Greta Army Camp was an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

camp built in 1939 near

Greta, New South Wales Greta is a small town in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. History The Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Maitland area are the Wonnarua people. The Greta area was first colonized by Europeans around Anvil Creek in the 183 ...

, Australia. It was used for training soldiers of the

Second Australian Imperial Force The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the name given to the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial ...

(2AIF) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Australian army sold the site at auction in 1980.

History

In November 1939, of land was compulsorily acquired in the Allandale-Greta area to create one of the Australian Army's largest training camps. Built for the training of the 6th Division of the 2AIF because the existing Australian army facilities were occupied by

Citizens Military Force The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen ...

units. The 2/11th Battalion arrived at the camp on 15 December 1939 and were later joined by the 2/10th Battalion. The camp facilities were expanded during the war, with two parts of the camp known as "Chocolate City", due to the brown-coloured oiled timber weatherboard buildings in that part of the camp and "Silver City", due to corrugated iron

Nissen hut A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British engineer and inventor Majo ...

s built in that part of the camp. Citizens Military Force units were also trained at the camp, with up to 60,000 Australian soldiers trained during World War II. After the war, much of the field training areas were returned to grazing purposes, however the camp was required for the training of troops preparing to join the occupation forces in Japan. In 1949, Greta Camp was transferred to the

Department of Immigration The Department of Immigration was an Australian government department that existed between July 1945 and June 1974. Scope Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocation could be found in the Adminis ...

and until 1960 it was used as a reception and training centre for European migrants with over 100,000 immigrants passing through the centre. The Army resumed control of the camp in 1962 and, after being used intermittently for training exercises. It was sold at auction by the Australian army in 1980.

Notes

External links

Cessnock City Council

Australian War Memorial

Australian Travel Guide

Maitland Mercury

Camp Greta photo webpage
{{coord missing, New South Wales Australian Army Military history of Australia during World War II Military camps in Australia Migrant hostels in Australia Hunter Region