5 Shillings No. 2 Camp; Tatura Internment Group

Tatura, in northern Victoria, held one of Australia's largest internment installations during the Second World War — a sprawling complex of several separate camps housing German and Italian civilians, merchant seamen, and eventually Japanese nationals. The internment group camps issued their own internal scrip because internees were prohibited from holding Australian legal tender. These notes circulated exclusively within the wire, redeemable only at the camp canteen.

No. 2 Camp at Tatura held predominantly German civilian internees, many of them long-term Australian residents swept up under the National Security Act. The yellow paper used for this denomination was a deliberate security measure — different denominations were printed on different colored stock to frustrate forgery within the camp itself.

Surviving examples are rare; most scrip was voided and destroyed upon a prisoner's release or repatriation.