Tatura German War Cemetery
Winter Road TATURA, GREATER SHEPPARTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
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Veterans Description for Public
Tatura German War Cemetery - Veterans Description for Public
The Tatura German War Cemetery, on Winter Road, was established in 1958 as the first war cemetery in Australia. It serves as a memorial to the German nationals who were interned and died in the prisoner of war camps near Tatura and in other camps across Australia. It was established within a few years of the end of World War Two.
The burials include 191 internees of World War One. The interred remains of forty-eight internees and eleven prisoners-of-war from World War Two were relocated to the site from other parts of Australia.Most of the re-internments of the World War One dead were carried out in March 1961. The land on which the Cemetery stands was excised from the Presbyterian section of the Tatura Cemetery and fenced by the Australian War Graves Commission. The World War Two section was officially inaugurated on 16th November 1958 by the West German Ambassador, Dr Hans Mahlenfeld.The site is entered via a rendered masonry gateway consisting of a slate paved apron and seven rectangular columns supporting a flat-roofed canopy. A low wrought iron fence and gate with brass detail spans between each column and the entablature bears the words 'Deutsche Kriegsgraeberstaette Tatura 1914-1918' and '1939-1945 German War Cemetery' in brass lettering and adjacent to the gateway is a pair of steel flagpoles. A densely planted shrubbery containing mature trees surrounds a rectangular lawned area containing 250 graves arranged in regular rows around the perimeter of the space. Each grave is marked by a small masonry headstone with a bronze plaque and iron cross identifying POWs and a Latin cross for civilians. In the centre of the lawn is a large concrete crucifix and a stone memorial with bronze plaque in honour of the other German burials which remain located elsewhere around Australia.
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Tatura German War CemeteryVic. War Heritage Inventory
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