The Austrian Slav miners of Western Australia

Croatian internees at Rottnest Island Internment Camp 1915. Photo Karl Lehman. Courtesy National Library of Australia
Croatian internees at Rottnest Island Internment Camp 1915. Photo Karl Lehman. Courtesy National Library of Australia

Of all internees in Australia, 21% came from Western Australia. This was the result of the mass internment of Austrian Slavs from the Kalgoorlie goldfields. Mining trade unions used the War Precaution Acts of 1914 as a means to rid the goldfields of non British labour. Only in Western Australia did a general round up of ‘Enemy Aliens’ occur resulting in 35% of all males deemed from ‘enemy origin’ being transported across the country to Holsworthy Internment Camp.