Parndana soldier settlement leaves legacy on island

Parndana Soldier Settlement Museum's Pat Brooksby, whose parents took up the scheme, said the results were still visible on KI and in the communities and friendships it created.

This was not the first time the government attempted to repatriate returned soldiers on farm blocks.

Plans had been tried at end of WWI with dismal results. This time planning began during the war, Pat said.

The scheme was open for those with a minimum six months of military service during WWII who could prove they had a background or proven interest in farming, were physically able to cope with the demands of farming and had no existing better job prospects.

The inclusion of KI was at the request of the Kingscote Council, which was keen to see 100,000 hectares of scrub cleared to create about 200 new farms.

At the time, KI had a population of about 1500 people and the scheme doubled the population of the island within a few years.

The offer followed trials in 1936 at what became the Parndana Research Centre, which showed the land could be cleared and productive.

While there were other options for the returned soldiers in the Riverland and South East, Pat said these could be strongly sought-after.

Most had no idea where KI was but other land was limited, she said. Thousands of men and a few women applied for the whole state scheme.

In 1948, settlers began to arrive at the Parndana East Settlement Camp, where their accommodation was the former Loveday Internment Camp, dismantled at Barmera and rebuilt at Parndana.

There was a preference for returned soldiers with families.

Pat said the first settlers arrived in May and found their huts had no windows or doors, allowing possums to move through them freely.

Before long the first 20 flats were completed, and as each wave of settlers came through it increased to house 40 families, with 140 children in the camp.

It could take up to two years for the soldiers to be allocated in their block.

In the meantime, they were put to work, driving bulldozers or acting as axemen, paid a living wage to get the land cleared of scrub.

For some, each bit of scrub cleared was a day closer to them getting land, Pat said.

The blocks were usually between 400ha and 600ha, depending on how productive the land was, and usually included some scrub for the farmers to clear themselves.

By 1962 all the blocks were cleared, with 174 farms allocated.

It was not all smooth sailing for soldiers who gained blocks of land through the Parndana Soldier Settlement Scheme.

Those involved were also expected to share the expenses of setting up the scheme, including bringing the equipment to the island, so each block came with a debt of £30,000 and still only came as a lease, rather than settlers owning the property outright.

Pat said the years following had ups and downs, with high wool prices in the 1960s followed by some down times in the 1970s, including a number of evictions.

Despite that, 21 of the farms were still run by the same family in 2017, usually into the third generation by this stage, while others are run by other settler families.

In 2001, the museum dedicated to the scheme was set up in the former Parndana Returned Services League club which had been built by the scheme participants.

In recent years, Pat has been holding interviews with many of those involved to compile an oral history.

(These stories) help us to understand our heritage and helps us understand what happened to the men who fought for our country, what happened after, she said.

The museum marked the 70^th anniversary of the scheme with a reunion in 2018, which tied in with commemorations marking a century since armistice.

This story was originally published in 2017.