Our history: WWI German internees in Berrima

Many were sent to internment camps set up in each state. Holsworthy Military Camp near Liverpool was the main NSW camp where over 5000 men were held. Women and children of German and Austrian descent, detained by the British in Asia, were interned at Bourke and later Molonglo in Canberra. Former gaols were also used, with men interned at Trial Bay and Berrima Gaols. These were administered as satellites of Holsworthy.

READ ALSO:

Life in the camps varied. Holsworthy was the most like a prison. Trial Bay, a camp for the elite, had the most privileges. At Berrima, the freedom to roam in the area by day was allowed. Internees at all the camps formed theatre, arts and education groups, and established kitchens and gardens.

A total of 329 men were housed at the Berrima Internment Camp, mostly German mariners plus some Austrians and Hungarians.

The majority were captains, officers and engineers of merchant steam ships belonging to the German-Australian Line that traded between Asia and Europe. These ships had been impounded in Australian ports at commencement of hostilities. As well there were some military officers from German Pacific colonies. They were later joined by a small contingent of officers and crew captured from SMS Emden, an armoured cruiser of the German Imperial Navy. The first group of 89 internees arrived at Moss Vale station in March 1915 and marched to the disused Berrima Gaol which was hastily prepared for them.

There was one among them who was there by mistake. Despite his odd man out status, Friedrich Machotka would eventually add significantly to the internees' well-being at Berrima. His wife and daughters later joined him there, renting a house in the town and making many friends. The family was allowed to remain after war ended and for a time Friedrich worked at Lebbeus Horden's property Hopewood near Bowral.

This unusual story is told in Prisoners in Arcady, by the late John Simons, a book about the mariners at Berrima during World War I. Dr Simons explains that Machotka, a farmer and horticulturalist, was the very antithesis of a mariner. He was not German and, except technically, neither Austrian nor Hungarian. He was born in 1882 in that part of Europe now known as the Czech Republic but which, in his time, was called Bohemia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He attended college and gained a degree in agriculture. He worked for several years on his family's sugar beet farm. This was on land leased from the aristocracy, who were the only ones permitted to own land. The family did, however, own the buildings of Gletschbad, a health resort in the Bohemian mountains. Machotka read about opportunities for farmers in Australia where land could be owned and he formed the ambition to emigrate when possible.

In 1908 he went on a working tour of the United States where he met and married Edna Chapin, the daughter of a Los Angeles farming family for whom he had worked. Throughout the next four years he and his wife lived in Bohemia, where two daughters, Carmen and Eva, were born to them.

In early 1913 his family entered into negotiations to sell their Gletschbad resort and a share was to go to him. With this expectation, Friedrich, Edna and the two infants set sail to establish a new life in Australia.

They travelled via America, where they stopped over in Los Angeles for a period before arriving in Sydney in April 1913. They were shocked to find that the expected sale in Bohemia had fallen through. Almost penniless, they struggled to survive in a strange city. Friedrich found occasional work and Edna gave piano lessons.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, Friedrich was classed as an enemy alien and required to report regularly to Victoria Barracks, Sydney, pending a decision about his internment. When he reported on 26 February, 1915, the officer to whom he reported presumed he was one of the German mariners.

Despite his protests, three days later he found himself a member of the first contingent of internees sent to Berrima Gaol.

The mistake was discovered and next day Machotka was removed to Holsworthy. More than a year later he was allowed to return.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters