Internment
During the First World War 6,890 Germans were interned, of whom 4,500 were Australian residents before
1914; the rest were sailors from German navy ships or merchant ships who were arrested while in Australian
ports when the war broke out, or German citizens living in British territories in South-East Asia and transported
to Australia at the request of the British Government. Some internees were temporary visitors trapped here
when the war began. About 1,100 of the total were Austro-Hungarians, and of those around 700 were Serbs,
Croats and Dalmatians from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were working in mines in Western
Australia.
Australian trade with Germany and immigration from Germany were banned for the first few years of the 1920s.
Officials in the German Department of Foreign Affairs wrote in the 1920s that anti-German feelings seemed
stronger in Australia than in any of the other English-speaking countries.
Business Competitors & Union Troublemakers
In World War I the Australian Government wanted to stop companies run by businessmen of German descent
from competing with "British" companies, in case companies run by German-Australians could somehow help
the German war effort in Europe. An easy way to do this was to intern the directors and managers of such
companies, even if they were naturalised British subjects.
Examples:
Franz Wallach and Walter Schmidt of the Australian Metal Company (subsidiary of a German company) in
Melbourne;
Oskar Plate of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Company in Sydney;
Edmund Resch, the Sydney brewer (who had been in Australia for 50 years);
Carl Zoeller, a successful and popular member of the Brisbane German-Australian community and importer
and maker of medical and surgical equipment;
Frederick Monzel, publisher and printer of the Queenslander Herald.
Australian workers and self-employed small-businesspeople needed to feel that they were also contributing
something to the Empire's war effort - by recommending to the government that a German-Australian be
interned they were being patriotic, but naturally they were especially keen to do so if that eliminated one of
their competitors in business. In Melbourne, Mr F.W. Abbott, the manager of "The Neway", a clothes cleaning
and dyeing company in Little Collins St, sent the government the names of three competitors who he claimed
were German. He wrote:
Cannot Germans trading under British names be made to disclose their names? This applies to all classes of
business in Australia. There would be nothing harsh about such a regulation if passed as they will still have an
open chance to trade and to get business from those people of Australia who are not loyal enough to stick to
their own people.
Obviously Mr Abbott's complaint was in his own business interest. A law was introduced prohibiting enemy
aliens from changing their names. A Melbourne waiter sent to the authorities a list of names of "enemy aliens"
working in various hotels and cafes in the city. Some professors on the council of the University of Melbourne
stopped the appointment of two lecturers of German background. Dr Maximilian Herz, Australia's most
distinguished orthopaedic surgeon, was interned. He had played a pioneering role in orthopaedic surgery in this
country. The Sydney branch of the British Medical Association (as the Australian Medical Association was then
known) cancelled the membership of German-born doctors and campaigned to have them deported. They said:
It is not in the public interest that medical men of alien enemy birth and qualification should be allowed to
practise in the Commonwealth.
The Sydney branch of the British Medical Association no doubt did not like the fact that Dr Herz had strongly
criticised the standards of Australian doctors at various conferences before the war.
In a court case in Temora, western New South Wales, "a British subject" was accused of having used indecent
language in the bar of the Empire Hotel. Police Magistrate N.A. Ormonde Butler dismissed the case because the
two witnesses for the prosecution were unnaturalised Germans. He told them:
"You and your friend should be interned. It is a public scandal that the Federal Government allows unnaturalised
Germans of military age to work among and in competition with British subjects".
From this it doesn't seem that a national Australian identity was very developed yet at that time; the bond to
Britain was very strong. It was not until 1949 that the Australian Government saw its way to introduce
Australian citizenship.
The unions were against Germans in Australian workplaces, whether they were co-unionists or not. The war
caused a drop in living standards, higher unemployment and higher prices, and this created hostility to citizens
of German origin. In some workplaces Australians refused to work with Germans. The Australian Government
saw Germans as troublemakers in workplaces, encouraging strikes in order to weaken the war effort of the
Empire and help Germany.
Examples:
Ernst Buchwitz, a worker at the Baffle Creek Sugar Mill near Bundaberg and an organiser for the Australian
Workers Union, was interned and later deported for having "caused disruption between the men and the
mill", a charge Buchwitz denied.
C.S. Schache, a waterside worker in Gladstone, Queensland, and "a second-generation Australian with a
German grandfather", was interned because he was the local secretary of the Workers' Political
Organisation.
Willy Gubba in Melbourne was interned because he was a member of the Australasian Socialist Party. He
was a waiter in a restaurant owned by a German-Australian, and it was said that the restaurant was used by
"all the Germans in and around Melbourne of all classes", according to the detectives who investigated for
the Defence Department. There was no evidence, but the detectives concluded that "Probably Gubba as a
'mere waiter' was used as a tool for the other Germans of higher standing and financial position" and the
restaurant "was the channel used by the financial opponents to assist the socialists in putting up such a
sustained fight against conscription". The Australian Government believed there were German spies all
around the country.
Weaken the German-Australian Community
- intern the Community Leaders
The Defence Department had a deliberate policy of interning those whom it decided were leaders of the
German-Australian community, especially in South Australia and in Queensland, the states with the highest
proportion of people of German background, and states in which there were distinctive areas of group
settlement (though by 1914 the German-Australians were in the minority in many of these areas). The
government wanted to destroy the German-Australian community as a distinct socio-cultural element in
Australian society. With this aim, German clubs were closed, Lutheran schools were closed in many places (all of
them in S.A. were closed), and the leaders of the community were interned.
Consuls and pastors
Apart from business leaders, the Defence Department saw the consuls and pastors as the leaders in the GermanAustralian community. The five consuls who were interned in Australia were not professional diplomats, they
were honorary consuls, and most were naturalised British subjects. The five were: Eugen Hirschfeld from
Brisbane, Ludwig Ratazzi from Perth (of German and Italian background; he was Consul for both countries),
Alfred Christian Dehle from Hobart, Otto Johannsen from Newcastle, and Wilhelm Friedrich Christian Adena
from Melbourne. As prominent businessmen, their business activities were seen as harmful to British-Australian
interests. In South Australia, Consul Muecke was interned for a short time at Fort Largs in April 1916, then from
May to October he was under detention in his own home with military guards while his youngest son was
fighting in France with the Australian Army after being wounded earlier at Gallipoli. In South Australia Pastor
Nickel was interned for a short time, but no other pastors were after that. In Queensland nine pastors were
interned, six of whom were naturalised British subjects. Two of those had been born in Australia, including
Pastor Friedrich Gustav Fischer of Goombungee. He had been born in South Australia in 1876, and both his
parents had also been born in South Australia. Federal Cabinet approved Fischer's internment on the basis of an
intelligence report (can 'intelligence' be the right word?!) from the Defence Department which included:
The situation in the German districts gives great anxiety to British residents, and the best way of relieving their
anxiety, as well as of keeping German residents in check, is to intern occasionally a few leading German
residents. From this point of view it is considered that the internment of Fischer would be justified.
(One can see how society in Australia at that time still felt "British" rather than Australian.)
The Camps
Internment Camp, Torrens Island, SA, 1914
(State Library of South Australia)
Internees, Torrens Island, 1915
(State Library of South Australia)
Soon after the war started, the Australian government had to set up accommodation for the large number of
people who were being interned, so concentration camps (an idea first used by the British Government in the
Boer War 1899-1902) were established in each of the six states. In three states (Tasmania, S.A. and W.A.) they
were on islands a short distance from the capital city. By the end of May 1915, almost 3,000 people had been
interned:
Enoggera, Queensland (suburban Brisbane)
137
Holdsworthy, NSW (south-east of Liverpool)
1342
Langwarrin, Victoria (south-east of Melbourne)
420
Torrens Island, S.A. (in the harbour of Port Adelaide)
355
Rottnest Island, W.A. (Indian Ocean, near Fremantle)
628
Bruny Island, Tasmania (south of Hobart)
58
TOTAL
2940
Two months later the decision was made to close these regional camps and transfer the prisoners to
concentration camps in NSW. Perhaps this decision was made in order to save costs (for example, in all camps
Australian soldiers who worked as guards had to be paid), in order to make communication between the camps
and Melbourne headquarters easier, and to make sure that all guards treated prisoners according to the rules.
There had been complaints that guards on Rottnest Island had often used bayonets on prisoners, and on Bruny
Island the prisoners had gone on strike, and an official enquiry had been set up into a scandal involving the
flogging of prisoners on Torrens Island.
For this centralisation of the internees, the Holdsworthy camp was greatly enlarged, and two special camps
were also established in NSW, both in jails that were no longer used. The first, at Berrima (130 km south-west of
Sydney in the southern highlands), was mainly for ships' officers and sailors, and the Trial Bay camp (on the NSW
north coast) was for about 500 internees, most of whom had been deported from British territories in SouthEast Asia and the Pacific Islands. There was also a family camp at Bourke in the north-west of NSW for overseas
internees with wives and children and some female relatives. For many internees the long-distance journey
from their regional camp to their new camp in NSW was unpleasant. Many complained about rough treatment
by police or military officials. Many were handcuffed during their train journey; being treated in public as if they
were criminals would not have been pleasant. The luggage of many prisoners was lost en route, and some found
that their luggage had been forced open and things had been stolen.
Internment Camp, Holdsworthy, NSW
In the camps the internees arranged their own entertainment and many cultural and sporting events. They
formed choirs and orchestras, and had theatrical productions. Dr Maximilian Herz directed many successful
productions at Trial Bay. At Berrima the sailor prisoners built many different model boats and had regattas and
boat exhibitions on the Wingecarribee River. At one exhibition early in 1918 the local public were surprised to
see a Venetian gondola, a scale model of the sailor-training ship Preußen, a Chinese junk and a submarine. The
Berrima prisoners were also allowed to work for money on local farms.
Summarised from:
Fischer, Gerhard. 1989. Enemy aliens: internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914-1920.
University of Queensland Press, St Lucia (Qld).
Tampke, Jürgen and Colin Doxford. 1990. Australia, Willkommen. New South Wales University Press.
Internment
During the First World War 6,890 Germans were interned, of whom 4,500 were Australian residents before
1914; the rest were sailors from German navy ships or merchant ships who were arrested while in Australian
ports when the war broke out, or German citizens living in British territories in South-East Asia and transported
to Australia at the request of the British Government. Some internees were temporary visitors trapped here
when the war began. About 1,100 of the total were Austro-Hungarians, and of those around 700 were Serbs,
Croats and Dalmatians from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were working in mines in Western
Australia.
Australian trade with Germany and immigration from Germany were banned for the first few years of the 1920s.
Officials in the German Department of Foreign Affairs wrote in the 1920s that anti-German feelings seemed
stronger in Australia than in any of the other English-speaking countries.
Business Competitors & Union Troublemakers
In World War I the Australian Government wanted to stop companies run by businessmen of German descent
from competing with "British" companies, in case companies run by German-Australians could somehow help
the German war effort in Europe. An easy way to do this was to intern the directors and managers of such
companies, even if they were naturalised British subjects.
Examples:
Franz Wallach and Walter Schmidt of the Australian Metal Company (subsidiary of a German company) in
Melbourne;
Oskar Plate of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Company in Sydney;
Edmund Resch, the Sydney brewer (who had been in Australia for 50 years);
Carl Zoeller, a successful and popular member of the Brisbane German-Australian community and importer
and maker of medical and surgical equipment;
Frederick Monzel, publisher and printer of the Queenslander Herald.
Australian workers and self-employed small-businesspeople needed to feel that they were also contributing
something to the Empire's war effort - by recommending to the government that a German-Australian be
interned they were being patriotic, but naturally they were especially keen to do so if that eliminated one of
their competitors in business. In Melbourne, Mr F.W. Abbott, the manager of "The Neway", a clothes cleaning
and dyeing company in Little Collins St, sent the government the names of three competitors who he claimed
were German. He wrote:
Cannot Germans trading under British names be made to disclose their names? This applies to all classes of
business in Australia. There would be nothing harsh about such a regulation if passed as they will still have an
open chance to trade and to get business from those people of Australia who are not loyal enough to stick to
their own people.
