DARLEY ARMY CAMP

Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society Inc.

In 2020, as part of the Darley Camp 80th Anniversary, we asked some of our long time residents to tell us their memories of the Camp.
Sadly, Val recently passed away, but here is her story.
RIP – Val Dickson.

Each interview is a snapshot of a particular time in history.
A process of recording and preserving memories of people in their own words
Recollections of the past.

Val Dickson nee Daly
I was born in Bacchus Marsh in 1933 so I was about 8 years old when the camp was built. At the time I lived in Patterson St with Mum and Dad and my brothers and sisters.
I remember sitting on the gutter stone of Patterson St. and Gisborne Rd. watching the Americans marching past in Gisborne Rd. up to the camp. Many of them would throw lollies off the trucks down to us – it was great entertainment.
Our cousins would come up from Melbourne on the train and go to the dances that were a regular feature of the town during this time. They were regular visitors.
My brother John and Micky Ginanne meet up with some Dutch soldiers they befriended. They became good mates. John and Micky who were both about 13 and 14 at the time, used to take them out rabbit shooting and ferreting. The soldiers were experiencing rabbit burrows for the first time and were amazed at the ferrets chasing the rabbits out of the holes and being caught by the nets at the end of the burrows.
One of the soldiers Henry would stay overnight with us. His parents wrote to Mum and Dad to thank them for the friendship they bestowed upon him. Henry went to Java during the war after his time at the camp. I stayed in contact with Henry and his mother and father and when I went to Holland in 1988 I stayed with Henry and is wife. Henry visited Bacchus Marsh in 1993 to see the site of the Darley army camp and was so disappointed that there wasn’t any part of the camp remaining. He only had his memories.
My brother John Daly erected the monument and plaque while working as a builder with the Bacchus Marsh Shire prior to 1996.
Whilst the camp was in operation the roads, especially Gisborne Rd and the roads around town, were upgraded because of the traffic which was good for the town. But when the all the military people, trucks, jeeps and tanks left town, the Marsh was ‘empty’!

First photo _ Val Dickson
Second photo –
My Dutch friend Henry on his wedding day in 1955 Holland.
Third & fourth photo –
The Cairn and plaque on Cameron’s Rd, Darley
The plaque inscription reads –
‘This plaque recognizes the location as a military camp established during World War 2.
Australian and allied military units were stationed at this camp commonly named ‘The Darley Camp’.

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