Berrima Internment Camp Huts Area

Berrima, meaning "southward" or "black swan" in the Aboriginal Tharawal language, is located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, 130 kilometres southwest of Sydney. The area is associated with the Dharawal people who lived and moved through the land from Port Jackson to the Shoalhaven River to Camden, following the seasonal food supply of the area.[1]

The Wingecarribee River running through Berrima, the fertile land and native vegetation in the land around the banks of the waterway would have provided the indigenous people an abundance of water, fish and edible plants.[1]

Situated on the Hume Highway, Berrima was first settled by Europeans in the 1830s with the plan that it would become an important regional administrative centre in the State. Located on the principal road to the south of the State, Berrima was well position to fulfil this dream. By the 1850s Its population had grown to around six hundred and at its peak, the town boasted thirteen inns that catered for travellers heading south or north along the major road. Berrima's prosperous times were short-lived. The construction of the Great Southern Railway in the 1860s, which ran through the towns of Mittagong, Bowral and Moss Vale, by-passed Berrima and as a result the once-bustling town rapidly declined. By the turn of the century, Berrima's population totalled 80 and many of its buildings had been abandoned.[1]

Completed in October 1839, Berrima Gaol's ten-metre-high outer walls were built close to the Wingecarribee River on the south western rear side. Located through the main gates of the gaol was a narrow yard and the services building consisting of the kitchens, laundry, storerooms and a small chapel. Through this building was a second larger yard with a centrally positioned tower block, with north, south and west two-storey cell blocks radiating from it forming a "T" configuration and smaller corner yards. The gaol's isolation cells were located in these corner yards. Most of the cells were small, 2.4 m square, however, there were larger cells, 2.4×3 m that served as duty rooms for guards and the infirmary.[2][1]

Still in operation today, Berrima Gaol is the oldest functioning gaol in Australia. The gaol was renown throughout the 19th Century as a "foreboding" place where hardened criminals were sent.[3] Flogging was common practice as was solitary confinement in the underground cells deprived of light and sound. In 1862 all convicts sentenced to five years or more by NSW courts were subjected to a year of solitary confinement at the gaol.[4][1]

The Berrima Gaol served as NSW's principal gaol until it closed its gates in 1909.[1]

In 1915, Berrima Gaol was reopened as an internment camp for German prisoners, serving as a satellite camp of the large Holsworthy Internment Camp at Liverpool, along with Trial Bay Gaol and a number of other facilities in the State.[1]

With the declaration of War in 1914, people of German origin and German property immediately became the "enemy". As Germany had a number of colonies in the South Pacific, there were quite a number of merchant ships in the ports and German shipping vessels in various Australian harbours at the time of the declaration. As a result, the ships were seized by the Australian Armed Forces while in port and German passengers and crew were detained. Other merchant ships were captured offshore by the Navy.[1]

Based on the British Government's concentration camp model during the Boer War (1899-1902), the Australian government adopted the principal by setting up concentration camps in each of the six States to intern the "alien enemy". By early 1915 there were almost 3,000 German internees in Australia. In order to aid communication between camps, to cut costs and to standardise the rules in terms of the treatment of prisoners, the concentration camps were closed in all states other than New South Wales and all internees were transferred to facilities within New South Wales. It was a long and unpleasant journey for many internees who travelled to New South Wales, some were handcuffed and some were treated roughly by officials.[1]

There were some internees who were granted a reprieve from being detained in the camps. They were allowed to live in the community providing they observed conditions of their parole such as reporting to the authorities on a regular basis.[1]

Holsworthy Internment Camp was the major camp to receive the large influx of internees who were being transported from region camps across Australia. There were also Department of Defence internment camps in Bourke in western NSW and Molonglo in the ACT.[1]

Two other sites, Trial Bay and Berrima Gaols were set up as satellite camps in early 1915. Berrima Concentration Camp was to be predominately for ships officers and sailors, and Trial Bay camp mainly held German internees of prominent social standing such as businessmen and professionals.[1]