Obviously Mr Abbott's complaint was in his own business interest. A law was introduced prohibiting enemy
aliens from changing their names. A Melbourne waiter sent to the authorities a list of names of "enemy aliens"
working in various hotels and cafes in the city. Some professors on the council of the University of Melbourne
stopped the appointment of two lecturers of German background. Dr Maximilian Herz, Australia's most
distinguished orthopaedic surgeon, was interned. He had played a pioneering role in orthopaedic surgery in this
country. The Sydney branch of the British Medical Association (as the Australian Medical Association was then
known) cancelled the membership of German-born doctors and campaigned to have them deported. They said:
It is not in the public interest that medical men of alien enemy birth and qualification should be allowed to
practise in the Commonwealth.
The Sydney branch of the British Medical Association no doubt did not like the fact that Dr Herz had strongly
criticised the standards of Australian doctors at various conferences before the war.
In a court case in Temora, western New South Wales, "a British subject" was accused of having used indecent
language in the bar of the Empire Hotel. Police Magistrate N.A. Ormonde Butler dismissed the case because the
two witnesses for the prosecution were unnaturalised Germans. He told them:
"You and your friend should be interned. It is a public scandal that the Federal Government allows unnaturalised
Germans of military age to work among and in competition with British subjects".
From this it doesn't seem that a national Australian identity was very developed yet at that time; the bond to
Britain was very strong. It was not until 1949 that the Australian Government saw its way to introduce
Australian citizenship.
The unions were against Germans in Australian workplaces, whether they were co-unionists or not. The war
caused a drop in living standards, higher unemployment and higher prices, and this created hostility to citizens
of German origin. In some workplaces Australians refused to work with Germans. The Australian Government
saw Germans as troublemakers in workplaces, encouraging strikes in order to weaken the war effort of the
Empire and help Germany.
Examples:
Ernst Buchwitz, a worker at the Baffle Creek Sugar Mill near Bundaberg and an organiser for the Australian
Workers Union, was interned and later deported for having "caused disruption between the men and the
mill", a charge Buchwitz denied.
C.S. Schache, a waterside worker in Gladstone, Queensland, and "a second-generation Australian with a
German grandfather", was interned because he was the local secretary of the Workers' Political
Organisation.
Willy Gubba in Melbourne was interned because he was a member of the Australasian Socialist Party. He
was a waiter in a restaurant owned by a German-Australian, and it was said that the restaurant was used by
"all the Germans in and around Melbourne of all classes", according to the detectives who investigated for
the Defence Department. There was no evidence, but the detectives concluded that "Probably Gubba as a
'mere waiter' was used as a tool for the other Germans of higher standing and financial position" and the
restaurant "was the channel used by the financial opponents to assist the socialists in putting up such a
sustained fight against conscription". The Australian Government believed there were German spies all
around the country.
Weaken the German-Australian Community
- intern the Community Leaders
The Defence Department had a deliberate policy of interning those whom it decided were leaders of the
German-Australian community, especially in South Australia and in Queensland, the states with the highest
proportion of people of German background, and states in which there were distinctive areas of group
settlement (though by 1914 the German-Australians were in the minority in many of these areas). The
government wanted to destroy the German-Australian community as a distinct socio-cultural element in
Australian society. With this aim, German clubs were closed, Lutheran schools were closed in many places (all of
them in S.A. were closed), and the leaders of the community were interned.
Consuls and pastors
Apart from business leaders, the Defence Department saw the consuls and pastors as the leaders in the GermanAustralian community. The five consuls who were interned in Australia were not professional diplomats, they
were honorary consuls, and most were naturalised British subjects. The five were: Eugen Hirschfeld from
Brisbane, Ludwig Ratazzi from Perth (of German and Italian background; he was Consul for both countries),
Alfred Christian Dehle from Hobart, Otto Johannsen from Newcastle, and Wilhelm Friedrich Christian Adena
from Melbourne. As prominent businessmen, their business activities were seen as harmful to British-Australian
interests. In South Australia, Consul Muecke was interned for a short time at Fort Largs in April 1916, then from
May to October he was under detention in his own home with military guards while his youngest son was
fighting in France with the Australian Army after being wounded earlier at Gallipoli. In South Australia Pastor
Nickel was interned for a short time, but no other pastors were after that. In Queensland nine pastors were
interned, six of whom were naturalised British subjects. Two of those had been born in Australia, including
Pastor Friedrich Gustav Fischer of Goombungee. He had been born in South Australia in 1876, and both his
parents had also been born in South Australia. Federal Cabinet approved Fischer's internment on the basis of an
intelligence report (can 'intelligence' be the right word?!) from the Defence Department which included:
The situation in the German districts gives great anxiety to British residents, and the best way of relieving their
anxiety, as well as of keeping German residents in check, is to intern occasionally a few leading German
residents. From this point of view it is considered that the internment of Fischer would be justified.
(One can see how society in Australia at that time still felt "British" rather than Australian.)
The Camps
Internment Camp, Torrens Island, SA, 1914
(State Library of South Australia)
Internees, Torrens Island, 1915
(State Library of South Australia)
Soon after the war started, the Australian government had to set up accommodation for the large number of
people who were being interned, so concentration camps (an idea first used by the British Government in the
Boer War 1899-1902) were established in each of the six states. In three states (Tasmania, S.A. and W.A.) they
were on islands a short distance from the capital city. By the end of May 1915, almost 3,000 people had been
interned:
Enoggera, Queensland (suburban Brisbane)
137
Holdsworthy, NSW (south-east of Liverpool)
1342
Langwarrin, Victoria (south-east of Melbourne)
420
Torrens Island, S.A. (in the harbour of Port Adelaide)
355
Rottnest Island, W.A. (Indian Ocean, near Fremantle)
628
Bruny Island, Tasmania (south of Hobart)
58
TOTAL
2940
Two months later the decision was made to close these regional camps and transfer the prisoners to
concentration camps in NSW. Perhaps this decision was made in order to save costs (for example, in all camps
Australian soldiers who worked as guards had to be paid), in order to make communication between the camps
and Melbourne headquarters easier, and to make sure that all guards treated prisoners according to the rules.
There had been complaints that guards on Rottnest Island had often used bayonets on prisoners, and on Bruny
Island the prisoners had gone on strike, and an official enquiry had been set up into a scandal involving the
flogging of prisoners on Torrens Island.
For this centralisation of the internees, the Holdsworthy camp was greatly enlarged, and two special camps
were also established in NSW, both in jails that were no longer used. The first, at Berrima (130 km south-west of
Sydney in the southern highlands), was mainly for ships' officers and sailors, and the Trial Bay camp (on the NSW
north coast) was for about 500 internees, most of whom had been deported from British territories in SouthEast Asia and the Pacific Islands. There was also a family camp at Bourke in the north-west of NSW for overseas
internees with wives and children and some female relatives. For many internees the long-distance journey
from their regional camp to their new camp in NSW was unpleasant. Many complained about rough treatment
by police or military officials. Many were handcuffed during their train journey; being treated in public as if they
were criminals would not have been pleasant. The luggage of many prisoners was lost en route, and some found
that their luggage had been forced open and things had been stolen.
Internment Camp, Holdsworthy, NSW
In the camps the internees arranged their own entertainment and many cultural and sporting events. They
formed choirs and orchestras, and had theatrical productions. Dr Maximilian Herz directed many successful
productions at Trial Bay. At Berrima the sailor prisoners built many different model boats and had regattas and
boat exhibitions on the Wingecarribee River. At one exhibition early in 1918 the local public were surprised to
see a Venetian gondola, a scale model of the sailor-training ship Preußen, a Chinese junk and a submarine. The
Berrima prisoners were also allowed to work for money on local farms.
Summarised from:
Fischer, Gerhard. 1989. Enemy aliens: internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914-1920.
University of Queensland Press, St Lucia (Qld).
Tampke, Jürgen and Colin Doxford. 1990. Australia, Willkommen. New South Wales University Press.
Select Bibliography, No.1, June 2006.
The Isle of Man was used by the British Government for the internment of enemy aliens during both World War
One and World War Two and there is still a great deal of interest, primarily from family historians who had
relatives or friends detained in the camps.
During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on the Island
at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel. The first was a
requisitioned holiday camp whilst the second was purpose
built using prefabricated huts and even had its own railway
link. Large numbers of internees were held for up to five
years until the camps finally closed in 1919.
In the Second World War camps were located in the
Douglas area, Peel, Port Erin/Port St Mary and Ramsey.
These held much smaller numbers, sometimes only for a
few months until the risk individuals posed was assessed. There were also some political detainees including
those held under section 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations. This enabled the Government to imprison
those citizens thought to be dangerous to national security without charge, trial or set term. Examples were
members of the British Union of Fascists and the IRA.
Interest in this topic seems to generate a steady stream of new material and we are always interested to hear of
any new publications or research into this area. This list has now been updated and expanded several times
since it was first compiled in 1994.
Knockaloe Calendar 1918 (Library Ref B115)
For World War One most of the primary records have not
survived. However the library does have a Register of
Prisoners of War interned at Douglas Aliens Detention
Camp which can be checked on request. For World War
Two a partial listing for internees, see note at end of
document.
There is a wide and growing number of sources from
which the following are a selection.
Wartime internment camps in Australia
Cover of An Illustrated Diary of Australian Internment by Edmond Samuels (NAA: A1336, 7597)
In the interests of national security the Australian Government interned thousands of men, women and children
during World War I and World War II. Most of those interned were classed as 'enemy aliens', that is, nationals of
countries at war with Australia. Internees were accommodated in camps around Australia, often in remote
locations.
The National Archives holds records about these camps, their development and administration, as well as about
the government policy that established them. Our collection also includes records about the people who spent
the war years in internment.
Contents








World War I
World War II
Residents of Australia
Overseas internees
Prisoners of war
Camp life
After the wars
Resources on wartime internment in Australia
World War I
During World War I, for security reasons the Australian Government pursued a comprehensive internment
policy against enemy aliens living in Australia.
Initially only those born in countries at war with Australia were classed as enemy aliens, but later this was
expanded to include people of enemy nations who were naturalised British subjects, Australian-born
descendants of migrants born in enemy nations and others who were thought to pose a threat to Australia's
security.
Australia interned almost 7000 people during World War I, of whom about 4500 were enemy aliens and British
nationals of German ancestry already resident in Australia.
World War I internment camps
World War I internment camps in Australia
During World War I, internment camps were set up in each state and the Australian Capital Territory. The
National Archives holds limited records about these camps. See more about:




Berrima, New South Wales
Bourke, New South Wales
Enoggera (Gaythorne), Queensland
Holsworthy (Liverpool), New South Wales





Langwarrin, Victoria
Molonglo, Australian Capital Territory
Rottnest Island, Western Australia
Torrens Island, South Australia
Trial Bay, New South Wales
Other World War I camps
During World War I internees were also accommodated in a number of other smaller or temporary camps, often
before being transferred to one of the larger camps. Some of these are listed below.



Bruny Island, Tasmania
Fort Largs, South Australia
Garden Island, Western Australia
Wartime internee, alien and POW records held in Perth – Fact sheet 180
The wartime treatment of aliens and prisoners of war (POWs)
On the outbreak World War I in 1914 and World War II in 1939, the Australian government of the day took
action to require the registration of all ‘enemy aliens' residing in Australia. As the conflicts progressed, and
particularly through times when the advantage seemed to be moving against Australia and its allies, concerted
efforts were made to restrict the movement of those considered to be a threat on the homefront. Enemy aliens,
naturalised and Australian-born persons of enemy alien descent, and Australians whose political activities or
loyalty was called into question were interned in camps administered by the Australian Army. Enemy aliens
transferred from overseas and prisoners of war captured in war zones were also held in Australian internment
camps.
Internment in Western Australia
World War I
Registration of aliens resident in Western Australia at the outbreak of war was conducted by 5 Military District.
Among those required to register were many involved with the mining industry in the Kalgoorlie area who had
come from states within the then Austro-Hungarian Empire. An internment camp was established on Rottnest
Island, located off the Western Australian coast from Fremantle. Many internees from Western Australia,
including the crew from the German vessel, Emden, sunk near the Cocos (Keeling) Islands by the first HMAS
Sydney, were transferred to camps in New South Wales.
