Voucher - 1 Penny Hay Internment Camp; No.6 Camp Officers' Mess

Hay Internment Camp operated from 1940 to 1946 in outback New South Wales, holding a mix of civilian internees — largely German and Italian nationals, and some Japanese — along with prisoners of war transferred from Britain under an arrangement that proved politically awkward for both governments. The Officers' Mess vouchers were an internal scrip system, segregating purchasing power within the camp hierarchy and preventing direct cash from circulating among prisoners. No. 6 Camp was one of three compounds at the Hay facility.

Blue-green paper was a common choice for low-denomination camp scrip, partly to distinguish denominations at a glance and partly because the tinted stock was harder to reproduce with materials available inside the wire.