Voucher - 2 Pence Hay Internment Camp; No.6 Camp Officers' Mess

Hay Internment Camp, established in far-western New South Wales in 1940, held civilian internees — predominantly Italian and German nationals, along with Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Europe and were, with grim irony, classified as enemy aliens by the British authorities who transported them from the UK. The No. 6 Camp Officers' Mess voucher system existed to facilitate internal trade and canteen purchases without allowing real currency to circulate freely among the compound population.

Printed on red paper at the camp itself, this 2 Pence voucher is among the most locally produced of all Australian internment issues — improvised, utilitarian, and entirely site-specific.