World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Adelaide – Fact sheet 106
Internment during World War I
Internees are enemy aliens who are obliged to reside within prescribed 'camps' during time of war, generally
unable to leave until the termination of the conflict. During World War I internment in Australia was regulated
by the War Precautions Act 1914 and its regulations.
Some 6890 people were interned in Australia during the War. They were mainly of German or Austro-Hungarian
background, and included some who were naturalised British citizens (including second or third generation
Australians, some with siblings serving in the forces), crew of enemy nationality taken from ships in Australian
ports, as well as Government officials and Lutheran missionaries from New Guinea. A small number of members
of the International Workers of the World organisation (IWW) were also interned. After the War many internees
were voluntarily repatriated to Europe, with some subsequently returning to Australia.
Many internees were allowed on 'parole' rather than being detained in a camp, and were required to report
regularly to local police.
Records held in Adelaide
Wartime internment was a significant matter in South Australia because of the relatively high number of
migrants of German origin residing in the state. Internees were held at a camp established on Torrens Island.
The office in Adelaide holds a wide range of records dealing with internment during World War I. They include:





lists of internees;
internee identification photographs;
a register of internees on parole;
records of the wartime control of enemy property; and
case files (except for Torrens Island camp case files, which have not survived) of the Attorney-General's
Department Investigation Branch.
These files, which document the investigation and surveillance that preceded internment, often extend into the
1930s.
World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Canberra – Fact sheet 58
Introduction
Internees are prisoners of war (POWs) or enemy aliens who are obliged to reside within prescribed 'camps',
generally unable to leave until the termination of the related conflict or war.
During World War I internment in Australia was regulated by the War Precautions Act 1914 and its regulations.
The main internment camp was at Liverpool, New South Wales. Most of the internees were Germans living in
Australia who were subsequently deported.
The Archives holds many records specifically relating to internment and internees. However, references to
individuals often occur in files with general titles. Also, it was not uncommon for internees to be moved from
one camp to another, even to another state. Thus records that relate to individual internees may be difficult to
identify, though they may exist in the collection of more than one office of the Archives.
World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Sydney – Fact sheet 171
Alien registration and internment
Edmund Resch (No. 5498) Liverpool camp, 1914–18 (NAA: SP421/4, Album)
With the outbreak of war in 1914 a government proclamation (issued on 10 August) required German subjects in
Australia (soon extended to include Austrians as well) to report to their nearest police station. By 1916 the War
Precautions (Alien Restriction) Regulations required all aliens (that is, non-British subjects) aged fifteen and over
to register.
The War Precautions Act 1914 provided that citizens of enemy countries could be interned for the period of the
war. Internment was not applied universally; some enemy aliens merely had their movement within the country
restricted and were required to report weekly to police.
Until November 1915 there was a provision for destitute alien men to be interned on a voluntary basis, and to
leave when their circumstances improved. Many who were unemployed because of their German connections
took advantage of this provision under which a small weekly allowance was paid to their families.
Those interned in Australia included sailors arrested on ships in Australian ports, internees (including women
and children) from British possessions in Asia, and Germans held as prisoners of war (including the crew of the
raider, Emden, and personnel captured in German possessions in the Pacific).
Liverpool internment camp
Otto Wetzel (No. 5502) Liverpool camp, 1914–18 (NAA: SP421/4, Album)
The largest internment camp in Australia during World War I was at Holdsworthy (later spelt Holsworthy), near
Liverpool on the outskirts of Sydney. Sources may refer to it as 'Liverpool camp’ or 'Holdsworthy camp’. The
camp held 6890 internees, most having German or Austrian antecedents. While most of the 4500 interned from
within Australia had been resident in New South Wales, some were brought from all Australian states once
camps established locally in the early years of the war were closed. Many from Western Australia, who had
been employed in gold fields around Kalgoorlie, had originally come from states within the Austro-Hungarian
Empire such as Serbia, Croatia and Dalmatia. About 700 of those interned were naturalised British subjects, and
70 were Australian born. Many internees were deported after the war.
Records of the Liverpool camp
The National Archives in Sydney holds a range of records relating to the registration of aliens in New South
Wales during the World War I period, and to the internment of aliens and prisoners of war at the Liverpool
camp. Examples of these records are provided below
Internment
Introduction
Although this topic falls outside of my usual interest in 19 th Century or earlier, Manx affairs, I have included it as
a possible help for those of non-Manx descent.
The Isle of Man was used as a base for Alien Civilian Internment camps in both WWI (1914-18) and again in
WWII (1939-45); for WWI a very large camp (effectively a small, self-contained, township) was established at
Knockaloe, Patrick, on the west coast near Peel. This camp was for male internees - women were not interned.
There was another smaller camp at Douglas.
In WWII existing property, mostly requistioned bed and breakfast houses or hotels, were cordoned off and used
as a series of 'camp's - different camps catered for different nationalities - women and children were housed
around Port Erin and Port St Mary in the south of the Island which had controlled access from the rest of the
Island, UK Fascists and Italians were interned at Peel and a section of central Douglas promenade was cordoned
off for use as a series of male camps.
In both wars these camps were under British Goverment control; all records relating to them are (or were) held
in London - see addresses at end. It seems that all the personal files relating to WWI internees held by the
British Goverment were destroyed, probably by accident, during the 1970's. The original card index was
destroyed by enemy action in WWII. However it would appear that the Geneva based Red Cross may, in the
future allow some access to its own records compiled from UK weekly returns of internees and POW's - please
contact the Anglo-German FHS for more details. No records were kept on the Island though there are many
incidental records, not all indexed, kept by for example the Island police force that are now in the Manx
Museum Library..
Knockaloe Camp
1917 - Camp printed and coloured (using vegatable dyes and ink)
Originally intended to house 5,000 internees, by the end of the war some 24,500 were held there. It was built
from woodern huts, covered 22 acres, split into 23 compounds divided between 4 camps each of which had its
own hospital, theatre etc.
There were camp printing presses and some very
skilled work was done, as seen in the steel
engraving of the camp - Patrick Church is seen right
edge - Corrins tower overlooking Peel can be seen
left background.
The camp had its own specially constructed raillink over which the food etc was brought into the
camp.
An example of both the sort of self-produced entertainment
and the use of camp printing press (this example camp 4) is
shown in the theatre poster.
Knockaloe had the reputation of being the worse camp possibly a class attitude as many 'gentleman' internees (i.e.
those who had enough private means to support additional
benefits) sought transfer to other camps (eg Douglas or
Wakefield) - this attitude can be seen in the account by
Cohen-Portheim. The camp gained something of a
reputation as a socialist camp.
Christmas Cards were also produced - this is from
1915
The Message reads:
A Second Christmas
The war drags on and yet the sprig of Love
Stays green throughout the Winter
A star winks announcing peace
Throughout the Night
True Greetings from Knockaloe camp
Some degree of the homesickness felt by the internees can
be seen in the 1917 Christmas card produced in the camp.
Pastor Rudolf Harrtman was Pastor to the German
Evalgelical church in Birmingham but like most of
his congregation was interned - he served as
Pastor at Knockaloe until 1917
The closure of the camp was not until late 1919 - this long period post hostilities was a major cause of
depression amongst the inmates.
After the war the camp returned to its pre-war farm use - but this time as Knockaloe experimental agricultural
station.
Most of the internees were deported, many unwillingly as they had British wives and/or had settled in Britain
pre-war. (Postwar with so many dead I suppose tribunals were not disposed to be kind, though there was also a
newspaper-led movement to force such deportation). Some idea of the immediate post-war treatment can be
gleaned from Hall Caines novel Woman of Knockaloe set at Knockaloe farm.
Burials at Patrick
Nearly 200 died in captivity - these were interred at Patrick church
yard. In 1962 their remains were removed and re-interred at Cannock
Chase, the gravestones were destroyed. However a few, (some Jewish
internees) and a number of Turkish remain.
See 1921 article for a description.
References
The Manx Museum has a short, free, factsheet (factsheet No 1) available on request (also on-line at their
website) ; the addresses given below are extracted from this. The factsheet is mostly given over to a
bibliography.
For WWI , the Anglo-German Family History Society has published several booklets which give some background
information and/or diaries etc of camp internees.
B.E. Sargeaunt The Isle of Man & the Great War Douglas: Brown & Sons 1920 chapter 3 is a semi-official history
of the administration of the camps by the, at that time, Government Secretary and Treasurer. (I'm afraid it reads
a bit like one of those official reports - concentrates very much on the administration rather than the internees).
Chapter VI of St. Stephen's House paints a more bleak picture of Internment and Knockaloe Camp. James Baily
was the Quaker craftsman who organised much of the basket making etc in the camp. His biography by son
Leslie Baily in Craftsman and Quaker London George Allen & Unwin 1959, deals extensively with this aspect.
Paul Cohn-Portheim in Time stood still New York E. F Dutton & Co 1932 gives another dismal picture of early
days at Knockaloe - he was interned in late May 1915 and after a brief stay at Stratford was sent to Knockaloe
before gaining a transfer to Wakefield.
P. Stoffa Round the World to Freedom London:Bodley Head 1933 - chapters 12-14 cover his internment at
Knockaloe.
A visit of Journalists in 1916 is reported in Manx Quarterly.
Living with the Wire: Civilian Internment in the Isle of Man during the the two world wars Douglas: Manx
National Heritage, 1994 (ISBN 0-901106-35-6) - a short but informative booklet, originally written to accompany
an exhibition at the Manx Museum, however the revised edition 2010 (ISBN 0-901106-63-6) has been
considerably expanded(especially re WW2) with much more information including discussion of the art of some
of the Jewish internees of WW2 (based on a 2009 exhibition) - well recommended.
M. West Island at War Laxey:Western Books (Author's own publication), 1986 (ISBN 0-9511512-0-7) - deals
mainly with those who fought in WWI (includes list of all those killed on active service) but has three chapters
giving an historical account of Knockaloe. Has many illustrations and some details of internees - probably the
best account, although as no references are given it is not easy to verify any details. Should still be available
from Island bookshops.
Robert Fyson The Douglas Camp Shootings of 1914 Proc IoMNH&ASoc XI #1 pp115/126 2000
Jennifer Kewley Draskau Prisoners in Petticoats: Drag Performanc and its Effects in Great War Internment Camps
in the Isle of Man Proc IoMNH&ASoc XII #2 pp187/203 2010
'Three Legs' of Knockaloe Excursion report June 2010 Proc IoMNH&ASoc XII #3 pp534/548
Very many photographs exist of various aspects of WWI camp life - very few photographs however exist of
WWII camps or camp-life. The Manx Museum Library probably has the best collection.
For WWII camps good texts are:
C. Chappell Island of Barbed Wire London:Corgi 1984 (ISBN 0-552-12712-4) - good illustrated account of the
camps - out of print but seems generally available secondhand.
Ronald Stent A Bespattered Page? Internment of 'His Majesty's most Loyal Enemy Aliens' London Andre Deutsch
1980 (ISBN 0-233-97246-3) - covers WW2 with significant section on Manx camps
P & L Gillman Collar the Lot: How Britain interned and expelled its wartime refugees London:Quartet Books,
1980 (ISBN 0-7043-2244-7) out of print - not explicitly concerned with the Manx Camps (though naturally these
are covered) but concerned with the wider picture.
L.N. Giovannelli Paper Hero Douglas: Island Development Co 1971 - 'Barone' (self given title) Giovannelli was an
Italian Internee during WW2 - he later returned and settled for a time on the Island - the book gives an
interesting description both of Douglas camp (the Metropole) and also of his work on Manx farms.
Our Heritage: Book 2 - More Memories of the Past in Rushen Port St May: P.P. Mrs Kate Rodgers nd [c.1993]
includes several short reminiscences of life both for children and interned aliens at the Women's camp in Port St
Mary.
Addresses
Indexed records of internees
I have been informed that any records that survive are now on UK National Archives, though would appear from
comments that virtually no personal records of either WWI or WWII internees are available
Burial records of Internees who died at Knockaloe
War Graves Commision,
Broadhurst Green,
Cannock Chase, Staffordshire
Anglo-German Family History Society
Membership Secretary
Anglo-German Family History Society,
20 Skylark Rise,
Plymouth,
Devon,
PL6 7SN
They also have a webpage on the very impressive Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies web
site.
