SOMERTON MAN: ANOTHER DUNERA LINK, THE STENCIL BRUSH

THE STENCILLERS JOB

More than 500 of the Dunera Boys from the Tatura Internment Camp 'volunteered' to join one of a number of Labour Battalions, comprised almost exclusively of internees, set up specifically to provide labour for the war effort. 

The Dunera Boys all joined the 8th Employment Company often referred to as the 8th Enjoyment Company. They had many manual tasks to perform, some went to Albury and worked transshipping cargo from the Victorian Broad Gauge railway to the Standard Gauge rail system of NSW. Others were employed in similar tasks but in Melbourne loading at the docks.

'Loading, unloading, shifting, stacking, restacking, stencilling and what not..' wrote one young Dunera boy in his diary during 1942.

Stencilling was not only the work of Navy men, it was commonplace throughout Australia and in instances such as the one described.

In the image below, you can see the stencillers brush amongst the items found in the Somerton Man's suitcase. Further down in this post you can see a modern day stencil brush for comparison, the Somerton Man brush is of a standard size which I estimate to be 3/4 inch.

The knife and scissors would have formed part of his stencilling kit being used to cut through the thin zinc from which his templates would have been made.

If you look closely at the knife, you can see where the taped part of the scabbard ends and then you can make out a short section of zinc fashioned to form the scabbard, it ends just before the handle. There appears to be some kind of marking on tape applied to that zinc, could be writing but not mentioned in the files.

In the image to the right is a modern day stencil brush and the similarity is quite obvious.

Whilst the image below is of a stencil created and used at the Hay Internment camp, the initial home of the Dunera Boys.

THE STATE OF PLAY

So now we can tick off the stencil kit in addition to the shoes, the slippers, the items of clothing with the exception of the Jacket SM was wearing when found. The cigarette lighter was made by an Australian company, Green & Co and was commonly available through most large stores such as Coles and the Myer Emporiums.

The next post will be a key post because it will provide us with locations in Melbourne where all parties could have met during 1942/43. All things being equal, that post will be uploaded by Wednesday 26th October.