Benalla Migrant Camp Inc has been awarded a Community Heritage Grant.

The Community Heritage Grant provides non-profit community organisations with funding to assist with the preservation of locally owned, nationally significant collections.

CHG is funded by the Federal Government.

The Benalla Migrant Camp operated from 1949 to 1967, and 60,000 European post-World War II refugees started their Australian lives here in Benalla.

Benalla Migrant Camp Exhibition’s Sabine Smyth said it had the only collection containing historical materials about this camp, in Australia.

“The grant application was a work of love, and we feel privileged to have been chosen,” she said.

“We acknowledge the support of many organisations who wrote letters of support, including Benalla Rural City.”

Benalla Migrant Camp Inc leases Hut 11 at Benalla Airport to present an exhibition about Benalla Migrant Camp at special open days and during events such as the Benalla Heritage Festival and the Benalla Festival.

With the assistance of the grant, the group will undertake a significance assessment of its collection of documents, artefacts and audio-visual material.

Circa Museum Services’ Dr Megan Cardamone will undertake the assessment in August 2027.

“A significance assessment will help us prioritise collection items that need urgent conservation,” Ms Smyth said.

“The assessment will also impact the way we will curate our exhibition, shining a light on our most significant items and their relevance.”

In his book Benalla Migrant Camp: A Difficult Heritage, Adjunct Professor Dr Bruce Pennay explained the special role of the camp as housing the ‘difficult cases’ — women with children but without a breadwinner.

For this peculiar and specific role to integrate single migrant mothers into Australian society by marriage and by placing them in employment while childcare was provided in the camp, social workers called Benalla Migrant Camp the “Benalla Experiment”.

In 2023 ABC Radio National’s History Listen program also tuned in to this story with its podcast The Benalla Experiment — a camp for mothers and children.

For more information, visit benallamigrantcamp.com.au

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