The structure of Concentration Camps at the time was based initially on the British code of instructions "Royal Warrant", of August 1914. The constraints of the daily lives and treatment of the internees was later based on the Australian "Rules for the Custody of and Maintenance of Discipline among Prisoners of War in NSW". It outlined the compulsory requirements such as twice-daily roll call, rising and sleep and meal times. It also stated that an elected Internee Camp Committee would look after the "general welfare" of the internees and that Committee was to report to the Camp commandant. Under this main committee sat various other sub committees whose job it was to deal with various aspects of life in the camp such as recreation, theatre and music, kitchen services, education and other aspects.[1]

Arriving by train to Moss Vale and then on foot along the long and rough road, the first group of 89 German internees arrived at Berrima in March 1915. The Defence Department had done little to the gaol in preparation for its "new arrivals" other than clearing away the rubbish, making the buildings secure and building an observation platform and a small weatherboard hut for the Camp office. It was the condition of the gaol upon arriving that the internees named the place "Ahnenschloss Castle of Foreboding". They had no personal items as their luggage had not arrived, the prison cells that were to be their home were mostly empty of furniture and other than a very few provisions like two blankets, the makings for a mattress, and eating utensils, the internees had very little in the way of comfort. Food was supplied, however, the internees had to prepare and cook their own food.[5][1]

The majority of German internees to arrive at Berrima Camp were German merchant mariners, however, a minority of internees were prisoners of war from German colonies in the region and other men captured from the German Imperial Navy cruiser SMS Emden. A large proportion of the internees were middle to high-ranking merchantmen, including first officers, chief engineers and captains. Otto Pahnke and Robert Martens held very senior positions as senior supervisors of NGL and HAL lines. From photographs, Simons points out that photographic evidence suggests that these ranks were still observed at the camp level.[6][1]

Part of Germany's Pacific fleet, SMS Emden was quite an infamous Naval cruiser that had many an Allied warship in search of it soon after outbreak of war. Captained by Fregattenkapitan Karl von Müller, the Emden captured many Allied merchant mariners and either took over their vessels or sank them. Having carried out an impressive action and successful raid on Penang in the Battle of Penang where the SMS Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet, the cruiser steamed off to the Cocos Islands to destroy an important cable wireless communication station linking Australia with the rest of the world. A convoy of Australian and New Zealand warships heading to Colombo picked up wireless activity from SMS Emden and HMAS Sydney's English Captain Glossop gave the order for his vessel to break away from the convey to deal with the cruiser. Shells were fired from both vessels but the Emden was no match for the Sydney which eventually set the Emden on fire and blew away its control tower, bridge and severely damaged its steering. One hundred and thirty six of Captain von Muller's crew were killed and a further sixty-five badly injured before the Emden finally ran aground on a reef of Windward Island in the North Keeling Group.[1]

In the publication Prisoners in Arcady - German Mariners at Berrima 1915-1919, Simmons noted that the Emden men interned at the Berrima Concentration Camp included Chief Engineer Walter Bergien, Engineers Gerhardt Freund and Otto Fisher, Navigator Otto Monkeskieck and Bosun Karl Muller. Martin Meyer, also interned at Berrima was a young reservist who joined the Emden crew as vice navigator and soon after promoted to Lieutenant but was not on the vessel during its last days. This was the case with Bergien, Monkedieck and Muller.[1]

Daily life for the internees at Berrima Gaol was structured around morning roll call and evening roll call at 5:00 pm. Between these two defining events, the internees were free to wander within a two-mile radius of the gaol and were locked up during the evening.[1]

Berrima's small population doubled with the arrival of the "enemy aliens" and the guards. The sleepy town once again began to prosper, playing an important role in providing services to the "new arrivals". The internees bought food, such as bread and meat and other supplies from the village stores. Relations between the townspeople, new and old, were relatively harmonious. The vast majority of the internees spoke some English due to their maritime background and could converse relatively well with the local people. Berrima also played host to families of the internees. They rented houses in the village and there began more interaction with the community, with internees often helping out in the community where needed. A school was set up in a slab hut for the children as evidenced in a photograph showing children, teacher and a sign "Tochterschule Berrima 1917".[1]

