Water carriers on the way back to the camp, Palembang

Depicts a water carriers on the way back to the camp, Palembang.This sketch was done by Janet Patteson Gunther an Australian Army nurse who survived the sinking of the Vyner Brooke in February 1942. Gunther was one of 32 Australian nurses who became prisoners of the Japanese in Sumatra. Together with approximately 500 civilian internees, mainly British and Dutch women and children, the nurses occupied the Palembang camp from September 1943 to November 1944. Remarkably, during her imprisonment Gunther was able to produce a number of small drawings, depicting the nurses' experiences in captivity, which she sold to buy food on the black market. This work depicts water carriers on the way back to the camp.