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Australia interned almost 7000 people in World War I internment camps. They included around 4500 enemy aliens and British nationals of German ancestry living in Australia.
Task 2 - Government Controls - Read the attached extract and answer the following questions:
List the 5 key restrictions on the 'Enemy Aliens' of German origin
Of the 5 restrictions listed above, which do you think had the greatest impact on the daily lives of Germans in Australia? Why?
Task 3 - Anti-Germanism - Read the attached extract, and then:
List 3 examples of Anti-German behaviour that occurred in Australia throughout WW1
Explain why such drastic measures were being taken by the general public and the government
Task 5 - Internment Camps - Popcorn Reading Activity
The Department of Defence classified 6890 men, women and children as ‘enemy aliens’ and sent them, for various periods of time, to internment camps. Internees had no right to trial, jury or information about the length of time they had to remain in the camp.
Most of the internees were of German or Austro-Hungarian background. Over two-thirds of them were Australian residents before World War I. They included people who had British citizenship, those who were second and third generation Australians and even those with family members serving in the AIF. The remainder (about 2400) were either Germans whom the British sent to Australia from British-controlled areas of South-East Asia or sailors who had been stranded here when war broke out.
Initially the government established camps in each of the six Australian states. In July 1915 it transferred all the internees to camps in New South Wales. The main internment camp was at Holsworthy, near Liverpool. The government also established:
a camp at Berrima for sailors and officers
a camp at Trial Bay for internees from South-East Asia and the Pacific
a camp at Bourke for other German nationals and their families.
For many, the train journey to the new camps in New South Wales was a humiliating experience. Guards forced them to wear handcuffs and showed little respect for the internees’ rights or property.
Internees responded to the boredom of camp life by organising their own entertainment, cultural events and sporting competitions:
At Berrima, internees made model boats and organised an exhibition to display them.
At Trial Bay, where many of the internees were artists, musicians and actors, they organised concerts, established a café and took up tennis, hockey and swimming to pass the time. The guards allowed some of them to sell their art and craft work to the local community.
Task 6 - Internment Camps
Study each of the attached sources describing the conditions of internment camps for 'Enemy Aliens'.
Write a diary entry imagining you are an inmate at an internment camp, referencing a detail from each source (highlight each of these details).
Extension Task - Read the attached article - World War I: Fighting 'the Huns' on the home front - German internment camps for 'enemy aliens' - ABC News
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