The Winagecarribee River played an important role in the daily lives of the internees, providing many opportunities for swimming, fishing and boating along its course. The River winds its way through the Moss Vale and Berrima, around the cliff face below the rear of the town's gaol and then flows eleven kilometres downstream. The bank of the river was reasonably heavily wooded in 1915 with native shrubs and grasses as well as tea trees. Platypuses were plentiful in the river up until the 1940s when the exotic Willow took over the banks of the river.[1]

Wide, deep water pools also were a feature at various points along the twisting waterway. One such pool was located just downstream from the gaol. This area was a popular swimming hole for not just the internees but also the villagers and the many visitors to Berrima. The internees named this pool Grosse See, meaning Great Lake and being close to the gaol, it was a major place of activity for them. A half kilometre west from this water hole was another deeper wider pool that the internees used extensively. This pool was given the name Lake Titicaca.[7][1]

To provide better water-based amenities for themselves the internees turned their hand at altering the waterway. From local rocks and clay they constructed a dam downstream from Lake Titicaca which raised the water levels in the water hole and the river upstream from it by one metre. Damming the river was a plan that the villagers had hoped that the Administration would have embarked on for many years previous to the construction by the internees.[8][1]

Utilising the river for swimming was an instantly popular recreational activity amongst the internees. They swam from the sandy beaches in the river's coves and erected diving platforms around the deeper water holes. Boating was also a big feature of life on the river with Venetian carnivals being held along with competitive water sports and other such events. Being experienced seamen, the idea of building a boat was not a daunting task. Simple canoes were constructed as well as fleets of elaborately built and decorated rowing and sailing boats. One notable carnival reported in the local newspapers was a "mock battle" staged by the Berrima Guard, where two watercraft representing the SMS Emden and HMAS Sydney fought it out on the waters of Lake Titicaca close to the Hansa Bridge. The carnivals were usually held on culturally important days, such as the birthdays of German royalty.[1]

The river environs were significantly important for the internees well-being. To escape the confined spaces of the gaol that they suffered during the evening, many of the industrious internees soon after arriving at Berrima, constructed simple small huts from tea trees in the area. Brushwood branches and foliage were either tied or woven together to form the walls and roof. These initial huts, mainly constructed on the right side of the bank between the dam and Lake Titicaca, served both as private places during the daytime and also as shade structures during hot or windy weather.[1]

To take advantage of the area along the left bank of the river which was sunnier, less rocky and boasted more fertile soils the internees designed and constructed a bridge across the river. Studying the rivers varying low and high-level marks, the mariners chose to construct a high-level bridge above the general flood level around the area in line with Oxley Street on the right bank and just downstream from the water hole known as the Great Lake. Constructed in three months from local timbers the bridge was officially opened in July 1915 and named Hansa Bridge. The naming of the bridge is significant in that it makes reference to the shipping company HANSA line and pays homage to the maritime history of the Hanseatic League and the confederate cities of north Germany 1260–1600.[9][1]

From photographic evidence, John Simmons wrote that there may have been a second bridge built next to Lake Titicaca's dam wall. Simmons also noted that a few weeks after the opening of the bridge the internees constructed a large waterslide 30 metres upstream from the new bridge on the right bank that was reminiscent of an "American style water chute".[10][1]

After the bridge was constructed more huts were built, mostly on the left bank downstream from the Hansa Bridge. Some were simple brushwood and bark structures, others were built from galvanised iron sheets or flattened kerosene tins. Several more elaborate huts and cabins were constructed. One particular cabin of importance was Alsterburg, which was elaborately constructed from logs and was reminiscent of Germany's Black Forest cabins in design.[1]

The huts and cabins were given names and tended to be grouped as in small villages. Realising that the war was to continue for some years and with having experienced Berrima's cold winter months, some of the huts were extended and improved. Also many more internees took to building huts with the peak construction period being the summer of 1916–17 with several resembling a European summer villa or lodge using eucalypt logs. One such cabin was built by NGL officers Rudolf Carstens and Richard Preiss, who also turned their hand to performing in the internee's theatre productions.[1]

