The gate, Bandang

Armed guards seen watching the entrance gate to the military barracks Bandoeng, where POWs were mustered before being sent to the Burma-Thailand Railway. The British and Australians (referred to by Parkin as the Dunlop 1,000) went first to Changi and from Changi they were sent on to the Railway. Several figures of soldiers are seen at right and left, and a bicycle is parked at the left of the gate. A tree stands at right foreground in front of windows with opened shutters. This print is included in a folio of drypoints that were made from the original drawings that Ray Parkin entrusted to Weary Dunlop while they were prisoners of war (POWs) together on the Burma-Thailand railway. Dunlop delivered the collection of drawings and paintings to Parkin on his return to Melbourne. As an expression of gratitude to Dunlop for hiding the drawings at great risk to his own safety, Parkin proceeded to make prints of the drawings and presented them to Dunlop in a bound folio in 1956. A single watercolour, dated 1943, is the only original painting from Parkin's POW experience to be included in the folio.

Presented by the Edward 'Weary' Dunlop Estate through the Cultural Gifts Program 1999