Salvatore Carluccio

Salvatore Carluccio, a farmer from Lecce in Italy, was not a civilian internee but a prisoner of war, captured in Africa in 1941 as a member of the Italian armed forces and transported originally to India to be detained in a POW camp. After the Italian Armistice of 1943 it became common for POWs to be required to work on a great variety of work detachments throughout Australia, and very commonly on farms where labour was in short supply. So great was the need in Australia that men like Carluccio were brought to Australia from India to join those working POWs already in Australia.

While employed on farms it was not unusual for these men to meet Australian women in the course of their work. Carluccio met Frances Harvie at Lucindale when she was serving with the Australian Women’s Land Army – itself designed to combat labour shortages. He continued to correspond with her when she was back at her home in Unley Park, and he was detained in Loveday in 1946 in advance of his repatriation to Italy. Unlike civilian internees, according to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war had to be repatriated once hostilities had concluded. Loveday was for a short time after its term as a civilian internment camp essentially a transit camp for Italian POWs about to be sent home.

Sources:

Letters from Salvatore Carluccio, 1946. SLSA, PRG 596/7. https://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au:443/record=b2191454~S1

NAA: MP1103/1 PWI56564, Prisoner of War/Internee: Carluccio, Salvatore; Date of birth - 25 December 1916; Nationality – Italian