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Subsequent enquiries found evidence of prisoners being punished for disciplinary offences by exposing them to the weather in an open barbed-wire compound, prisoners habitually being prodded with bayonets, and illegal punishments in which internees were stripped, handcuffed and publicly flogged. One of these incidents involved a
Swedish and an American citizen. There were also rumours of worse brutalities and prisoners being shot dead by guards, but the facts about Torrens Island are difficult to verify. On one occasion, Captain Hawkes had fired his pistol into a tent full of internees, wounding one. Flogging the American proved to be a serious mistake. The prisoner wrote to the US Consul about conditions in the camp, forcing an enquiry in June which brought conditions into the open.
165:, was posted to the camp and, in about March 1915, the camp was shifted to another location further south away from the Quarantine Station, on the southern end of Torrens Island. The reason for the move was not given, but was presumably because its close proximity would compromise the Quarantine Station in the event of a quarantine emergency. The evidence of a later Court of Enquiry says, "The Camp about this time was removed from the site which this Court has already described, to the southern end of the island, near an old quarantine station which had been unused for many years."
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of which still stands. The internment site was a tented encampment occupied for only five months, October 1914 to March 1915, and was then systematically removed. Nothing can be identified on the site today. The site of the second camp was at the southern end of the island on the bank of Angas Inlet, and occupied from March to August 1915. It too was systematically removed, and anything that remained was later obliterated by modern construction. The site is under or close to the switchyard of
Section B of the
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and returning
Australian prisoners of war told of being threatened with reprisals, though none took place. The official records of the Torrens Island camp were destroyed, and today virtually all that is known about the incident comes from the only wartime records that survive, principally the typescript and evidence from the Court of Enquiry.
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in New South Wales. Captain Hawkes was dismissed from the service, and in 1916 a Court of
Enquiry was held into his conduct. None of this became public knowledge in Australia until after the war, when in 1919 the Adelaide press published the story. However, word of the incident had reached Germany,
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Captain Hawkes was to prove extremely unsuitable for the position. Under his command, treatment of the internees deteriorated. He encouraged an atmosphere in which guards became routinely offensive and violent in their behaviour, and soon afterward stories of brutal treatment began to be circulated.
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Station, built in the nineteenth century. A fenced compound was built on the bank of the Port River about 500 m south of the
Quarantine Station, which had the only jetty on the island. The prisoners were interned there in tents under armed guard. At the time, it was officially called a Concentration
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churches and schools were closed and German-language newspapers were banned. In August 1914, soldiers were sent out under the authority of the Act to round up about 300 of what were called "Germans". The internees included some German and Austro-Hungarian citizens and some
Australian-born, a mixture
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The locations of the sites of the
Torrens Island Internment Camp are known fairly accurately, but there is no physical evidence remaining today. The site of the first camp was on the western side of the island on the bank of the Port River, a few hundred metres south of the Quarantine Station, much
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In its first few months, the
Torrens Island internment camp was uncomfortable but not harsh. The internees were 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
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of farmers, intellectuals, and
Lutheran pastors. They were only a small fraction of the people of German descent in South Australia; and, with them, the army had rounded up some citizens of
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background, or crew members of enemy ships who had been caught in
Australian ports at the beginning of the war. They were held without trial under the provisions of the
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within the Adelaide suburbs. As the numbers grew, in October, they were taken by boat to Torrens Island. The island was nearly deserted except for a
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from October 2014 to September 2015 to mark the centenary of the internment camp, accompanied by the publication of a book of the same name.
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The camp was quietly closed in August 1915, many of the internees were released, and others were transferred to a more humanely-run camp at
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Persecution, detention and internment of Lutherans (in South Australia) in two world wars: a dark spot in Australia's century of federation
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National Archives of Australia Series MP367/1 Item 567/3/2202 Captain G.E. Hawkes Court of Enquiry 1915–1919 (Some images online at
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was a professional photographer who was permitted to have a camera in the camp, and his photographs provide a record of conditions.
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National Archives of Australia Series MP367/1 Item 567/3/2202 Captain G.E. Hawkes Court of Enquiry 1915–1919
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The Torrens Island Internment Camp plaque, located adjacent to the causeway on Garden Island.
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Website accompanying the book by Michael Wohltmann. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
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258:"Der Kamerad : a periodical issued by Germans interned on Torrens Island"
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Enemy aliens: internment and the homefront experience in Australia, 1914–1920
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entertainment, and even published a number of editions of a camp newspaper,
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84:. The camp opened on 9 October 1914 and held up to 400 men of German or
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permitted sweeping powers of search, seizure of property and arrest.
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A Future Unlived – a forgotten chapter in South Australia's history.
106:, and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a wave of
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At first, the prisoners were interned in a barbed-wire compound at
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The South Australian population included a large minority of
323:, National Library of Australia. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
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World War I crimes by the British Empire and Commonwealth
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http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=5809579
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The two sites of the Torrens Island Internment Camp.
391:, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press,
408:Monteath, P., Paul, M., & Martin, R. (2014):
161:In early 1915, a new commanding officer, Captain
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360:Migration Museum. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
16:World War I concentration camp in Australia
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374:Wakefield Press. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
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830:Temporary populated places in Australia
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405:, Australasian Educa Press, Melbourne,
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468:Torrens Island: concentration Part 2
451:Torrens Island: concentration Part 1
410:Interned: Torrens Island 1914 – 1915
820:1915 disestablishments in Australia
371:Interned: Torrens Island, 1914–1915
358:Interned: Torrens Island, 1914–1915
208:Interned: Torrens Island, 1914–1915
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722:Birkenhead Riverview Tavern (1877)
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603:Torrens Island Concentration Camp
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210:was held at the South Australian
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598:South Australian Maritime Museum
593:South Australian Aviation Museum
266:State Library of South Australia
68:concentration camp, located on
800:World War I sites in Australia
746:Port Dock Brewery Hotel (1855)
567:Port Adelaide Workers Memorial
481:. First broadcast 9 June 2016.
464:. First broadcast 8 June 2016.
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810:Australia in World War I
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725:The British Hotel (1847)
562:Port Adelaide Lighthouse
542:Fishermen's Wharf Market
530:Buildings and structures
422:Paech, David O. (2001):
403:The Germans in Australia
91:War Precautions Act 1914
45:34.810194°S 138.525306°E
752:Royal Arms Hotel (1878)
588:National Railway Museum
764:Glanville Hotel (1865)
734:Newmarket Hotel (1879)
728:Dockside Tavern (1850)
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50:-34.810194; 138.525306
581:Cultural institutions
557:Mary MacKillop Bridge
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612:Beaches and islands
412:, Wakefield Press,
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108:anti-German feeling
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738:Port Admiral Hotel
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454:ABC Radio National
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699:One and All
692:MV Nelcebee
547:Hart's Mill
271:20 February
163:G.E. Hawkes
152: [
147:. Internee
145:Der Kamerad
125:Netherlands
66:World War I
48: /
784:Categories
624:Port River
397:0702221783
218:References
202:Exhibition
182:Holsworthy
136:Quarantine
74:Port River
629:Semaphore
524:landmarks
479:Mike Ladd
462:Mike Ladd
333:Chronicle
262:SA Memory
685:Fearless
317:The Mail
242:19 April
116:Lutheran
78:Adelaide
475:Earshot
458:Earshot
98:History
72:in the
770:(1859)
761:(1882)
740:(1849)
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139:Camp.
123:, the
121:Sweden
64:was a
706:Yelta
678:Falie
643:Sport
321:Trove
156:]
435:ISBN
414:ISBN
393:ISBN
273:2009
244:2010
60:The
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
