First-place winner Eva Hernandez, third-place winner Sophia Cricelli and second-place winner Lola MacKenzie with their posters.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Students at Tatura’s Sacred Heart Primary School became the teachers when they presented projects that were a culmination of this term’s learning about people who were interned in their area during World War II.
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Sixty-six Grade 5 and 6 students were each assigned the name of someone who was interned in Tatura and who had arrived on the HMT Dunera or the Queen Mary to research.
Their task was to develop a poster about that person’s life before war broke out, their internment journey, internment in Australia and life after internment.
Twelve finalists presented their projects on June 20 to a judging panel, consisting of Dunera and Queen Mary Association representatives and Sacred Heart principal Carolyn Goode.
The judges had a hard time deciding, taking almost 30 minutes to deliberate.
Sixty-six Grade 5 and 6 students took part in the learning. Michelle Frenkel from the Dunera and Queen Mary Association addresses the students.
Photo by
Bree Harding
“We battled really hard because everyone did such a good job, and I almost didn't want to assign winners a first, second and third prize,” the association’s Michelle Frenkel said.
Students Eva Hernandez, Lola MacKenzie and Sophia Cricelli were the competition’s first, second and third placegetters, respectively, with several other honourable mentions.
Dunera and Queen Mary Association president Seumas Spark said the project marked the first time this significant chapter in local history had been included in a local school’s curriculum.
“A friend of the son of Dunera boy Fred Hochberg generously bequeathed funds to the Dunera and Queen Mary Association in 2018 in memory of Fred, his brother Gustav and their father Isaac, all of whom were interned,” Mr Spark said.
“The funds were to be used, ongoing, to educate future generations about the legacy of the internees.”
In 2019, while participating in the Fairley Leadership Program, Ms Frenkel began developing plans to help local schools embed this local history topic in the curriculum.
“As you can imagine, that takes time; it had to be right, and had to be matched and aligned to the curriculum requirements,” Ms Frenkel said.
“The school was just so embracing of the idea and eager to incorporate local history learning for the students.”
The students had visited the internment camp at Dhurringile that morning and the Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum earlier in the term.
“It’s an incredible, rich history because of the people in this town back then who made the interned people feel like humans again and that made them want to stay here,” Ms Frenkel said.
“They lost everything in their home countries, their families and homes. They had nothing to go back to, and the people here made them feel like this was their new home.
“It was life-changing. And then what they went on to accomplish in their lives after was just amazing and changed the fabric of Australia for ever.”
Ms Frenkel praised the students for asking “amazing” questions that were intelligent and considerate, saying they were curious first and now knowledgeable.
City of Greater Shepparton councillor Rod Schubert, from the Midland Ward, congratulates the Grade 5 and 6 students on their presentations.
Photo by
Bree Harding
City of Greater Shepparton councillor Rod Schubert was a guest at the event.
“The 12 kids who presented today, I learned little snippets about the Dunera boys from each and every one of them, which was really interesting,” Cr Schubert said.
“The Dunera Boys, as they became known, were sort of famous at the intern camps and everything else.
“I’m just so pleased that that local history is being taught within a local school; I think it’s absolutely wonderful.”
The winners will get to choose which history books to purchase for the school library with the prize money.
It was the first time the Hochberg Prize has been awarded.
“We hope it will be the start of many more,” Mr Spark said.