International Red Cross
ICRC Archives,
19 Avenue de la Paix,
CH-1212 Geneva,
SWITZERLAND.
Apparently they will search their records for a fee but comments received are that any records still available are
not that easily searchable.
By 1914 over 100,000 Germans lived in Australia and they were a well established and liked community. With
the rising tension between the British and German Empires this began to change and German Australian
communities often found themselves the subject of suspicion and animosity. When war broke out in 1914 this
changed to outright hostility. In 1914 Australia was besotted with war fever and people were keen for ways to
get involved to ‘do their bit’.
The sinking of the German light Cruiser SMS Emden by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in the Cocos
Islands was Australia’s first action of the war and it excited the nation. The event created hysteria about
possible German naval attack thus establishing immediately the cultural and national divisions within the
community.
San Francisco Call & Post, 10 November 1914. Courtesy Wikimedia
Must it come to this? Enlist! Poster, c.1916. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
New Germany, c.1916. Courtesy National Library of Australia
In 1915, Germans and Austrians who were old enough to join the army were put into German Concentration
Camps across the continent. In New South Wales the three main internment camps were at Trial Bay Gaol,
Berrima Gaol and Holsworthy Army Barracks. Women and children of German and Austrian descent, detained
by the British in Asia, were interned at Molonglo. Others were carefully watched by the police and neighbours.
Germans lost their jobs or had their business destroyed. Some voluntarily went into camps so their wives and
children could survive on a government allowance.
In other changes that affected Germans living in Australia their:





schools and churches were closed
music was banned
food was renamed
place names (42) were changed to British ones – Blumberg became Birdwood & German Creek became
Empire Bay
traders, businessmen, sailors and tea planters in South East Asia were arrested and transported to
Australia to be interned in the camps.
(The Australian Government sought to…) destroy the (German) community as an autonomous, socio-cultural
entity within Australian society…. through many different avenues, the closing of German clubs and Lutheran
schools, the internment of the leaders, so as to deprive German-Australians of their spokesmen, their
representatives in the mainstream public sphere of Australian society. Together with the destruction of what
might be called the socio-cultural infrastructure of the community, this would have the effect – it was thought –
of intimidating and keeping in check the rest of the community: it would lead to its disintegration and eventual
disappearance. Prof Gerhard Fischer history; Internment at Trial Bay during World War One, MHC:PHM, 2005,
p.30.
Anti German sentiments intensified in Australia after the Battle of the Ypres, Passchendaele and Pozieres saw
significant Australian casualties in France and Belgium. Nationalism was rising as the main reaction to the war
on the home front. Nationalistic propaganda posters and newsreels were created demonising the German
community. Nationalistic and anti- German propaganda was rampant in the Prime Minister Billy Hughes’ push
for conscription.
A German pill-box at Ypres France, a place that saw large Australian casualties. Pill-boxes were built of concrete
with sides 1 – 2 metres thick to allow soldiers to endure bombardments. Photograph Capt. F. Hurley, August
1917- August 1918. Courtesy State Library of New South Wales.
During World War One four out of every ten Australian men aged 18 – 45 enlisted. Gallipoli was just the
introduction to the newly formed Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) of the realities of industrial mechanised war.
After Gallipoli came the horror of France and Belgium. Battles at Passchendaele and Ypres waged a heavy
casualty toll on a generation of young men from all over Australia. Out of a Australia’s population of 2 million,
59,000 men were killed and 176,000 were wounded. This toll manifested itself in the growing ‘Roll of Honour’
monuments that mushroomed through out the cities and regional Australia from 1919 onwards.
Arthur and Alice Hucker preparing to attend the Mackay Anzac Day ceremony in memory of their only child,
Private Albert Hucker. C.1920. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
Case Study: Albert Hucker was 22 when he enlisted in the AIF and embarked for training in England in 1916. He
was transferred to France in November 1916 where he received severe bullet wounds to his right arm in battle
and was hospitalised. He returned to the front in France in 1917 where he was killed in a bombardment at
Thames Wood at the First Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium on the 30th of October 1917. He was one of four
men in his company killed by the same shell. A letter from his friend to his mother said he had been buried, but
the AIF couldn’t find his grave. It was destroyed soon after the burial by the continuing battle. Hucker has no
known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate. His parents attended Anzac Day ceremonies every year
until their deaths after the World War Two. This was a common experience for families across the nation and
fed the anti German sentiments at home.
‘Anti – German League’ button c.1917. Courtesy Wikimedia
By 1916 fewer men were volunteering for the army. The war was taking longer than people had expected and
many thousands of soldiers had been killed. Prime Minister Billy Hughes wanted to introduce compulsory
military service or ‘conscription’ to maintain the supply of solders required reinforce the AIF. Australians had to
make an important decision as Billy Hughes decided to put the question to a referendum in October 1916.
Hughes led the Australian Labor Party and most of its members did not support conscription. One way Hughes
and the pro – conscription lobby sought to sway voters was to create a visual target to blame for wartime losses
and pain. Hughes turned the Australian German community into scapegoats for his conscription cause. In the
conscription debates of 1916 and 1917 Hughes conducted a campaign of rumour mongering, harassment,
persecution and the creation of a large internment camp on the outskirts of Sydney at Holsworthy Army base at
Liverpool. Hughes was defeated but it was a close result.
Claude Marquet, “I’ll have you!” An anti conscription cartoon, Australian Worker, 13 December 1917, p.9.
Newspaper Collection, Courtesy State Library of Victoria. Anti conscription campaigns tried to use the same
tools as Hughes did in vilifying the Australian German community. Here Hughes is depicted as a monster. The
suspicion of anything not deemed ‘normal’ is a persistent feature of Australian culture.
Send off for district soldiers at Lankeys Creek via Holbrook, NSW c.1916, State Library of NSW
George and Herbert Heinecke c1916, Courtesy of the Museum of the Riverina
General View of Germanton, c.1910, State Library of Victoria
Case Study: Many sons and grandsons of German migrants joined the AIF and went to fight for Australia on the
Western Front. Many, such as Tumbarumba’s George and Herbert Heinecke died in France. George and Henry’s
father George senior, despite having lost two sons in the war, was constantly harassed because of his family’s
German heritage. In a letter to the Tumbarumba Times in August 1918 he wrote, “I already have 17 [relatives at
the front], including two sons who were killed, and one sister’s son also killed, and another sister’s son a
prisoner of war in Germany; my wife’s brother’s three sons, two dead and one wounded”.
In 1917, when German submarines began to attack American cargo and passenger ships, the United States
entered the war, committing over one million soldiers to the war in Europe. A socialist revolution in Russia
deposed the old government, and led to a pull-out of Russian troops and a treaty with Germany. Germany’s
allies, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, were severely weakened by the war and had to withdraw. Without support,
and in the face of a fresh army from the United States, Germany had to accept defeat. In November 1918,
fighting stopped and an Armistice was signed. The world would never be the same again.
Meanwhile throughout Australia many German families changed their names to stop harassment from the
government and a war mad community, German schools and churches were closed, German music was banned,
German food was renamed, German place names were changed to British ones (in South Australia under the
Nomenclature Act) — Blumberg became Birdwood, Germanton became Holbrook & German Creek became
Empire Bay.
General View of Germanton, c.1910, State Library of Victoria
During World War One the NSW government changed the name Germanton to Holbrook amid anti German
hysteria. The town was originally called Ten Mile Creek in 1836. A German migrant, John Pabst, became the
publican of the Woolpack Hotel in 1840 and the area became known as ‘the Germans’. By 1858 the name had
evolved in to the official name of Germanton. In 1876 the name Germanton was officially gazetted. On 24
August 1915 the town was renamed Holbrook in honour of Lt. Norman Douglas Holbrook, a decorated wartime
submarine captain and winner of the Victoria Cross. Lt. Holbrook commanded the submarine HMS B11.
During the campaign for the Conscription Referendum the large German community in the Riverina were
selected for special attention. To some it seemed that people of German origin were to blame for the lack of
success of the first conscription referendum in 1916. After the failure of the second Conscription Referendum in
1917 the anti-German campaign was increased further. People of German descent were stopped from joining
the Army, holding civil positions such as local councillors or Justices of the Peace.
In March 1918 Australian secret service officers were sent to Jindera and Walla Walla to spy on the Community.
Four Australian men of German decent, Hermann Paech, John Wenke, Edward Heppner and Ernest Wenke were
arrested for unspecified un-Australian activities and delivered into the custody of military police, who took them
to Holsworthy Concentration Camp.
The secret service officers reported that ‘the use of the German language has thoroughly Germanised the bulk of
the population of the Riverina which would otherwise have become gradually Anglicised as each generation
grew up’.
The outbreak of war was greeted in Tasmania with enthusiastic expressions of loyalty to the British Empire.
Enemy aliens were quickly identified usually by German or foreign heritage and speculation. An internment
camp established at Claremont then moved to Bruny Island. The town of Bismarck was renamed Collinsvale, and
many Tasmanians of German descent, the largest non-British national group in the population, were persecuted.
In one case Gustav Weindorfer was accused of being a German spy and using his chalet at Cradle Mountain as a
radio station to contact German ships. He was expelled from the Ulverstone Club and his dog was poisoned.
In Western Australia the German community were immediately placed under surveillance on the outbreak of
war. Prominent members of the German Community were investigated. Karl Fink, the owner of Fink’s Hotel, the
largest in Perth, fled to Sweden and his hotel was confiscated by the Public Trustee.
In Broome, Western Australia Toni Ulbrich worked on a pearling vessel. As all enemy aliens on neutral ships had
to be interned he was arrested in 1916 in order to ‘secure the public safety and the defence of the
Commonwealth. Ulbrich was sent to Holsworthy where he remained until 1918.
German business and individuals were under constant scrutiny. The Alhambra Café, Schruth’s Beaufort Arms
Hotel and Mrs Carlshausen’s Wine Saloon in Beaufort St Perth, Western Australia were under surveillance. It
was reported that the wine saloon was ‘frequented by a number of Alien Enemies and Naturalized Aliens
amongst are a large percentage who are disloyal’.
A Health Inspector in Geraldton, Western Australia claimed in a memo that there was a fleet of sea going yachts
owned by Germans that appeared to be on fishing trips and often disappeared for weeks and were capable of
carrying wireless equipment.
‘British’ trade unions, business and the Western Australian State Government took advantage of the situation.
Reports by informers were never ending and suspicion was everywhere. Austrian, Croatian and Italian miners
were sacked and run out of town in the Kalgoorlie Mines on demands from the mining trade unions.
The New Guard conservatives saw the war as an opportunity to get at their old rivals the Communists and
maintain the ‘Britishness’ of Australia through the War Precautions Act of 1914. Business leaders had
Communist Party members listed as unpatriotic enemy sympathisers and interned with the assistance of
compliant State and Commonwealth Governments. The communists had opposed the war and nationalism
maintaining that workers would kill other workers in the interest of capitalism, which largely proved to be
correct.
For home front Australia the Great War became a blur of the many themes that had dominated nineteenth
century Australian life- the working mans paradise vs. free trade and capitalism, the aspiration of a British
Australia and a undying loyalty to the concept of the British Empire. However for German Australia it meant
sustained scrutiny, suspicion and persecution that eventually erased nearly all traces of the Australian- German
community from the cultural landscape in a hysteric ethnic purge. Many families continued to Anglicise their
names. At Temora there is evidence of at least one local ‘German’ family changing their name by deed poll.
Many other families clandestinely changed the spelling of their names.
What remains are places and objects whose heritage is nearly forgotten. Many families are aware of a German
presence in their history, but the stigma of World War One and Two has erased almost all traces of it from many
families’ and community memory.
The Austrian Slav miners of Western Australia
Croatian internees at Rottnest Island Internment Camp 1915. Photo Karl Lehman. Courtesy National Library of
Australia
Of all internees in Australia, 21% came from Western Australia. This was the result of the mass internment of
Austrian Slavs from the Kalgoorlie goldfields. Mining trade unions used the War Precaution Acts of 1914 as a
means to rid the goldfields of non British labour. Only in Western Australia did a general round up of ‘Enemy
Aliens’ occur resulting in 35% of all males deemed from ‘enemy origin’ being transported across the country to
Holsworthy Internment Camp.
German Mariners and Traders
Crews from German merchant ships captured in Australian ports at the outbreak of war were interned at
Torrens Island, Rottnest Island and later moved to Berrima and Holsworthy Camps. The captured vessels
included the Altona, Pfalz, Elass, Berlin, Prinz Sigismund, Hobart, Tiberius, Turul and Germania from German
shipping companies operating in Australian waters. These companies had a long association with Australia. From
the 1880s they had regularly transported freight from Europe to Australia and took Australian primary products
to Europe on the return journey. The confiscated ships were renamed by the Commonwealth Government for
wartime service.
Deutsche-Australische Dampfschiffs Gesellschaft metal sign c.1900. Private Collection
The most prominent companies were the North German-Lloyd (NGL), the German Steamship Company (HANSA)
and the Deutsche-Australische Dampfschiffs Gesellschaft (DADG or German-Australian Line). DADG was formed
in 1888 to operate services from Hamburg via Antwerp and the Cape to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The
service commenced in July 1889, but, within a couple of years, passenger services to Australia were discontinued
and the company restricted its activities to the cargo trade to Australia and the Dutch East Indies and later to
North and South America. It was taken over by the Hamburg-America Line in 1926 and ceased operating as a
separate identity.
Civilians who worked for trading and importing companies from German New Guinea, Singapore and other ports
in the Pacific as well as the crew from the German light cruiser SMS Emden, sunk off the Cocos Islands by the
Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1914 were taken prisoner of war and interned at Trial Bay, Berrima and
Holsworthy concentration camps.
The regimented and structured nature of Navy life resulted in the internees from Trial Bay and Berrima being
allowed a large amount of freedom and self organisation by the camp authorities. Far from listlessly languishing
in a foreign gaol, these men applied themselves to disciplined and productive pursuits, providing a cultural life
and maintaining a strong sense of identity.
SS Greifswald in Fremantle Harbour, Western Mail, 14 August 1914, p. 27.
SS Neumünster in Fremantle Harbour, c.1914, Courtesy National Library of Australia
The German merchant vessels SS Greifswald, SS Thüringen and SS Neumünster were captured off Fremantle at
the outset of war and their crews interned on Rottnest Island and later at Holsworthy and Berrima
concentration camps.
The Battle of Broken Hill and repercussions for the German Community
On the 1st of January 1915, two men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by
the Police and Army.
While the attack was apparently politically inspired, as the attackers confessed in notes they left behind, it
appears they were not involved in any organised group or militia. Turkey was one of the Central Powers
Australia and its Allies were at war with. It was speculated that the two men were Turkish. Later they were
identified as Muslims from what is now modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The attackers both former cameleers working at Broken Hill, they were Badsha Mohammed Gool, an ice-cream
vendor and Mullah Abdullah, a local imam and halal butcher.
Abdullah had arrived in Broken Hill around 1898 and worked as a cameleer, before becoming a Islamic mullah
killing and preparing animals according to halal Islamic law.
Several days before the attack Abdullah was convicted by Chief Sanitary Inspector Brosnan for not having a
license to operate an abattoir when he was caught killing sheep at home. Because the Butchers Trade Union had
rules that discriminated against non British butchers and the local abattoir had a ‘union only’ employment rule,
Abdullah could not legally prepare halal meat for the Muslim community. This, along with harassment over the
years, appears the source of the grievance.
Gool was a member of the Afridi, a Pashtun clan, from Afghanistan. The Police believed that Gool had used
Abdullah’s resentment of Sanitary Inspector Brosnan and the fines to be involved in the attack.
Each New Year’s Day the local Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows Club held a picnic at Silverton. On that day
in 1915 the train from Broken Hill to Silverton was crowded with 1,200 people on 40 open trucks. Three
kilometres out of town, Gool and Abdullah hid on the embankment at the side of the tracks and as the train
passed by they opened fire with two rifles. Two passengers were killed and six passengers were wounded.
Gool and Mulla escaped towards the West Cameleers Camp where they lived murdering another person on the
way. The Police contacted Lieutenant Resch at the local Army base who despatched the local Militia and an
Army Unit to capture them.
When found Gool and Abdullah were found near the Cable Hotel by Police, they shot and wounded Constable
Mills, and took shelter in a rocky outcrop known as Cable Hill. A ninety minute gun battle ensued with armed
civilians joining the Police, Militia and Army.
James Craig, who was chopping wood 500 meters away during a gun battle was hit by a stray bullet and killed.
He was the fourth victim to be killed.
The scene of the gun battle at Cable Hill. Courtesy State Library of South Australia
Men marching back to Broken Hill the day after the attack. Courtesy of the State Library of South Australia
After the battle, the scene in Broken Hill was pandemonium and the following night the police were forced to
stop a lynch mob from marching on the West Cameleer’s camp.
After this there was no further violence recorded against the Broken Hill Muslim community. Instead, the attack
was seen as the result of seditious activities of ‘Enemy Aliens’ and the German community in the area became
the focus of mob violence. Believing the Germans had agitated the assailants to attack the train, the local
German Club was burnt to ground with the angry mob cutting the hoses of the firemen who came to fight the
flames. Once again the police had to break up the mob.
The German Club House in Broken Hill, NSW, was attacked in January 1915. The building had been unoccupied
since the outbreak of war. Courtesy of the Broken Hill Historical Society
The next day the mines of Broken Hill fired all employees deemed ‘enemy aliens’ under the 1914
Commonwealth War Precautions Act. Six Austrians, four Germans and one Turk were ordered out of town by
the mob. Shortly after prominent members of the Australian German Community were forced to register with
police as ‘enemy aliens’ and were interned at Holsworthy Concentration Camp for the duration of the war.
The Camps and the System of Internment
The outbreak of fighting in Europe in August 1914 immediately brought Australia into the Great War. Within one
week of the declaration of war, all German subjects in Australia were declared ‘enemy aliens’ and were required
to report to the Government and notify their address. In February 1915 the meaning of ‘enemy aliens’ changed.
It came to include naturalised migrants as well as Australian born persons whose fathers or grandfathers had
been born in Germany or Austria. Since it was impossible to intern all enemy aliens resident in Australia, the
Government pursued a policy of selective internment. They targeted the leaders of the German Australian
community — including honorary consuls and pastors of the Lutheran Church, businessmen and the destitute.
Some internees had been accused of being disloyal by neighbours or had come to the attention of the police by
accident. Internment in Australia was regulated by the War Precautions Act 1914 and internees could be held
without trial.
Internment Camps were established at Rottnest Island in Western Australia, Torrens Island in South Australia,
Enoggera in Queensland, Langwarrin in Victoria and Bruny Island in Tasmania.
In New South Wales the main internment camp was at the Holsworthy Military Camp where between 5000 and
6000 men were detained. Women and children of German and Austrian descent, detained by the British in Asia,
were interned at Bourke and later Molonglo near Canberra. Former gaols were also used, with men interned at
Trial Bay Gaol and Berrima Gaol.
In 1915 the Commonwealth Government decided to centralise the internment camps in New South Wales and
internees from the other States were transferred to the Holsworthy Internment Camp.
Life in the camps was varied. Trial Bay was an elite camp and had the most privileges, Berrima was a camp for
navy and merchant officers who led a regimented and self regulated life. Holsworthy was the most like a prison
camp of all the camps. Internees at all the camps formed management committees, theatre and arts groups, self
education classes, restaurants and cafes. There were strikes and riots over conditions at Trial Bay and
Holsworthy where the camp commandants quickly negotiated outcomes.
One of the most difficult problems of camp life for internees was sexual frustration, resulting from being
confined in an all male environment for years on end. The enforced celibacy led to a number of psychological
problems. Many internees experienced the symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders. Dr Max Hertz, one of
the prominent internees at Trial Bay, who was also camp doctor and an internationally renowned orthopaedic
surgeon from Sydney, reported on ‘self abuse’ and the ‘ugly side’ of the sexual question.
The Australian Government was very serious in sending a message back to Germany that the internees were
well looked after so that Australian prisoners of war in Germany received the same treatment from their
German captors. Like most wars, despite the propaganda portraying each other as monsters, when communities
meet each other they realise they have more in common than not.
Rottnest Island Internment Camp
Rottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia near Fremantle. Rottnest Island had been used as a
prison and then a tourist destination before the Commonwealth Government took it over at the outbreak of
World War One for use as an internment camp. The internment camp was located at Thomson Bay.
Rottnest Island Map, c.1920. Courtesy National Library of Australia
A large number of those interned at Rottnest Island were Austrian Slavs forced out of work from the Kalgoorlie
mines. Since their homelands were under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they were considered
enemy aliens. Australian trade unions used this as an excuse to remove ‘foreign’ workers from the Australian
labour market. Other internees and prisoners of war were Austrian and Italian.
The Rottnest Island camp also housed the Western Australian German Consul General and crews of the German
merchant vessels SS Greifswald, SS Thüringen and SS Neumünster captured off Fremantle at the outset of war.
The first internee arrivals to Rottnest Island lived in stone houses. Later arrivals had to make do with the tents
originally erected for short tourist stays. Sanitation in the camp was poor, food supplies could be insufficient
and internees were required to do their own cooking at their tents as there was no camp kitchen. The records
contain complaints about these conditions and also about mistreatment by guards. Despite this, the internees
made efforts to make their time in the camp more enjoyable. They formed a band and football team, held
lectures, opened a café and enjoyed the beach and the sea.
The internees and guards needed day to day items like tobacco and coffee etc which was supplied by the State
Store on the island operated by the Western Australian Tourism Department. The State Store had the monopoly
on the island and over charged the internees and guards. After complaints the Military Commander of the Camp
authorised the transportation of goods from the mainland to be sold at cheaper prices at the Camp Canteen as
happened in other camps. The Western Australian Government complained to the Prime Minister Andrew
Fischer about the loss of revenues from the trade with internees. The Prime Minister responded ‘it is not
considered that the department is bound to give the State Store the monopoly of the prisoner of war trade as
long as the camp remains at Rottnest’.
After complaints from internees about the treatment and conditions and constant bickering with the State
Government, the Commonwealth closed the Rottnest Island camp in 1915.
The Rottnest Island camp held almost 1000 men prior to its closure in late 1915. The internees were transferred
first to Garden Island Internment Camp in Western Australia and then to Holsworthy in New South Wales.
Torrens Island Internment Camp
Torrens Island Internment Camp, c.1914 – 1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The Torrens Island Internment Camp was a World War I concentration camp located on Torrens Island in the
Port River Estuary near Adelaide in South Australia. Up to 400 ‘enemy aliens’ were interned at the Torrens Island
Internment Camp which opened on 9 October 1914. Internees were mainly of German or Austro-Hungarian
background, including some who were naturalised British citizens. Some internees were crew members of
enemy nationality who were taken from ships in Australian ports.
In South Australia, a relatively high percentage of migrants were of German background, and so the ‘enemy
alien’ concept had a significant effect. Not all were held as internees in camps; some were required to report to
local police on a regular basis.
Conditions at the camp were very harsh, with the internees being housed in tents and made to cater for their
own cooking requirements, including growing their own food. Despite these hardships, the inmates managed to
organise cultural events and entertainment, and even published a number of editions of a camp newsletter
called Der Kamerad.
In early 1915, the camp was placed under the command of Captain G. E. Hawkes and conditions worsened, with
reports of physical abuse and ill-treatment. The third issue of Der Kamerad reported the flogging and whipping
of recaptured escapees. Torrens Island Internment Camp ‘… had by far the worst reputation of all internment
camps in the Commonwealth’ (Fischer, p. 194).
After the internees made their complaints public, Hawkes was removed from his command and the Department
of Defence held two courts of inquiry into the running of the camp. After the findings of a court of enquiry into
this treatment of internees was submitted, the Defence Department closed the camp on 16 August 1915. The
federal government had also decided to close regional camps that had been set up in the early years of the war.
Many prisoners, including South Australian internees, were transferred to the Holsworthy Camp.
