Liz and Frank: Tarrant's in Woodstock

Friday was a lovely day, we drove from Cowra to Woodstock (about 27kms) to revisit some of my family's history. My Grandfather ( Pop Tarrant) was the Post Master at this Post Office in Woodstock for nearly 20 years.

When Pop and my dear Grandmother (Vidi) arrived in Woodstock, they had 6 children (2 girls, 4 boys)

Next to the Post Office was a cottage where they all lived.

and 88 years ago on December, 11 - my Mum was born here.

After Mum, another 4 were born - total kids in the Tarrant cottage was 11 (5 girls, 6 boys).

I am still amazed how my grandparents coped, but they did, and according to all reports - very happily. The present Post Mistress showed me around the cottage a few years back, a lot of the internal woodwork etc is still there, it has been kept very well. I spoke to her again on Friday, she is forwarding some more information on the history of Woodstock, but also made the comment (with a big smile) that the boys (6 of them) must have loved to play marbles, she says she has found hundreds around the garden over the years. Auntie Beryl confirmed this was the fact when I asked her.

The Anglican Church where my Grandmother put in a lot of her time - it is only about 20 meters from the cottage.

The School in Cowra where most of the Tarrant kids attended High School.

My grandmother had every child taught a skill that they would not learn at school. Some chose the piano, but mum chose scottish dancing and learned for years from Mrs. Grey in Cowra, fortunately she used this as a career option when that became necessary, and how well did she do!

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Now back to COWRA

After Woodstock, we decided to look at the "Prisoner of War Camp" history in Cowra.

This camp was originally set up in 1941 as an internment camp, housing 2,000 Italians and a small number of Korean and Chinese people, however it was then turned into a POW camp housing a further 2,000 Japanese caught during the bombing of northern Australia, and 1,200 Indonesian military prisoners. It closed in 1947.

On August 5th, 1944 at 1.50 am, 1100 Japanese staged a "breakout" - because of their belief in the Bushido code of military honour inspired them to die in battle rather than become non-persons in capitivity. 231 Japanese and 4 Australians died in this "Breakout". The bodies were buried adjacent to the Australian War Cemetry. Despite the anti-Japanese sentiment at the time, this cemetery was maintained by members of the Cowra Returned Soldiers League as a mark of respect.

In 1962, Japanese Embassy Officials, impressed with the attention paid to the Japanese graves of their war dead, approached the Cowra Council to discuss the possibility of one cemetery for all Japanese who died on Australian soil during the war years, and they wanted that located in Cowra. In 1964 the Japanese section of the Cowra War Cemetry, designed by Shigeru Yura was built.

It now contains the remains of all Japanese nationals who died in the Cowra breakout, the attacks on Darwin, in the internment/POW camps and others who were captured within or around the islands near Australia.

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In the late 70's a decision to build a Japanese Garden in Cowra was made between Japan and Australia. Ken Nakajima, the world-renowned Japanese Garden Architect was employed, he chose the 14 acres overlooking the town. This Japanese landscaper had designed the gardens for the New Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and has designed gardens in New York, San Diego, Moscow, Montreal, Vienna, Houston and numerous other large cities, but he was particulary enamoured with this project because of the reconciliation that the Cowra people had shown the dead Japanese. It is the largest Japanese Garden in the Southern Hemisphere.