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World War II internment camp reveals success of poppy crops in South Australia

As the South Australian Opposition lobbies for the state to grow opium poppies, a Riverland historical society has provided evidence that poppies flourish when grown in SA.

Tasmania has been the been the poppy growing capital of Australia for almost 50 years and the industry is worth $100 million annually.

Last year, the Victorian and Northern Territory governments legislated to allow opium poppies to be grown at the request of poppy producer TPI Enterprises.

Now, South Australian growers want the chance to grow the lucrative crop too.

Denis Wasley, from the Cobdogla Steam Friends Society, said at the Loveday internment camp in the Riverland, interns grew poppies.

Throughout World War II Australian citizens and residents with German, Italian and Japanese heritage were interned in a network of camps around the country and sometimes alongside prisoners of war.

Mr Wasley said at the Riverland camp internees were offered agricultural work, in exchange for money that could be used within the camp.

The camp ended up producing poppies for morphine, pyrethrum daisies for insecticide, vegetables, pigs and eggs using irrigation from the Murray River.

Mr Wasley, who helps maintain an exhibition about the internment facility, said the camp was one of the most self sufficient out of all of the internment and POW camps in Australia.

"[Morphine] supplies were cut off when war broke out, particularly because most of it was coming from the Middle East and after Japan entered the war it totally cut off the supply," he said

"So a poppy industry was established here and they ended up growing enough poppies to supply about half the morphine required for the Pacific area during the war," he said.

"At the end of the war the camps were closed and the whole industries were basically stopped dead, which is a pity because some of those industries could have been continued.

"The initial internees were civilians and a lot of them were Italians so the local growers were able to come in and say they needed half a dozen workers for the day...they got along well with the local community."