Western Australia - stamped lead sheet, detected a few inches buried near an old WW2 convalescence camp which later became a migrant camp.

[Hilux]

Hawkear, there are plenty of unmarked service graves in Australia, some lost due to distance and abandonment, some due to works by unthinking or caring.
Even in the East Tce Cemetery here in Adelaide there are unmarked service graves outside the fence, and with Kato's project there are unmarked service graves in that cemetery scattered around the place.
Her work with Tillets gave her more information as to just how many there possibly are in SA.

Thanks Megsy, I am beginning to think these were tempory tags for lockers and maybe discarded upon discharge of the men.

Hilux, can you measure them please and pop those measurements up? Maybe next to a picture of each one?

I'm 100% sure these are not grave related. The area they were found over is nearly 1km long.
It was suburban in the 40s and aerial photos from the 40s to the present show it as scrubby bush land.
There's a large old cemetery about 5km away that probably dates back to settlement.

 

[Hawkear]

Agree that there would be plenty of unmarked graves of service men and others for that matter around Australia. Actually meant cemeteries instead of individual graves when I said “grave sites”.
It would be hard to imagine a defence establishment losing track of an in house cemetary even over many years.
Thinking along Greenhornets line that they may be tags for a locker or some other non mobile fitting. Again hard to think why tags for luggage would be made out of lead rather than cardboard and looking at that excellent photo by Hilux no indication of any attachment holes!
The truth will probably surprise us.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Thanks Hilux, wow there is no rhyme or reason here, maybe the individuals made them, they just look a bit random but the lead sheet looks like 'roofing lead', with Garside putting in a bit of personality to his own.

I'm trying to think of any 'personal' use for these as tags.
Would you mind if I shared this on another forum?
I may get some feedback from a shooting forum.

 

[Hilux]

Thanks Hilux, wow there is no rhyme or reason here, maybe the individuals made them, they just look a bit random but the lead sheet looks like 'roofing lead', with Garside putting in a bit of personality to his own.

I'm trying to think of any 'personal' use for these as tags.
Would you mind if I shared this on another forum?
I may get some feedback from a shooting forum.

Sure, someone might know what they are.

I don't know if its a red herring but I've also found a few small scraps of sheet lead as well. Little triangular and rectangular offcuts maybe 10 to 30mm of edge. I'd just put them down to discards from when they'd built the army hospital and migrant hostel buildings. I remember my father and grandfather always had a bit of lead sheet lying around in the shed for roof repairs or whatever.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

I was hoping that the lead rectangles would be similar in size so they might be slotted into a metal label bracket on file cabinet draws.

I will copy and post to the other site, cheers.

 

[Hilux]

I was hoping that the lead rectangles would be similar in size so they might be slotted into a metal label bracket on file cabinet draws.

The sizes are all over the place. Here's an un-stamped scrap I found.

Edit - its pretty much the same size as the tags.

 

[Manpa]

Maybe school kids doing some letter punching in lead as art of a tech class back in the 40s or 50s.

 

[Hawkear]

Having a look through on line Australian war records, I found a reference to a Masotto having served as follows. Note he enlisted 12 days after he turned 18.
Enlisting in that late stage of the war it is possible that he was put to work as staff in a convalescent depot.
There are multiple entries for the other names but none that I could see had a convalescent depot posting at discharge although many had enlisted in WA.

Veteran Details​

Name	MASOTTO, ALFRED EGNAZIO
Service	Australian Army
Service Number	W42394
Date of Birth	08 Feb 1927
Place of Birth	SICILY, ITALY
Date of Enlistment	20 Feb 1945
Locality on Enlistment	GERALDTON, WA
Place of Enlistment	KARRAKATTA, WA
Next of Kin	MASOTTO, TONY
Date of Discharge	20 Sep 1946
Rank	Private
Posting at Discharge	109 CONVALESCENT DEPOT
Prisoner of War	No
Honours	None for display

 

[Hilux]

Having a look through on line Australian war records, I found a reference to a Masotto having served as follows. Note he enlisted 12 days after he turned 18.
Enlisting in that late stage of the war it is possible that he was put to work as staff in a convalescent depot.
There are multiple entries for the other names but none that I could see had a convalescent depot posting at discharge although many had enlisted in WA.

Veteran Details​

Name	MASOTTO, ALFRED EGNAZIO
Service	Australian Army
Service Number	W42394
Date of Birth	08 Feb 1927
Place of Birth	SICILY, ITALY
Date of Enlistment	20 Feb 1945
Locality on Enlistment	GERALDTON, WA
Place of Enlistment	KARRAKATTA, WA
Next of Kin	MASOTTO, TONY
Date of Discharge	20 Sep 1946
Rank	Private
Posting at Discharge	109 CONVALESCENT DEPOT
Prisoner of War	No
Honours	None for display

Great find Geoff.

Do you have a link to that data base you could share? Thanks.


Edit - if the tag is related to Alfred Egnazio Masotto then he passed in 2006;

MASOTTO , Alfredo Egnazio (Fred). 8 Feb 1927 - 14 Aug 2006. Husband of Suzie, father of Lawrence, Keith, Darryl, Dean, Ashley and Vanessa
http://www.ozburials.com/CemsWA/Geraldton-Greenough/geraldton_f-m.htm

Edit#2 - it all ties together.

109th Australian Convalescent Depot​

"Formed at Northam and moved to Naval Base in December 1941. Next move was to Narrogin in March 1942 where their establishment grew to 1,000 beds before moving back to Northam in March 1943 and reduced in size to 500 beds. Final move was to Point Walter in January 1945, with another downsize to 250 beds."
https://www.birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/109th_Australian_Convalescent_Depot

 

[Hawkear]

Great find Geoff.

Do you have a link to that data base you could share? Thanks.


Edit - if the tag is related to Alfred Egnazio Masotto then he passed in 2006;

MASOTTO , Alfredo Egnazio (Fred). 8 Feb 1927 - 14 Aug 2006. Husband of Suzie, father of Lawrence, Keith, Darryl, Dean, Ashley and Vanessa
http://www.ozburials.com/CemsWA/Geraldton-Greenough/geraldton_f-m.htm

Edit#2 - it all ties together.

109th Australian Convalescent Depot​

"Formed at Northam and moved to Naval Base in December 1941. Next move was to Narrogin in March 1942 where their establishment grew to 1,000 beds before moving back to Northam in March 1943 and reduced in size to 500 beds. Final move was to Point Walter in January 1945, with another downsize to 250 beds."
https://www.birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/109th_Australian_Convalescent_Depot

Hilux here is the Dept. of Veteran affairs link
https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au