Northcliffe Pioneer Museum

26/04/2026

Stunning display of Alyssum in the Munro House garden thanks to our great gardener Natasha Cronin. James and Agnes Munro and their children the original inhabitants of the house after their shack burnt down would have been chuffed that their house was restored showing how they lived. It's a favourite inside and out with visotors.

29/03/2026

Did you know that Northcliffe had an Italian Prisoner of War Camp in Group 147, Lot 10326 Middleton Road. It opened in November 1945 and closed May 1946. The Museum has two paintings by POW Victor Romano that a of National Historical Significance.

Here's some info from Steve Errington's book Northcliffe 1924-2024 Scenes from rural life and the State Library.

Location and official designation
The site was formally known as Prisoner of War Control Centre W28, located at Lot 10326 Group 147, Middleton Road, Northcliffe.
It functioned as a POW work camp rather than a high‑security detention centre.
🛠 Purpose and activities
The camp’s primary role was to provide Italian prisoner labour for land clearing, specifically to prepare blocks for the post‑WWII Soldier Settlement Scheme for returning Australian servicemen.
This fits into the broader WA system where Italian POWs were deployed to rural areas to address labour shortages and support agricultural expansion.
👥 Who was held there
The camp housed Italian prisoners of war, part of the 18,000+ Italians sent to Australia between 1941 and 1945. More than 200 detainees were in the Northcliffe camp.
Many were transferred from Marrinup (Camp 16), which served as the administrative hub for POW operations in WA.
🏕 Daily life and facilities
Photographic records from the State Library of WA show (see photo attached):
Rows of tents (two POWs per tent)
Mess rooms, kitchens, showers (hot and cold), a theatre, and a small hospital/R.A.P.
POWs wearing the distinctive burgundy uniform used across Australia. These images were taken in 1946, shortly before the camp closed.
📅 Timeline
Italian POW labour began arriving in WA in 1943.
The Northcliffe work camp operated through the final years of the war from November 1945 and closomg in May 1946.
How Northcliffe fit into the wider POW system
By 1945, WA had 26 POW control centres and two special work camps—Jarrahdale and Northcliffe—dedicated to major land‑clearing projects.
POWs were supervised lightly, often working on farms or forestry tasks with minimal security.
In Northcliffe POWs were put to work reconditioning abandoned Group settlement farms, thinning out trees and grubbing out and burning undergrowth.
Why this matters locally
The Northcliffe camp played a direct role in shaping the district’s post‑war agricultural landscape. Much of the cleared land later became part of settlement blocks allocated to returned soldiers, influencing the region’s development pattern.

21/03/2026

Northcliffians who still remember May Moore (nee Atkinson) often chuckle about her still driving in her 80s chugging along in her Toyota Corona from the farm to town. But once while still in her teens aged 19 she was BSA motor bike rider. She rode from her parent's Group 96 farm on Windy Harbour Road to the Group 141 School on West Road (now Moore Road) to teach children of all ages from 1929.

She would have ridden past the farm on Boorara Road in Group 120 allocated to Gil Moore not knowing that she would live there for 70 years after marrying Gil in 1933.

May Atkinson migrated with her family from London in January 1924 at the age of 14. The family were allocated to Group 96 on Wheatley Coast Road (now Windy Harbour Road). May completed her high school by correspondence and then graduated as a rural teacher.

May lived in Northcliffe for 79 years passing away in 2003. The photo on her bike is in front of the Atkinson Group settlement property.

24/01/2026

18/01/2026

Visitors to the Museum often ask if there were dingoes in the Northcliffe area when the settlers arrived from 1924. The answer is yes and their haunting howl scared settlers at night. By the 1940s not one remained. But listen to the night experienced by the early settlers.

A pack of dingoes howling at night in the wild expanses of outback Australia.As the sun dips below the horizon, the heat of the day becomes a distant memory....

06/01/2026

Kids these days would never know the run to answer the phone and if missed - you’d never know who was calling 😝

10/12/2025

Moo Cow Mitchell and the Northcliffe Group Settlement Scheme.

WA Premier Sir James Mitchell leader of the Nationalist-Country Party Coalition Government from 1919 until March 1924 was the initiator of the Group Settlement Scheme to develop dairy farms in the South West to reduce dependence on eastern states dairy products. His commitment led to his nickname "Moo Cow Mitchell".

Northcliffe was one of the largest Group Settlement areas established solely for this purpose. There were no farms nor a town when the first settlers arrived in January 1924.

Mitchell was replaced by the Labor Government of Philip Collier in March 1924 who continued the Group Settlement Scheme including the development of Northcliffe.

The Group Settlement Scheme caused severe hardship with the seemingly impossible task of turning karri forests & dense bush into farms. Just 5 years after the start of the Scheme the world was affected by the Great Depression causing severe poverty. This affected the Northcliffe Group Settlers and many abandoned their properties.

But now Northcliffe is a highly productive agricultural area. And the spirit of the Groups in supporting each other survives today in the community spirit of Northcliffe.

Watch "Archie's Acres" to understand this story of the Jackson Family Group Settlers.

In 1925 Archie Jackson moved from Scotland to the south west of Western Australia as part of the ‘Group Settlement Scheme’. He and his family were promised b...

02/12/2025

Munro House was a beloved project of Bev’s and we are happy to finish the front with a flowering garden. I think she’d approve 🌸

11/11/2025

Remembrance Day
The Northcliffe Pioneer Museum has a small war collection including a saddle that has seen service eith the Australian Light Horse in both WW1 and WW 2
Lest we forget

08/11/2025

Museum's 2026 calendar now on sale for $15 plus postage if out of town. Order at [email protected] or text to 0447 556 740 (Ken). Has photos and stories in 1926 or thereabouts. Check out the tree lopper at the top of a Karri on the cover!

06/11/2025

Northcliffe hospitals washing machine from 1930. The Mothers Union and community raised funds through fetes and raffles to get this little beauty aswell as hospital lights and x ray equipment.