programs and facilities that make Camp Bambara a vital part of The Salvation Army’s youth initiatives. With their continued support, this unique space will continue to provide life-changing experiences for young people in need.

Below is a story that arrived after the published history. It was sent in by David Williams, a past student of Camberwell Grammar.
His anecdote is-
Our family doctor was Dr Eric Laird who lived and practiced from his home in North Balwyn. I remember him as a kind man and unfortunately, I saw much of him before the age of 13 due to various ailments. One critical one was a kidney infection that ‘matured’ into dangerous levels whilst at a Bambara Camp.

He told my parents this story when he found out that I was going to Bambara. Bambara in those days was known as Camp No.2. During WW2 it transformed from a forestry camp to a Prisoner of War Camp.

As a young man Eric ended up as a guard when Bambara was a prison camp. The inmates were mainly Italians.
The security was not what you’d call ‘high security’ and one Italian chap wandered off and was not recaptured for a very long time.

He had made his way to Melbourne and had been working as a door to door salesman – and (it was alluded to) had enjoyed ‘friendships’ with some of the lonely housewives…..
The question of course was ‘How the heck did he operate as a door to door salesman without detection?’
The police who eventually apprehended him said that he told anyone who asked, that he was Polish – as he knew the Poles were allies.
Nobody apparently questioned the heavy accent – and apparently the ladies concerned couldn’t care less.