Der Kamerad, No.2, 19 June 1915. Courtesy the State Library of South Australia
Molonglo Internment Camp
Molonglo Internment Camp Post Office, c.1918. Courtesy the National Archives of Australia
The Molonglo camp was located outside of Canberra, in what was then called the Federal Capital Territory (now
Australian Capital Territory). It was established late in the war for the arrival of 5000 German and Austrian men,
women and children from China and east Africa. However these internees never arrived, so the German families
interned at Bourke, New South Wales, were transferred to family accommodation there. The families of local
men interned at Holsworthy petitioned the Commonwealth Government for accommodation there too, but the
Government knocked back the petition because the Department felt they dind not have financial and material
resources available for the foreign deportees.
Bourke Internment Camp
Internees in the old Bourke Gaol, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
German families deported from the Straits Settlements (now Singapore and Malaysia), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),
Fiji and Hong Kong, as well as some local internees lived at Bourke in far western New South Wales. They were
not housed in enclosed concentration camps like Holsworthy. Those who could afford it rented small cottages in
town, and others were accommodated in the gaol and later in a disused hotel.
The families had the freedom to move around the town during the day, but there was little to do there. The
small number of internees meant that camp cultural programs and sporting activities did not develop as they did
at Holsworthy, Trial Bay and Berrima.
In 1918, the internees were moved from Bourke to the newly-built camp at Molonglo.
Enoggera Internment Camp
Enoggera Internment Camp, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Internees at Enoggera Internment Camp, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The Enoggera Internment Camp was located next to an existing army camp in suburban Brisbane, Queensland. It
housed 140 internees, including the non-military officers and crew of German merchant ships caught in Brisbane
at the outbreak of war. Many of the men were married and had families who were not interned and were left to
fend for themselves. For the first five months until March 1915, the internees were able to leave the camp
during daylight hours and seek work in the nearby area. The camp was closed in August 1915 and the internees
were transferred to Holsworthy Camp.
Langwarrin Internment Camp
The entrance to the camp at the Venereal Hospital at Langwarrin, Victoria, c.1915 – 1918. Courtesy Australian
War Memorial
Langwarrin Internment Camp was situated on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne. It housed up
to 500 internees in poor conditions. Most internees lived in tents and the facilities for washing and bathing were
inadequate. Some internees built huts at their own expense. Internees worked to improve the camp, building
fences, clearing ground and improving the water supply and they were paid for this work.
German, Austrian and Turks living in Victoria were detained at Langwarrin as ‘enemy aliens’. In November 1915
there were 769 Germans, 104 Austrians and 72 Turks in the camp. Initially they lived in tents, sleeping on straw
mattresses and were given 5 gallons of water each per day as well as food. They were paid between 1 and 3
shillings (10 – 30 cents) a day if they chose to work. In April 1915 the Department of Defence approved the
expenditure for the building of huts. The frames were to be built in Melbourne and the Internees were to
complete the huts under the supervision of the Camp Commandant.
Langwarrin camp closed in 1915 and most of the internees were transferred to Holsworthy Camp in New South
Wales. By December 1917 only 326 detainees remained at Langwarrin and some remained until 1919 to work at
the nearby venereal diseases hospital. Langwarrin was used intermittently as a transit camp for internees
transferring from other states to Holsworthy Camp.
Bruny Island Internment Camp
Soldiers training at the Claremont Army Camp in the First World War Courtesy State Library of Tasmania
The temporary internment camp established in Tasmania was at Claremont then moved to Bruny Island. The
camp had nearly fifty prisoners by early 1915 when it was closed and the internees moved to Holsworthy.
Trial Bay Internment Camp
Trial Bay Gaol, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The first group of Trial Bay internees disembark from the SS Yulgilbar in August 1915. Dubotzki collection,
Germany
The Trial Bay Gaol was not well prepared for the first internees who were accommodated in tents. Early photos
show a number of white tents inside and outside the Gaol walls. Most of the internees were finally
accommodated in the cells of the two wings. The interned Consuls and officers were accommodated in wooden
barracks that were located between the walls and the main building. Towards the end of 1916, they were
moved to wooden barracks on the outside, to the left of the Gaol overlooking Trial Bay. The Australian
Government did not provide all the blankets and bedding required until many weeks after the internees arrived.
At Trial Bay the internees were under the continuous military guard of 100 men and three officers, c.1916.
Dubotzki collection, Germany
Internees swimming with Arakoon village the background, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
To fill in the day the internees fished, swam, played tennis and walked, often outside the Gaol walls within an
area fenced in by wire laid across the peninsula. The gates to the Gaol were opened at 6am and closed at 6pm.
At night the internees slept in the unlocked Gaol cells (two per cell), and in wooden barracks built between the
walls and cell blocks and in tents on the grounds. Additional huts were erected by the internees outside the
walls, and huts were built above the beach for recreational use during the day.
Roll Call, c.1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The main building formed the hub of the Trial Bay Camp. In the main building were the kitchens and dining
room. The two story cell blocks jutted out at 45 degrees from this. The imposing walls were complete with
watch towers and a gate house surrounded the Gaol buildings. The Australian military authorities promoted
segregation of the internees according to rank and status. The officers were given separate sleeping, dining and
mess rooms in the barracks outside the Gaol.
Inside a hut at Trial Bay, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
At Trial Bay the elite of the German civilian internees were confined. Among them were professionals,
academics, businessmen and the German Consuls from New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western
Australia. Many of the internees had lived in British Territories of South East Asia. A remarkable feature of the
Trial Bay Camp was its cosmopolitan atmosphere. Pictured are Internees in one of the barracks circa 1915.
Life at Trial Bay
Life at Trial Bay was strictly regulated with the daily routine governed by a schedule. Reveille or wake up was at
6:30am, Sick parade 7:45am, Breakfast 8:00am, Roll Call 9:00am, Inspection of Barracks 10:00am, Dinner (lunch)
1:00pm, Roll Call 5:00pm, Tea (Dinner) 5:30pm & Lights Out 10:00pm.
Until September 1917, the internees were supplied with the same rations given to Australian soldiers. From
September onwards these were reduced to ‘Imperial Rations” based on the rations supplied to Prisoners of War
in Britain. The official rations were basic but adequate. However the internees had other sources of food such as
vegetables from the internees’ garden and fish caught at the beach and other items sold at the canteen. There
was a gourmet restaurant at the Camp named ‘The Duck Coop’ that was run by an entrepreneurial restaurateur.
It offered fine food to internees who could afford it.
The activities of the internees transformed Trial Bay into a thriving place for sport and culture. Leisure as well as
competitive sporting activities were organised by a number of private clubs. The Turnverein athletics club had
the largest membership. The boxing, bowling and chess clubs also drew large crowds. Two choral societies
performed German folksongs.
While the freedom allowed to internees created a holiday spirit there was another side to daily life in the Camp.
This was the experience of forced confinement and boredom. The shock of life in Gaol cells created a new
identity for men who had been removed from their communities and families. Most of the internees
experienced feelings of isolation, lack of privacy and monotony.
Causes for friction are popping up everywhere and you have to pull yourself together all the time in order to
avoid confrontations. Things get easily out of dimension and people become irritable and touchy due to the long
imprisonment. You just can’t avoid it. Some days the mood is following the course of the war, one day there’s
high tension and then again one is doomed to wait and wait.
W. Daehne, Diary entry Sunday 21 April 1918, ML MSS 261/3 Item 18.
Internee’s quarters in one of the cells, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Some internees had to sleep in the stone, cold cells. Initially the cells were empty and the internees had to make
the furniture themselves.
The relations between the internees and the Camp guards were formal and tense. Unlike the men at Berrima
who lived in the naval regimentation of Officer and sailors, the Trial Bay internees were more inclined to
protest. This generated ongoing conflict between internees and the guards.
In January 1916, the internees went on strike after one described by the guards as an ‘unceasing trouble maker’
was sent to Holsworthy for a minor incident.
Internee work party cutting wood, c.1915 -16. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Men who were leaders in business and the professions now fronted up for supervised voluntary work on wages
of one shilling for an hour of work of hard manual labour clearing bush or road works. The internees work
occupied them dissuaded sedition and protest.
The Kommissionen
The internees contributed to improved conditions in their Camp by their own efforts and persistence in
negotiating with Camp administrators. According to the convention for dealing with prisoners of war the
Australian military provided for a committee to be elected to deal with the general welfare of the Camp. A
degree of self government was granted to the internees to improve the morale of the Camp and lines of
communication were established between the committee and the Camp commandant.
Several subcommittees or Kommissionen were established to oversee education, library, theatre, music,
kitchen, bakery, post and the most importantly the canteen.
The Camp Kommissionen ran adult and continuing education programs on science, arts and literature, finance
and management. Language courses were held in a separate building called the Berlitz School that included
European languages and Chinese and Malay.
Welt am Montag from 1916, Trial Bay Gaol collection. Photograph Stephen Thompson
The Camp’s newspaper Welt am Montag (World on Monday) played an important role at Trial Bay and was the
only known publication of its kind in Australia at the time free from censorship, which highlights the
extraordinary status and special privileges of the Camp. The circulation was by subscription and restricted to the
camp.
Arts & Crafts
Children’s toys made by internees made in 1916 and 1917, Trial Bay Gaol collection. Photograph Stephen
Thompson
Many of the internees made models and toys for the children of internees. The design and manufacture of these
artefacts reflects the influence of German artistic and intellectual traditions.
Model Fokker aircraft ‘Eindecker’, c.1916, Trial Bay Gaol collection. Photograph by Stephen Thompson
An internee with his model of a bi-plane, c.1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Theatre Company & Orchestra
The theatre in Trial Bay opened on the 17th August 1916 in a timber barn that seated 280 people. The Camp’s
orchestra also performed there. Performances were held on Saturday and Sunday nights. A new play premiered
every weekend. The theatre performed 56 plays in 1917. The plays were dramas and comedies to stimulate the
intellect and provide a diversion to the daily grind.
The orchestra and music played an important part in the Camp’s social environment. A particular significant
performance was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C-Minor. It was seen as a metaphor of the Great War, of
Germany’s fate and a hopeful outcome.
Internee Theatre Company, c.1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The company had 60 historical costumes and a considerable amount of modern clothing for men and women, all
of which was made by the internees. All women’s roles were played by men. Pictured left is R. Lehmann
costumed as ‘Kaina in Arms’ and above an example of the costumes & sets made by the Internees
Program for the production of Max Halbe’s Jugend (Youth) c.1917. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Kurt Wiese illustration, July 1917. Trial Bay Gaol collection
Kurt Wiese who was taken prisoner by the Americans in 1917 went on to become a head of the illustration
section of Disney Animation after the War working on features such as Bambi released in 1942 and later
illustrated the famous Freddy the Pig series of children’s books.
The Trial Bay Internment Camp Closure
The internees march from the gaol to the wharf at South West Rocks to board a steamer SS Yulgilbar for Sydney,
1918. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The Internment Camp was closed in July 1918 and internees moved to Holsworthy in anticipation of the end of
the war and to prepare for the deportation of all internees to Germany. A total of 6,150 internees were
deported from Sydney on various ships during 1919. Another reason for the closure of the camp were the
persistent rumours that the exposed coastal location made it possible for the internees to make contact with
passing German vessels. In 1917 it was reported that internees made radio contact with the German raider
S.M.S Wolf which had been in the vicinity. A second report predicted German vessels would again be off the
coast in 1918. The Royal Australian Naval Intelligence Service warned that an attempt to rescue the prisoners
was considered likely by means of fast sea launches or motor boats. The Royal Australian Naval Intelligence
Service recommended that the Camp be closed. This was a reaction to war time hysteria, rumour and gossip.
Trial Bay Gaol site in 2007. Photograph Stephen Thompson
The Monument
Construction of the Stone Cairn, c.1918. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Monument to Eckert and Albrecht at Trial Bay Gaol 2007. Photograph Stephen Thompson
Prior to their departure a stone cairn (monument) had been built by the internees on the hill above Laggers
Point in memory of five former comrades who had died during their period of detention. The bodies of three
internees, Conrad Peter (1877 – 1917), Herman I.W. Adam (1879 -1915) and Arno Friedrich (1888 – 1917), were
buried at the cairn site. It was during the construction of this cairn that the communication with the S.M.S Wolf
was said to have occurred. The cairn was destroyed in July 1919, probably by anti German vandals. The
monument was rebuilt in 1959 as a gesture of post- World War II goodwill with funds provided by the West
German Government and assistance from the Macleay Shire Council and Rotary Club of Kempsey. Two other
internees, Hurst Eckert and Heinrich Albrecht, commemorated at the site died at hospitals in Sydney in 1917.
