A Better Life
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COWRAExperience the C Change A History of Cowra ....................................................................................3 Things you need to know ........................................................................5 All that Cowra has to Offer.....................................................................6 Cultural Services............................................................................................6 Communications............................................................................................7 Migrant Support .............................................................................................7 Transport ........................................................................................................8 Main Industry of the Cowra Region..............................................................9 Accommodation...........................................................................................10 Real Estate....................................................................................................11 Childcare ......................................................................................................12 Education .....................................................................................................13 Higher Education .........................................................................................14 Employment Agencies ................................................................................15 Attractions/ Things to Do ............................................................................16 Sporting Clubs/Associations......................................................................17 Churches/Religious Services......................................................................18 Financial Institutions ...................................................................................19 Services and Trades ....................................................................................19 Retail Services .............................................................................................21 CAFÉS...........................................................................................................22 RESTAURANTS............................................................................................23 TAKEAWAYS................................................................................................23 A Better Life CowraExperience the C Change Clubs/Hotels.................................................................................................24 The Country Careers Program.............................................................25 Health Service Details .................................................................................26 GWAHS Learning & Development Division......................................27 The Institute of Rural Clinical Services and Teaching (IRCST)28 AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements ................................................................................29 Created by: Catherine Deverell Country Careers Coordinator May 2008 2 A Better Life COWRAExperience the C Change A History of CowraCowraCowra Cowra is situated on the Lachlan River. It is the commercial and administrative centre of a shire in which the major industries are livestock, wool scouring, vegetable growing and processing, vineyards, furniture making and tourism. Cowra is noted for its historical and natural attractions, the magnificent Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre, quality restaurants, wineries, galleries, craft shops and horse riding. The public identity of the town has become bound up with the Cowra breakout of 1944 (in which Japanese prisoners of war attempted to escape from a local camp during World War II) and the subsequent association with Japan. This history has led the town to focus on and promote the values of pacifism and internationalism, which are at the centre of the annual Festival of Understanding. Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Wiradjuri people. The first known white man in the area was George Wilson Evans who passed near the townsite in 1815. He named the area the Oxley Plains after his superior the surveyor-general. John Oxley, guided by Aborigines, investigated a portion of the Lachlan River and the adjacent lands in 1817, deeming it 'unfit for white settlement'. He named the river after the then governor Lachlan Macquarie. In 1831 cattlemen Arthur Rankin and James Sloan from Bathurst became the first white settlers on the Lachlan. In the early days the townsite was a river crossing known as 'Coura Rocks'. Some sources indicate that a cattle station with this name was established by a Reverend Fulton in subsequent years. The first hotel on the townsite was established in 1846. About 1847 the crossing became known as Cowra and the village was proclaimed in 1849. In the 1850s the river crossing was used by gold prospectors headed for Lambing Flat (Young) and Grenfell. A school was established in 1857 and a bridge over the Lachlan built in 1870. The railway arrived in 1886 and Cowra attained local government in 1888. Reef gold was discovered at Mt McDonald to the south-east (near what is now Wyangala Dam) in the 1880s and a settlement of 500 people developed. It was named after the McDonald brothers who first discovered gold in the area. Alluvial gold was also found at Woods Flat near Woodstock and in small quantities amidst the sands of the Lachlan River. A bridge across the Lachlan was built at Cowra from 1891 to 1893. At the time it was the country's longest single-span and total span bridge. A telephone exchange was established in 1901, a water supply in 1909, a gasworks in 1912 and electric lighting was introduced in 1924. 3 A Better Life CowraExperience the C Change Cowra POW Camp and the Cowra Breakout A large army training camp was established just outside Cowra in 1940 which trained some 70 000 personnel throughout World War II. The following year, a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp was built at the north-eastern outskirts of town. On 5 August, 1944, this camp became the site of the largest mass POW escape in British military history. It was also the only such escape attempt Canola fields near Cowra to occur in Australia. At that time the camp contained about 4000 prisoners who were held in four separate compounds of 17 acres each. A thoroughfare 700 metres long and 45 metres wide, known as Broadway, divided Camps B and C from Camps A and D. Adjacent Broadway was a 10-metre strip known as No Man's Land, on each side of which was barbed-wire security fencing. Camp B, hopelessly overcrowded, held 1104 Japanese POWs. On 3 June, 1944, a Korean prisoner reported a conversation in which he heard about a plan among the Japanese to attack the garrison, seize arms and ammunition and escape. As a result security was stepped up. Consequently, on 4 August, the leader of Camp B was handed a list of internees to be transferred to the POW camp at Hay on 7 August. At 1.30 a.m. on 5 August a bugle sounded and the prisoners of Camp B opened the hut doors. Screaming furiously, two groups - armed with knives, chisels, forks, saws, axe handles and baseball bats - rushed the wire separating them from Broadway while two other groups headed for the perimeter wire on the other side of the camp. They threw blankets over the barbed wire, or crawled under it, while others dressed in heavy clothing, threw themselves on the wire for others to climb over. 20 buildings were burned down due to prisoners overturning heating braziers. The Australian Recruit Training Centre, 3 km away, was alerted by telephone and flares. Two privates, who manned one of the Vickers machine gun trailers, were overrun and murdered, although Private Hardy managed to sabotage his gun before his death. Another private was stabbed to death in the fracas and a lieutenant was killed during the round-up the following morning. Another four Australian personnel were wounded and a civilian from Blayney died after a gun discharged in his vehicle during the round-up. 378 Japanese POWs escaped. Within nine days 334 escapees were recaptured by the authorities and by civilians. One POW reached Eugowra, 50 km away. In all 231 Japanese died and 108 were wounded - three dying subsequently of their wounds. The organisers of the break-out had ordered that civilians were to remain unharmed and this proved to be the case. A Japanese war cemetery was established by agreement with the Japanese government in 1964. It now contains the remains of all Japanese POWs and civilian internees who died during their imprisonment in World War II. A student exchange program was established in 1970 between Cowra High School and the Seikei High School in Kichijyouji in Tokyo. The Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre was set up with the aid of the Japanese government in 1978-79 to honour the dead on both sides. 4 A Better Life CowraExperience the C Change Things you need to know (Facts and Figures) The Climate of Cowra ranges from a summer climate of 16 - 31 degrees to 4 - 13 degrees in the winter months. Cowra is only 300 kilometres or 4 hours from Sydney, Other major towns near Cowra include Dubbo, which is 211.34 kilometres or 2.49 hours and also Orange which is 102.26 kilometres or 1.18 hours. The Population of Cowra consists of 13100 people. 5 A Better Life CowraExperience the C Change All that Cowra has to Offer Cultural Services Cowra is home to the Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre. Ken Nakajima,