Cowra is a town of 9500 people situated on the Lachlan River, 310m above sea-level and 320 km west of Sydney at the junction of the Mid Western and Olympic Highways. It is the commercial and administrative centre of a shire in which the major industries are livestock, wool scouring, vegetable growing and processing, vineyards, furniture making and tourism.

In 1941 a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp was built at the north-eastern outskirts of Cowra. On 5 August, 1944, this camp became the site of the largest mass POW escape in British ... (more)