123084 Accession Number: 123084

Description

Image taken at number 14 camp gardens, Loveday Internment Camp. VX137425 Driver (DVR) Percival James Torbet stands in part of the fifty-acre crop of opium poppies (Papaver Somniferum) sown in March 1943. DVR Torbet is five feet six inches tall and is holding one of the flowers that may by up to seven feet above the ground. The crop flowered in October 1943 and was harvested in November the same year, but drought caused a low yield. By 1945, however, the annual harvest amounted to approximately thirty-five tons of poppy heads which made the Barmera area the principal source of poppy straw in Australia. This in turn enabled the Commonwealth to become independent of overseas sources of morphine and other opium derivatives.

Details

Accession Number
123084
Photographer
Hedley Keith Cullen
Classification
Photograph
Object Type
Negative
Physical Description
Colour: Black & white
Date Made
October 1943
Place Made
Whole/Part
Whole
Item Count
1
Copyright
Copyright expired - public domain

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Accession 123084

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Last modified: 2 July 2026 - 5.38 am