The Lewingtons have lived on a plot of land steeped in Wagga’s history for almost a century.
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While its story is no secret, knowledge of the Uranquinty’s former flight school and migrant centre are not easy to find.
That is unless you visit the memorial at Wirraway Park or read Shelly Morris’s book Uranquinty Remembers.
But the Lewingtons don’t have to read about it. They lived it.
Across recent weeks, The Daily Advertiser has sought to capture the before and after of the city’s most beloved places, people, events, pastimes and icons, as part of its series, Rewind Wagga.
Jenny Lewington said the Lewingtons had owned the 1002-acre plot of land since the early 20th century, but for a few decades in between, its fate was not in the family’s hands.
Most Australians were forced to make sacrifices while the world was at war and the Lewingtons were no exception, with the family forced to give up the farm in 1941.
That was when the Air Force flew in and established a pilot training school.
More than 2000 World War II airmen earned their wings here, before flying to battle across Europe’s skies.
But instead of returning the land to the Lewingtons after the war, the government transformed the facility into the Uranquinty Migrant Centre and from December 1948 to 1952, the property was home to to 28,000 “displaced persons”.
Most of the women and children who called Uranquinty home between 1948 and 1952 were from war-ravaged Latvia and Estonia, according to Mrs Lewington.
But they were forced to move when Australia joined the Korean War, with the Air Force repossessed the land until the flight school was relocated.
Instead of giving the land back to its original owners after this time, Mrs Lewington said it was put out to tender and then to auction, prompting fury from the family.
In 1964, they finally bought the farm back.
Mrs Lewington said they had no plans of letting it go again.
“Our home is where the old hospital was,” Mrs Lewington said. “You can still see the foundations, where some of the buildings were.”
She said the mess hall, ammunition and flammable liquids sheds, and the swimming pool were still standing.
Read more Rewind Wagga stories:
