During the war, German, Austrian and Italian citizens in allied territory were detained and sent to internment camps.
Art, photographs and possessions from some of the 2500 detainees shipped from the United Kingdom onboard the passenger ship Dunera to Australia as enemy aliens in 1940 are exhibited at the museum.
Museum president George Ferguson said the internees had a lot of time on their hands, receiving art supplies through the Red Cross on money order from Myer in Melbourne.
“We've got lots of paintings by these artists and they're still turning up,” George said.
“There were a lot of families in camp three who had babies in there, and a lot of families that came there.
“So they’re still returning to see the history and to catch with some of what we do here.”
There were four camps around the Waranga Basin that hosted 1000 internees each.
The concrete foundations can still be seen today, and the Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum runs guided tours of these sites.
There are rooms in the museum that depict the history of local people, along with rooms telling the story of how the irrigation system throughout the Goulburn Valley was developed.
The museum is on the corner of Hogan and Ross streets, Tatura.
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