My Travel Buddy had heard about a just completed water tower painted by Cam Scale and Andrew Davis. A big bonus it was only about a short trip from home. So enjoying the first dry day after a week of endless rain, we headed up to Tatura and Murchison.

Tatura

The pretty little town of Tatura is an easy 20 mins from Shepparton via the Midland Highway. Tatura has a strong wartime history and a German war cemetery. The graves of 351 German civilians who died during internment in WWI and WWII are located in the cemetery. The seven camps housed German civilians (deemed ‘enemy aliens’) and prisoners of war during WWII, with the camps spread through Tatura, Murchison and Rushworth. We planned to photograph the new water tower – and visit the wartime museum. Unfortunately, we were there around 11 am, and the museum didn’t open until later.

Situated in the main street and easily seen from the Bendigo and Shepparton approaches is the water tower featuring General Sir John Monash. An engineer and soldier, Sir John is credited as one of the architects of the Allied victory in WW1. He designed many structures around the region – including the water tower he now graces, built in 1912. It is the earliest surviving example of a reinforced concrete tower of this design in Victoria.

Tatura Memorial Garden

While in Tatura, we visited the Robert Mactier VC Memorial Garden, home to a statue commemorating Tatura born Private Robert Mactier for his “conspicuous bravery at Mont St Quenton, France” on September 1st 1918. Robert charged a machine gun nest and killed its six crew. He then charged two other machine guns, killing more squads and causing 40 enemies to surrender. He was then killed by fire from a fourth machine gun and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.

Murchison

Thirty-five kilometres south of Shepparton and 145 km north of Melbourne is Murchison. It is smaller than Tatura but full of charm with lovely old homes and buildings, and it sits on the Goulburn River. In 1853 gold was discovered. So a town sprung up in 1854, named after Captain John Murchison, who surveyed it in 1854.

Due to the healthy river trade from paddle steamers, Murchison at one time boasted six hotels, several general stores, two flour mills, a post office, a sawmill, a cordial factory, two blacksmiths. In 1878 the Kelly gang briefly took over the Murchison Police Station as their base.

War Camps

Between 1940 and 1947, the seven camps housed 10,000 to 13,000 people. Four camps were for civilians, and three were prisoners of war.

In the late 1930s, thousands of refugees – either Jewish or those politically opposed to the Nazi regime fled to Britain for sanctuary. At the outbreak of WWII in one of Britains most deplorable acts. The British Government rounded the german and Italian refugees up as possible enemy spies. They then put them on a ship bound for Australian internment camps at Tatura and Murchison. The ship, the HMT Dunera, had a capacity of 1600 souls – however, the British Government crammed 2000 on it.

After a 57-day journey in appalling conditions, during which the ship was hit by a torpedo, the internees’ eventual arrival is regarded as one of the greatest influxes of academic and artistic talent to have entered Australia on a single vessel. Among those on the Dunera were Franz Stampfl, who helped coach the athlete Roger Bannister to the world’s first sub-four minute mile and Anton Walter Freud, grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud

BBC

Moooving Art

In 1999 the Shepparton’s Marketing Committee introduced Merry Moos for a Christmas campaign. This proved to be so successful it was decided to expand the concept into Moooving Art (rather like how the silo art trail took off). The Shepparton council provided the 3D cows and invited emerging artists to paint them. A ‘herd’ of 90 cows dotted in parks, playgrounds and gardens around the district. We are now on a mission to find them all 🙂 We subsequently found two at Tatura and four at Murchison. There are many more in Shepparton – which is where we plan to head next.

The Moooving art exhibition pays homage to the strength of the dairy industry in the Shepparton region. In 2018, Trip Advisor awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Greater Shepparton’s Moooving Art attraction.