Police Continue Hunt for Internee

Subject or historical figure Oskar Speck (1907 - 1993)

DateMarch 1939

Object numberANMS1249[040]

NameNewspaper clipping

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 47 x 50 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from John Ferguson

Terms

DescriptionNewspaper clipping entitiled "Police Continue Hunt for Internee" about the police search for Oskar Speck who escaped from the Tatura internment camp.HistoryArticle reads: "POLICE CONTINUE HUNT FOR INTERNEE Civil and military police are still hunting for Oscar Walter Speck. The German internee who escaped from an internment camp in the Goulburn Valley on Saturday. A close look-out has been kept on all roads in the district, and cars are being examined by police at vital intersections. Speck, who is 36, speaks good English. His description is: - Medium build, height 5ft. 10in., grey eyes, light brown hair. He has a scar behind his left ear and a large scar 7in. long inside his right leg." Oskar Speck (1905 - 1995) was a German adventurer who, in the 1930s, paddled his kayak SUNNSCHIEN (SUNSHINE) from Europe to Australia. He departed from Ulm in Germany on 18 June 1932, paddling down the Danube at the start of a 50,000km voyage to Australia. His voyage of seven years and four months saw him stopping at ports in Germany, Austria, Hungary, former Yugoslavia, former Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran Jaya, Papua New Guinea and Australia (Saibai Island). He arrived on Saibai Island near Papua New Guinea in the Northern Torres Strait on 20 September 1939. Speck arrived with a swastika on the bow of his 5.3 metre German built Folbot kayak a few days after Australia declared war with Germany. Speck was travelling on a German passport and was promptly arrested as an enemy alien on his arrival on Thursday Island. He would spend the next six years in internment camps in Australia, including Tatura in Victoria where he managed to escape. SignificanceThe remarkable story of Oskar Speck is one of extraordinary endurance. He undertook an epic seven-year, 50,000 km voyage from Germany to Australia in the 1930s in a five-and-half metre collapsible kayak SUNNSCHIEN. It is also a story of the hostilities of WWII and of those who made Australia their new home.