Most huts housed just a few men, however, there were huts that served as clubhouses, such as the Sorgenfrei (Carefree), which was the Swimming Club. Another communal hut, the Lloydhalle 2, was for the use of the younger men from the NGL Line.[11][1]

The cultural lives of the internees were enriched by regular theatrical and musical performances by fellow internees. A stage platform was built in a natural amphitheatre area just downstream from the first bend of the river on the left bank side. Another important enhancement was the building of a bakehouse not far from the amphitheatre where German-style pies, cakes and pastries were made and sold. The Bakehouse was built by Henrich Bartels from the HANSA line.[1]

A particularly successful entrepreneurial undertaking by the internees was the establishment of vegetable gardens. From its small beginnings during the first year, by 1917 the vegetable plots had grown from a few small gardens within the gaol and just outside the gaol to the establishment of impressive plots around the huts on the riverbanks. The produce was sold to the camp's kitchen and if there was an oversupply, the internees also sold the produce to the villagers. Such was the success of this enterprise that soon the internees with an agricultural bent rented local fields and some of the old orchards in Berrima and set to work on preparing the land for large crops of vegetables and fruit.[1]

Word spread quickly beyond Berrima about what the Germans or "Huns" were creating and soon many visitors started arriving in Berrima to witness the Germanic structures that were created and how they lived. With the curiosity of the visitors also came vandalism and antagonism. Some resented the perceived privileges that were afforded to the "Huns". As a result, a high wire fence cordoning off an area of up to 20 acres on the left bank of the river for use by internees only was constructed to provide more privacy and protection for the internees. It became necessary for the internees to patrol the areas that they recreated to safeguard the watercraft and huts that they had built. Hostility by the local residents towards the internees also grew as the attitude of wartime hysteria increased.[1]

Between 1915 and 1919 up to 400 Germans were interned at Berrima. After spending four years living as "enemy aliens", a formal declaration was finally signed by Germany that officially ended WWI in June 1919. Although an armistice was called for and received, German internees in Australia had to wait months until they could be repatriated when this official declaration was signed. The first group to be repatriated was prisoners of war. This included a small group of internees from the Berrima camp. The remaining internees had to suffer many weeks of postponement and changing regulations as to their departure details and allowances. Adding to their growing frustration about the delays was the news that a monument to commemorate the deaths of four German Trial Bay internees had been vandalised and then completely destroyed. This prompted a reaction of the Berrima internees to leave nothing of their works behind, including huts and watercraft. They immediately retaliated by sinking their watercraft, digging up their garden beds and burning their huts.[1]

On 12 August 1919, the remaining internees loaded the waiting wagons with their most treasured possessions and were marched through Berrima towards Moss Vale where they were to be transported by train to Sydney. Here they boarded SS Ypiranga bound for Rotterdam and finally transported back home to Germany.[12][1]

• Australian Prisons Project (2009). "Berrima Correctional Complex".
• Berrima District Historical Society (2009). "Prisoners in Arcady Exhibition text". Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
• Chissell, Caroline (2000). Berrima Memorial Park Landscape Conservation Area.
• Cosmos Archaeology (2006). WWI German-built Watercraft on the Wingecarribee River. Maritime Archaeology Impact Assessment.
• Fischer, Gerhard (1989). "Enemy aliens : internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914-1920".
• JRC Planning Services (1991). Wingecarribee Heritage Survey.
• Lieutenant Edmond Samuels (2009). "Diary of Berrima Internment Camp". Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
• Migration Heritage Centre, Powerhouse Museum, Berrima District Museum (2009). "Prisoners in Arcady : German mariners at Berrima 1915-1919 : [An exhibition at Berrima District Museum]".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Simons, John (1999). Prisoners in Arcady : German mariners at Berrima 1915-1919. Berrima District Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9577476-0-9.
• Speer, D. (1919). "48 views of the Concentration Camp, Berrima, New South Wales, Australia, 1914-1919".

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Berrima Internment Group, entry number 01848 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on {{{accessdate}}}.