Anna Eusebi and Raffaele Iacopini are researching their father’s and grandfather’s time as prisoners of war in the Gympie district from 1944-1945 and need the help of Gympie locals to fill in the missing details.
Anna’s nonno Fortunato Gobbi and Raffaele’s father Luigi Iacopini, together with Giovanni Meconi, all from the Ascoli Piceno province of Italy, began work on an Amamoor farm owned by J.J.Parr on 5th August 1944.
Anna says, “My nonno never talked much about this piece of his life after he returned to Italy and I would appreciate any help from people who can help me find out more. If possible, I would like to contact someone from the Parr family at Amamoor to know if someone remembers my nonno.”
Anna has shared photos from Fortunato’s time at Amamoor in the hope that someone might remember something. “We always knew that these photos held special memories for my nonno. But it wasn’t until I found the research project “Footprints of Italian Prisoners of War in Queensland” that I began to understand some of nonno’s story. The researcher, Joanne Tapiolas, told me the name of the farmer and where the farm was. She also told me that the photos show the Land Army Girls and the Italian prisoners of war who worked together on many farms during the war. One of the photos shows a truck loaded up with sacks of potatoes.”
Amamoor Farm Gympie 1944-1945
Luigi Iacopini on the left and Fortunato Gobbi centre front.
Raffaele Iacopini is hoping that Gympie residents might recognise the people in one of his father’s photos. Raffaele believes that the photo was sent to his father Luigi after the war and must be from someone that he knew. Possibly it was sent to Raffaele after he left a Gympie farm but was still in Australia.
The sender wrote on the back of the photo, You know who this is? Miss …cia and me, horses and fruit. “I hope that someone recognises the people in this photo and can tell me something more about my father when he worked in Amamoor and the people he met,” says Raffaele.
Footprints of Italian Prisoners of War in Australia 
Hi, check out Zoe Boccoabella Facebook page, she wrote a book on her Grandfather who was interned in a Qld camp during the war. May or may not be of help.
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Thank you Carmel. Yes I have read Zoe Boccobella’s books which are very interesting especially the details about the street scape of Brisbane during WW2 and post war. Fascinating history. Luigi Iacopini was an Italian soldier captured in battle in Africa and brought to Australia as a prisoner of war. War is certainly complicated.
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