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Enemy At HomeWWI Australia's home front experience
WWI Australia's home front experienceGerman Australian CommunityAustrian Slav Miners of Western
AustraliaGerman Mariners and TradersBattle of Broken Hill and repercussions for the German Community
Paul Dubotzki: The forgotten collection
Paul Dubotzki: The forgotten collectionPaul Dubotzki Gallery
The Camps and the System of Internment
The Camps and the System of InternmentRottnest Island Internment CampTorrens Island Internment
CampMolonglo Internment CampBourke Internment CampEnoggera Internment CampLangwarrin Internment
CampBruny Island Internment CampTrial Bay Internment CampBerrima Internment CampHolsworthy
Internment Camp
The AftermathMap of Enemy at HomeEducation ResourcesFurther reading
Statements of SignificanceLinksPublication
Credits
© NSW Migration Heritage Centre 2011
Berrima Internment Camp
Kriegsgefangenen- Lager Berrima, Drawn by Menke 28th September 1917. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Berrima roll call, April 1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Internees at Moss Vale Railway Station March, 1915. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
In March 1915 the first group of 89 internees arrived on foot at Berrima. The gaol was hastily cleaned up and
made secure. The internees’ luggage had not arrived and there was no furniture. They were supplied with basic
sleeping materials and they had to cook their own food. It was out of this sombre mood that the men named
the gaol Ahnenschloss (Castle Foreboding). The internees were mainly officers from German merchant steamers
caught in Australian ports at the outbreak of war and the officers from the SMS Emden, a light cruiser sunk by
the HMAS Sydney off the Cocos Island in 1914.
Later the internees from the German Australian Line received beds from the company store. Internees who had
money were able to order beds from furniture stores, while the majority had to build their furniture from
timber found in the forest. The cells were very uncomfortable; freezing in winter, though cool in summer. Over
time, the cells were made more comfortable.
The remodelling of the gaol in 1869 made it capable of housing 140 prisoners and their guards. By the end of
1915 there were nearly 200 internees. By 1918 the gaol was overcrowded with almost 300 internees. Internees
were locked up at night but after morning roll call they were free to roam within a two mile radius during the
day, returning for evening muster at 5pm.
Life at Berrima
Since the internees were allowed to free range, the village residents were made very aware of them from the
first day. It was something of a culture shock when the newcomers appeared in the streets with foreign accents
and culture. The arrival of the internees and the guards doubled Berrima’s population overnight. This might
have caused resentment and hostility, but the Berrima villagers soon accepted the strangers as ordinary people
making the best of the circumstances.
Because of their maritime background, most of the internees spoke adequate English and had little difficulty in
communicating. They were polite and well behaved, buying large quantities of bread, meat and provisions from
the local stores. Some rented houses for their families who had come to live near them. But it was not just the
economic benefits that made the internees popular. It was their goodwill, ability and industry that the majority
of the villagers came to appreciate. The internees were often called by village women to remove snakes from
their houses and they saved the Berrima School from a bushfire.
The internees created a pleasure garden and a flotilla of canoes on the Wingecarribee River. By 1915 the fame of
the Germans’ bridge, huts and gardens had spread far beyond Berrima. People from other areas came to
sightsee, swim and picnic. All were anxious to see the Germans, or ‘Huns’. It was ironic that the internees, in the
middle of the war, brought about Berrima’s first tourism industry. Some people came to pick fights and cause
trouble.
The solution was for the internees to erect a high barbed wire fence enclosing 17.5 acres on the left bank of the
river known as ‘The Compound’. It retained a small section for the exclusive use of the internees. The stretch of
water in front of the compound was for internees and civilians, except when large numbers of tourists were
expected. The right bank was free for all to use. It was expected that villas and huts would only be built within
the compound, but soon the huts extended far beyond its fences.
The internees came to the rescue of Prince, c.1916. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
Prince was a valuable horse that had fallen into a large underground cistern. Prince was rescued by the mariners
who, with a system of ropes and planks, and a large version of a boson’s chair, lifted the horse out.
The Hansa Bridge, c.1916. Photograph David Speer. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Schloss am Meer (Castle by the Sea) hut of the SMS Emden prisoners of war, c.1916. Courtesy of the Berrima
District Museum
Dolls house toys made by an internee, c.1916. Berrima District Museum Collection. Photograph Stephen
Thompson
Wilhelm Köster’s Service Record Book 1909 – 1915. Berrima District Museum Collection. Photograph Stephen
Thompson
D.A.D.G. Banner c.1916. Berrima District Museum Collection. Photograph Stephen Thompson
The Guards
Framed memento of 20th Berrima Guard April 1916. Berrima District Museum Collection. Photograph Lyn Hall
The 29th Berrima Guard, c.1917. The 29th was known as the ‘Permanent Guard’ as they served the longest.
Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum.
Berrima and Trial Bay were satellite camps of the very large Holsworthy Camp at Liverpool. The German
Concentration Camp Guard was made up of units of 25 men which were rotated frequently between camps. The
system of rotations was aimed not only to minimise guards becoming too friendly with the internees, but also to
reduce any opportunity for guards to exploit internees. Initially the Guard units were rotated fortnightly, then
monthly from 1915 until 1917 when the 29th Guard was on duty for most of the year.
Generally the relationship between the guards and the internees was of mutual tolerance, respect and
friendliness. Like the experience at Trial Bay, internees were allowed as much freedom and independence as
possible.
Camp Committee
The Management Committee, February 1917. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
The Camp Canteen, c.1916. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
While Berrima Camp was formally controlled by the Australian Army, the day-to-day management was left
largely to the Camp Committee consisting of ships’ captains, officers and seamen. The Committee dealt with the
organisation of the camp in liaison with the camp Commandant.
Gymnastics, wrestling, football, swimming and athletics were organised to promote health and fitness. Work
parties cleared and prepared the sporting areas and vegetable gardens.
Funding came from the camp canteen which was managed as a commercial enterprise. The internees ran it to
trade German delicacies from Sydney. This enabled the purchase of vegetable seeds; the renting of grounds for
the growing of crops; buying instruments for the camp orchestra and purchasing materials to make Christmas
presents for the children of the camp. Funds were also used to employ internees who received no wages from
their companies.
Education classes were established. English was popular as all letters sent out of the camp had to be written in
English. Other classes included theatre, music, carpentry, joinery, shorthand, photography, sketching and
painting. Classes on navigation and marine skills were given by Captains for juniors aiming to take qualifying
examinations after the war. Wireless courses were popular as a simple crystal radios could pick up local
transmissions. Often the internees knew the latest world news well before the villagers.
Kyritz – Pyritz (Hocus-Pocus), a revue with songs to provide a satirical view of topical subjects, c.1916. Courtesy
of the Berrima District Museum
Internees’ canoes on the River, c.1916. The canoe to the right is Störtebeker. Courtesy of the Berrima District
Museum
Störtebeker hull on display at Berrima District Museum in 2009. Berrima District Museum Collection. Photograph
Lyn Hall
Internee’s zither, c.1900. Berrima District Museum Collection. Courtesy Historic Houses Trust NSW
Zither cover, c.1900. Berrima District Museum Collection. Courtesy Historic Houses Trust NSW
Zither players Ernst Schönfuss and Karl Pfingst rehearse at the internees’ river hut Alstertal Villa c.1916.
Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
Camp improvements were carried out by the internees that included the introduction of a water supply from
the river and the installation of a generator well before the village received power. This was no doubt driven by
the internees’ theatre group for more flexible stage lighting.
Many of the shipping companies’ shore-based employees had lived in Australia for some time before the war.
Most had Australian friends who provided many books to the library that had been transported complete from
the German Club in Singapore. The Committee also supplied books. The library contained books relevant to the
various classes held and a comprehensive collection of German classics and general literature.
Family Life
The guards outside their new quarters c.1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The former guards’ residence c.2006. Photograph Stephen Thompson
The Hurtzig family outside the second house they shared with the Glinz family, c.1917. Courtesy of the Berrima
District Museum
There were five families that sought to be close to their husbands and fathers in the camp: the Hurtzigs, Glinzs,
Jepsons, Brauns and Wallners. Later the Machotka family arrived to discover that most of the suitable rental
houses had been taken by internees.
The Glinz and Hurtzig families had to share a house. This house was the large, two-storied stone house that still
stands outside the south-eastern corner of the gaol. It had been the residence of the gaol superintendent and
for a while the Guard. Frau Hurtzig would never have moved had her husband told her how dirty the place was.
Frau Hurtzig wrote in her diary, I pray never again to have to clean up after a mob of soldiers. The large house
conveniently divided into two self-contained areas by closing and locking several of the internal doors. In August
1918 all internees with families were relocated to Molonglo Camp.
Two other identifiable houses that still stand in Berrima were occupied by the Brauns and the Wallners. The
Brauns initially lived in the house now named Sovereign Cottage, in Argyle Street next to the court house. Later
they moved and the Wallners moved in. Frau Jepsen eventually moved from the boarding house and took a
cottage which, according to Frau Hurtzig was so far away from us that she could neither hear the sounds of the
soldiers nor see the activities at the camp.
Die Deutsche Tochterschule Berrima:The German Girls’ School Berrima
Principal of the Berrima Girls’ School, Dierke Voss with students Hanna Hurtzig, Carmen Machotka and her sister
Eva, 1917. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
The school was in a bush hut on the right bank of the river up from Hansa Bridge. It was easily reached by the
girls from Wilshire Street, c.1917. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
The Tochterschule was housed in a bark hut located on the right bank of the river upstream from the Hansa
Bridge. It was easily reached by the girls who had only to step from their houses and walk a short distance from
the village.
The Committee equipped the Tochterschule with a blackboard, tables, chairs, books, charts and writing slates.
Subjects offered depended on the availability of competent people to teach, with a good range of subjects
offered.
The Camp Closes
Early in the morning of 12 August 1919. At least five large wagons and drays were loaded with the internees’
baggage. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
The last roll call was taken. Then the internees formed a column for the march to Moss Vale Station, 12 August
1919. Courtesy of the Berrima District Museum
SS Ypiranga: First steamer to enter Sydney Harbour flying the league of Nations Flag 1914 – 1919. SS Ypiranga of
the White Star Line that took most of the Berrima internees back to Germany in 1919. Courtesy of the Berrima
District Museum
In 1917, German submarines began to attack American cargo and passenger ships, drawing the United States
into the war. Meanwhile a revolution in Russia changed the government which made a treaty with Germany.
Germany’s allies Austria and Turkey, weary of the war, gave up. Without support an overwhelmed Germany had
to accept defeat. In November 1918 the guns were silenced and an Armistice signed. The internees expected to
be on their way home within weeks.
The war did not formally end until Germany signed the Peace Treaty in June 1919. This led to 10 months of
waiting, creating depression among all. This mood was exacerbated when the oppressive peace terms
demanded by the Allies were fully realised. When news reached Berrima of the vandalisation of the Trial Bay
Memorial to four companions who had died there, the internees vowed to burn their huts and sink their canoes
rather than leave them as a memorial.
On 12 August 1919 the internees assembled to depart. The Berrima Guard took the head and rear of the column
and the band struck up Muss i’ denn, muss i’ denn aus Städlein (Now, now must I from this little town). At the
Surveyor General Hotel the procession stopped and the men gave three cheers then marched to Moss Vale
railway station. Many of the villagers had mixed feelings as the internees not only brought an alternative culture
but prosperity to the village.
The train took the internees directly to Pyrmont wharf in Sydney. There the SS Ypiranga, a former HAL steamer
seized by the Allies, was berthed. It would take 950 internees from Berrima and Holsworthy and 200 men,
women and children deported from other parts of Australia, to Germany.
Trial Bay camp closed in July 1918 and the internees transferred to Holsworthy Camp for repatriation.
next »
Holsworthy Internment Camp
Liverpool Internment Camp 1914 – 1918 post card. Dubotzki collection, Germany.
