The Ormonde departed from Sydney on 31st December 1946. The official army records record that 2231 Italian prisoners of war were on the boat: 52 officers and 2179 ordinary ranks. A group of 1992 Italian POWs came from the Liverpool Prisoner of War & Internment Camp in Sydney, as the above form highlights.
If your father or grandfather was repatriated to Italy on the Ormonde then you will find this file very interesting as it contains a list of the Italians on this ship:
[Repatriation of Italian Prisoners of War per Ormonde 24.12.1946] [0.5cm; box 9] Series numberSP196/1 Control Symbol 10 PART 16
The file can be found at the National Archives of Australia Find : Search the Collection and click on Go to Record Search. Enter the words repatriation Ormonde and you will be taken to the file.
I will explain a little about these National Archives files. The two personal files for every Italian prisoner of war in Australia, are available, free of charge. Other files like the file for the Ormonde is free to view because someone has paid for a copy. When this happens, the file is then available free to everyone. There are files for other repatriation ships eg Alcantara, Otranto, Chitral. You can view them if you visit the National Archives of Australia in Sydney. Or you can pay for a copy of the file and help other Italian families.
The newspaper photo below holds a clue to the journey of the Italian prisoners of war. The men boarded at Pyrmont Wharf in Sydney. Captain Morgan mentions Di Biasi, a former Fiat mechanic in the article below. The man mentioned is Benvenuto De Biasi, born in Belluno and resident of Genoa. Is the man’s surname Di Biasi or De Biasi? The newspaper article states Di Biasi and his record has De Biasi.
1946 ‘Australian Guards Farewell Italians’, The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 – 1954), 24 December, p. 2. (LATE FINAL EXTRA), viewed 17 Jan 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229545602
The Ormonde docked at Fremantle in Western Australia and boarded 20 more Italians. Worthy of note was that there were Italian Lieutenants onboard.
These newspaper articles are available from Australia’s archived newspaper website: Trove . This is another excellent resource. There are ways to ‘refine’ your search eg decade, years. If you search Italian prisoners of war, this title is too general. It would be difficult to navigate if you do not know English. I know I would have difficulty searching databases in Italian.
1946 ‘Road Back’, The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1950), 31 December, p. 6. (HOME EDITION), viewed 17 Jan 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78214705
My research has been about finding the pieces of the puzzle and putting them all together. Documents, photos, newspaper articles, stories and memories are very important in recording this history in a context: footprints of Italian prisoner of war from the battlefields of Africa to Palestine to Egypt to India to Australia and return to Italy.
And another clue emerges: what pier did the Italians leave Melbourne from: Station Pier. Quite possibly it was also the place where the Italians arrived into Melbourne Australia in 1943 – 1945.
Footprints of Italian Prisoners of War in Australia 
Mio Papà, Tenente di Artiglieria, Mario Genta,fatto prigioniero a Tobruk in 21 gennaio 1941, è rientrato in Italia con la nave Ormonde…
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Did you find his name on the list?
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I think there is a photo of him at Myrtleford go to http://www.awm.gov.au search Genta
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Did you find your father’s name on the list of the Ormonde?
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