Rights and freedoms
Internment of enemy aliens
30 October 1914
The federal government aims to protect Australia from German ‘enemy aliens’.
A number of regulations made under the War Precautions Act 1914 aimed to prevent German immigrants and people of German descent from giving assistance to the enemy during the First World War. One of these regulations allowed ‘enemy aliens’ to be interned – held in camps – without charge or trial.
By 1918 nearly 7,000 men, women and children were interned in camps around Australia. Some were interned voluntarily because they could not support their families; others were German settlers deported from former German colonies in the Pacific. Others were working-class men who had been born in Australia to a German father or had a German grandfather. The aim of internment was to protect Australians and the Australian war effort from ‘disaffected and disloyal enemy aliens’.
At the end of the war most internees were deported from Australia. They could not appeal to a court and many did not know why they were being expelled from the country they had lived in for most or all of their lives.
Internees and guards at a road construction, Torrens Island internment camp, South Australia, ca.1914
National Library of Australia
Internees and guards at a road construction, Torrens Island internment camp, South Australia, ca.1914
National Library of Australia
Description
This photo was taken at Torrens Island Internment Camp in South Australia. The camp opened in October 1914 and was used to detain enemy aliens under regulations made under the War Precautions Act 1914. This camp detained up to 400 men of German or Austro-Hungarian background, or crew members of enemy ships who had been caught in Australian ports at the beginning of the war.
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