May-June 1943

PW Domenico SIGILLO, on transfer from No. 3 Lab. Det. COOK, [to Hay Camp] was found to be carrying two £1 notes rolled in cigarette papers and stored with genuine cigarettes in a tobacco tin.  The tin was half full of tobacco, with a packet of papers and three made cigarettes on top, indicating that the owner had rolled a few cigarettes for future use.  The false cigarettes had a small amount of tobacco each and with the notes tightly rolled in the middle.  SIGILLO also carried four aluminium rings hidden in cotton wool, two silver rings in a tin of talcum powder, Italian notes totalling 150 lire in the hollowed out wooden back of a mirror, razor blades in a hollowed out cake of soap rewrapped and sealed, and 1/- in a pot of cream. As a reward for ingenuity he received 28 days detention.  (NAA: A989, 1943/925/1/97)

Domenico Sigillo is described as 5’ tall, 126lbs, black hair and dark complexion.  He is listed as one of the men in the photo below. When the photo was taken, he was 30 years old.

Hay, NSW. 9 September 1943. Group of Italian prisoners of war (POW) interned at No. 6 POW Group. In this group are known to be: 46279 Giuseppe Morabito; 45374 Salvatore Cardone; 45379 Giuseppe Costa; 46762 Domenico Sigillo; 46274 Giovanni Maisano; 48304 Michele Russo; 47695 Antonio Spano and Antonio Santuoro. Note: The number is an assigned POW number. (AWM Image 030142/13, Photographer Lewecki)

Domenico had been in Australia since 27.5.41, Australia’s first group of Italian prisoners of war.  He was sent to Hay PW Camp NSW and less than a year later he was sent to work on a government railway maintenance project: No. 3 Labour Detachment Cook.  Upon return to Hay Camp, a search of Italians from the Cook group took place.  His ingenious methods to conceal ‘illicit’ items was unveiled. 

In September 1944, Domenico arrived at the Home Hill PW Hostel.  His attitude to work on the Commonwealth Vegetable Project, was rewarded with a two-month transfer to Atherton in far north Queensland. Only 53 of the best and most trusted workers were sent to Atherton to harvest maize from July to September 1945.

When Domenico boarded at train at the Home Hill Railway Station in November 1945, he must have believed that repatriation was looming.

Home Hill Hostel to Gaythorne PW Camp to Cowra PW Camp

On the 23^rd December 1946, Domenico boarded the Alcantara. He arrived in Naples c. 22th January 1947, it had been six years since his capture at Tobruk on 21^st January 1941.

In Maropati [Reggio Calabria] Domenico had his wife Caterina, two sons and one daughter waiting for his return.