Holsworthy Internment Camp, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The largest internment camp in Australia during World War One was at Holsworthy, near Liverpool on the
outskirts of Sydney. The camp held between 4,000 and 5,000 internees, most were either from the AustroHungarian empire, staff of German companies temporarily living in Australia, crews of vessels caught in
Australian ports and naturalised and native born Australians of German descent. Prisoners were interned
without trial, often without knowing their “crime”, and without the knowledge of their families.
Some were brought from camps in other Australian states that were closed early in the war. Many from
Western Australia, who had been employed in gold fields around Kalgoorlie, had originally come from states
within the Austro-Hungarian Empire such as Serbia and Croatia. About 700 of those interned were naturalised
British subjects, and 70 were Australian born. Despite this many of these internees were deported to Germany
after the war.
Holsworthy Internment Camp, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
The camp grew from a collection of tents to a small town of huts complete with theatres, restaurants and cafes,
other small businesses, an orchestra and sporting and educational activities. Physical conditions in the camp
were difficult. Living conditions were overcrowded and sanitary facilities were basic. There were also reports of
corrupt or brutal guards working in the camp.
The camp was overcrowded and political and ethnic differences were everywhere. Heat, cold, dust, boredom,
and stress about families and businesses led to a malaise called ‘barbed wire disease’. Guards taunted and shot
at the internees. Some internees suicided and others tried to escape. The most troublesome prisoners were
housed in a high security gaol known as ‘Sing Sing’.
Hard work helped to relieve the boredom and overcome the problems. The internees built their own barracks
and furniture, the administrative buildings and watch towers, and all but the first 2.2km of the railway line from
Liverpool. Regular arts and craft competitions, theatre and music nights and other activities were organised.
Life at Holsworthy
Of all the camps Holsworthy was the harshest and resembled a prison in the true sense of the word. A strict
regime of control was enforced by the camp authorities. Raids often turned up stills and grog making faculties.
Internees were seldom allowed out of the camp confines and here boredom and melancholy took hold. In early
1915 there were riots over rations and work duties that were subdued by negotiations between the camp
commandant Colonel Sands and the Camp Committee. In order to keep the camp under control Sands ran the
camp firmly. Troublesome internees were singled out and thrown into solitary confinement in the camp gaol.
There were regular searches for contraband and weapons. The internees were not allowed to free range like
those at Berrima or Trial Bay and were kept behind barb wire fences and watched over by guards with a
mounted machine gun in a substantial watchtower on the southern perimeter.
Further riots occurred in 1916 when a crime gang calling itself the Black Hand assaulted and extorted money and
goods from fellow internees.
Many artefacts and objects were made at Holsworthy, but most of these have been lost or forgotten over time.
Images from the various albums reflect a more institutionalised culture like that of a prison. They show defiance
in the production of German national symbols and culture. They are not the artistic photography of Trial Bay or
the children’s toys or canoes and water craft of Berrima. There were no friendly relationships between guards
and internees like those at Berrima. In fact at Holsworthy an internee was killed during a breakout attempt.
The Camp Committee
The Canteen, Holsworthy Internment Camp, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Like Trial Bay and Berrima the Australian Army managed the operation and functions of the Holsworthy Camp.
The internal policing, educational, cultural and social activities were left largely to the Camp Committee made
up from the internee population. Like Trial Bay and Berrima the Committee dealt with the organisation of the
camp in liaison with the camp Commandant.
Gymnastics, wrestling, football, swimming and athletics were organised to promote health and fitness. Work
parties cleared and prepared the sporting areas and vegetable gardens.
Funding for theatre, arts and publications came from the camp canteen and café which was managed as a
commercial enterprise. The internees ran it to trade German delicacies from Sydney. This enabled the purchase
of vegetable seeds; materials for the theatre; buying instruments for the camp orchestra and purchasing
materials for the arts and competition held regularly in the camp. Funds were also used to employ internees
who received no wages from their companies or families.
All profits from the canteen were returned to the internees either through the Camp Committee to be used for
general camp purposes or distributed in the form of a cash bonus to each internee.
Education classes were established. English was popular as all letters sent out of the camp had to be written in
English. Other classes included theatre, music, carpentry, joinery, shorthand, photography, sketching and
painting.
Arts and Crafts
Internee crafts, c.1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Internee’s scale model of the SMS Emden, Holsworthy Internment Camp, c.1915. Photograph Heinrich Jacobsen,
Dubotzki Collection, Germany
Liverpool Internee’s scale model of the ‘Liverpool Lager’, c.1915. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Craft making and theatre and other cultural activities where pursued at Holsworthy as they were at Trial Bay
and Berrima, but the overarching atmosphere of the place was confinement, deprivation of liberty and constant
surveillance. Unlike the internees at Trial Bay and Berrima, the Holsworthy internees were treated as prisoners.
As a consequence the Holsworthy Camp developed a reputation among the NSW German community as a place
of harsh punishment. Camp Commanders at Trial Bay and Berrima often sent recalcitrant offenders to
Holsworthy as a sign that despite having liberties and privileges, disobedience would not be tolerated.
The camp newsletter Kamp Spiegel produced by the internees gave a running commentary of politics, the local
German perspective on the progress of the war and an insight to the conditions and grievances of life at the
camp.
Theatre and music
Liverpool Theatre Program covers, c.1915- 1916. Dubotzki collection, Germany.
Interior of the Deutsches Theater, Holsworthy Internment Camp, c1915–1919, Photograph Heinrich Jacobsen,
Dubotzki collection, Germany
Holsworthy Camp had the German Theatre Society who staged and managed theatrical and musical
performances. The theatre was funded from the profits for the Liverpool canteen in a similar fashion to Berrima
and Trial Bay.
The theatre was initially housed in a big Army surplus tent and later in a hut built by the internees. The theatre
provided a venue fort serious approach to theatric productions such as Der zerbrochene Krug (‘The broken jug’)
by Heinrich von Kleist. However it was the gang shows and cabarets that were the most popular providing an
opportunity to parody themselves, the guards and their predicament. More than 70 shows were performed at
the theatre.
Camp orchestras, instrumental bands and choirs were held in self-made bandstands playing the popular tunes of
the day and classic pieces. Crews of German mercantile vessels had a long history of staging concerts in the
pergolas of parks near the port where their ship in dock. The main source of musicians was from the ships bands
among the internees
The Camp Newspaper
Kampspiegel Monatshefte, 1918, Liverpool Regional Museum collection, Photograph Stephen Thompson
Kamp Spiegel, 1916, Liverpool Regional Museum collection, Photograph Stephen Thompson
Kamp Spiegel was published from 1916 to 1917. Ludwig Schröder published the weekly newspaper Kampspiegel
Wochenschrift which ran from April 1917. In April 1918 it was renamed Kampspiegel Monatshefte and ran
monthly until late 1918. All three newspapers were financed by subscriptions and advertisements for businesses
in the camp.
The Black Hand
In 1915 a criminal gang began operating in the camp. It was reported that this gang was called the Black Hand
Society. The Black Hand Society was formed in 1911 in Serbia. The Black Hand Society wanted an independent
Serbian nation free from Austrian control and was responsible for the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand that
was the catalyst for Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia which ignited World War One.
The term ‘The Black Hand’ has also been used by other criminal organised crime gangs such as the Italian mafia
in America and Australia from the 1910s. From the evidence it appears the Black Hand gang operating at
Holsworthy were a group of petty criminals led by Portman.
Portman was a sailor based in Melbourne who had been interned at Langwarrin, Victoria before being
transferred to Holsworthy Camp on October 1915 when the trouble began. It appears from the evidence that
Portman was a no more than a petty criminal who sought to set up an organised crime gang in the camp,
enlisting other ne’er-do-well internees as members of the gang.
The Black Hand gang terrorised the other internees extorting money and services and sought to control the
camp community. The Camp Committee responsible for the internal policing of the camp population appeared
to be unable or unwilling to reign them in or provide the names of the ring leaders to the Camp Commandant
Colonel Sands. On the 19th April Portman was killed by the other internees.
The Black Hand gang were responsible for severely injuring and extorting money from many of the internees
from November 1915 to April 1916. It appears that the Camp Committee had become infiltrated by the Black
Hand gang and the camp organisation had become corrupted. The Committee refused to assist an inquiry held
by Colonel Sands who sought to deal with the situation.
On 18th April 1916 a general uprising took place among the camp population and the key members of the Black
Hand gang were rounded up, beaten and thrown over the main gate of the compound. A crowd gathered at the
gate yelling in English ‘these two men of the Black Hand Society have got what they deserved and there are
more to come’. Colonel Sands and a group of police went into the crowd who were armed with home made
batons and clubs, but no attempt was made to injure the police. Shortly after there was a ‘rush of Germans all
over the compound’ who were looking for the other four main members of the Back Hand gang. Colonel Sands
could have prevented this vigilante action ‘by shooting a great number of prisoners, which would not have been
justified as the Germans intentions, although brutal, were to rid themselves of this criminal element in the
camp’. After a few minutes four men were dragged down covered in blood and thrown over the main gate
where they were picked up by the camp guards and taken to the camp hospital.
Fourteen other Black Hand members were later arrested and thrown into the camp gaol and after that the Camp
quietened down to the usual routine.
From the evidence given at the Coronial Inquest into the death of Portman in Sydney on the 10 th of May 1916 it
is clear there was no political motive behind the Black Hand gang and extortion and stand over tactics was its
main objective.
The Camp Closes
Internees arrive at Darling Harbour to board MV Kursk for the journey back to Germany c.1919- 1920. Dubotzki
collection, Germany’
Internees on board MV Kursk in Sydney Harbour, c.1919- 1920. Dubotzki collection, Germany
MV Kursk in Sydney Harbour prior to departure for Germany, c.1919 -1920. Dubotzki collection, Germany
Holsworthy camp remained open until the last internees were deported to Germany in 1920. The total number
of people deported was 6,150. Of these, 5,414 people had been interned, the rest were family members or
those ordered by the Defence Department to leave the country. Over one thousand people appealed to the
Commonwealth Alien Board against deportation. Only 306 were successful. They included 179 naturalised or
native born Australians. The 306 were the only people allowed to stay from the 5,600 internees still at
Holsworthy at the end of the war.
In considering these appeals the Board disregarded all ties these people had to Australia. A mass protest letter
by deportees that pleaded for clemency “in the name of our wives, our children, our brides” fell on deaf ears.
One legal challenge was launched by Fredrick Meyer, who was naturalised and married in Australia with a child
and had run for state parliament before the war. In May 1920 he was told that his naturalisation had been
revoked and that the Minister for Defence had ordered his deportation. He appealed against this as an improper
use of power but the High Court found that both deportation and de-naturalisation were entirely at the
discretion of the Minister and Governor-General respectively and Meyer was deported the next day.
The Aftermath
The Enemy at Home experience of the German Australian Community is interesting as the first Germans came to
the colonies on the First Fleet, and by 1900 they were the fourth-largest European ethnic group in all the
colonies, behind the English, Irish and Scots. Most settled on the land, and place names like Hahndorf,
Hermannsburg and Fassifern resonate their presence. Others excelled as explorers, scientists, artists and
entrepreneurs – and the names Leichhardt, von Mueller, Strehlow, von Guérard and Resch feature prominently
in Australian history and culture. Shortly after World War One the German community virtually disappeared.
World War Two further vaporised any traces of this community.
The two world wars soured relations between Australia and Germany, halted immigration, and shadowed the
lives of many German-Australians. But the wounds healed surprisingly quickly, and the post World War 2
migrant ships brought a second wave of German settlers to work building the Snowy Hydro Electric Scheme
from 1949 to 1974. These ‘invisible’ immigrants proved to be popular New Australians.
Today, the baggage of war has dissipated with a new generation growing up without the prejudice or myths of
previous generations and the media. There are some 700,000 Australians of German heritage living in Australia
now. Notable contributors to social, economic and cultural life range from Harry Seidler, Tim Fischer, Ed
Kuepper and Darren Lehmann. The story of German Australian persecution in World War One has been gaining
traction in the minds of the new generation eager to unearth this unfortunate episode of Australian
migration history.