Gaol Cell Door c.1840s
Photograph by Stephen Thompson

Collection
Berrima District Historical and Family History Society, Berrima, NSW, Australia.

Object Name
Gaol Cell Door c.1840s: The Berrima German internee Collection

Object/Collection Description
The cell door is made from cedar. The number ‘89′ is painted in black 260mm from the top. Below is an inspection hole, 40mm in diameter in an iron frame 110mm square. It has a cover that is rusted in the open position. Below this is a servery door 280 x 200mm permanently closed with two iron straps, each 380mm x 50mm. The door has a patent iron cell door bolt that is 460mm long x 25mm in diameter with a haspen staple to accommodate a padlock. The iron hinges are missing. In fair original condition Dimensions: 1900mm long x 680mm wide x 70mm deep.

The outbreak of fighting in Europe in August 1914 immediately brought Australia into the ‘Great War’. Within one week of the declaration of war all German subjects in Australia were declared ‘enemy aliens’ and were required to report and notify the government of their address. In February 1915 enemy aliens were interned either voluntarily or on an enforced basis. In New South Wales the principal place of internment was the Holsworthy Military Camp where between 4,000 and 5,000 men were detained. Women and children of German and Austrian descent detained by the British in Asia were interned at Bourke and later Molonglo near Canberra. Former gaols were also used. Men were interned at Berrima gaol (constructed 1840s) and Trial Bay gaol (constructed 1889). At these camps the internees organised them selves in to arts & craft societies and organised large German events and festivals to pass their time and to retain a sense of identity.

Berrima Gaol cell doors c1914 -42
State Library of Victoria

The internees were allowed a large degree of freedom and self organisation by the Camp authorities. The majority of the internees were German Merchant Seamen, mainly Engineers, Officers and NCOs from the German warship SMS Emden sunk off the west Australian coast by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1914. The regimented and structured nature of Navy culture resulted in the Berrima internees being largely self regulating and self managing.

The internees also found a welcoming community as some of the families in the area were descended from German settlers who came to the district in the 1840s. Despite the anti German diatribes from mainstream media the Berrima residents warmed to the internees who purchased bread, meat from local shops and rented houses for their private use, thus bolstering the local economy. In turn the internees helped local residents to rescue animals, fight bush fires and deal with unwanted snakes in their houses. The local residents helped the internees to gain everyday items like bread and meat but commodities such as newspapers were banned. Given the biased nature of the Australian media the internees preferred to get their newspapers from neutral countries. Simmons notes that “there were certainly guardsmen who… came to respect the industry and abilities of their charges and to be friendly towards them”. The daughter of Sergeant Bennetts, a private in the Berrima Guard, tells that a ‘Sincere respect existed” between guard and internee and on occasions he had to escort an internee to his home for a serious crisis that without exception the guard was made welcome in the home of the internee’s family. ¹

Berrima Camp internees, c.1915. Paul Dubotzki Collection

The cell door is a part of a collection of objects integral to the fabric of the Berrima Gaol heritage site and provides the distinctive character of the place. Its primary significance lies in its relationship to the themes of wartime internment experience, racial antagonism & fear of subversion and Australia’s links to and following of Britain’s wartime foreign policies after Federation. The Collection interprets the story and provides evidence of the experience of the German internee’s life at Berrima Gaol, the attitudes of the German internees to the war and internment and their relationships to other German communities in NSW both interned and free. The Gaol Cell Door is a remnant of the building fabric that has been altered to be identifiable to the German Internment Camp occupation.

The object has immense aesthetic significance in that it is fabric of the place. It is a design as gaol door is a very powerful piece of evidence of the experiences of the German internees.

The Gaol Cell Door provides a research tool for historians to explore the First World War chapter of Australian history and give the story a wider meaning in the context of the History of migration & settlement of Australia. The material culture of the Berrima Internee Collection reveals the experience and living conditions of the people interned there that included ships officers, engineers, navigators and seamen as well as Australian guards and soldiers.

There is substantial social value in the object as material culture and fabric of a site associated with internment. Internees’ and guards’ families have a common link to the place and many local residents have developed a strong attachment to it. Many local residents are collectors and amateur historians carrying out many years of research and documenting the history of the site and the Collection. A lot of information still resides in the memories of the Berrima community. The place is a focal point for both Australians of German decent and visiting German nationals.

The Cell Door is well provenanced to the site. After the gaol’s closure in 1909 the gaol was left to deteriorate. The gaol was placed under the control of the Department of Defence in 1914 when the gaol was refitted to accommodate Prisoners of War and Enemy Alien internees. The Gaol was again renovated after World War 2 when the cell doors were removed. This door found its way under a house in Berrima. The door was donated to the Berrima Museum in 1968 by M Turland.

The Berrima Internee Collection is rare in that it relates specifically to the German internee occupation of the site and it is associated with those particular people who emerge as significant participants in World War One NSW German internment camp history.

The object represents the concentration camp nature of everyday life in the Camp and yields information on living conditions and the experience of internment. It is a reminder that the camp was a prison to intern prisoners of war. The Gaol Cell Door, as part of a larger Berrima Internee Collection represents Australia’s strong historic links to Britain and the adherence to British foreign policy after Federation. The Collection represents Australia’s fear of subversion during the war and racial antagonism to cultural minorities in war time. The Collection represents a time when Australia still looked to Britain for foreign policy and held deep suspicions of non British immigrants. This is evidenced in the concentration camp side to internment and the isolation of the place. But over time as the guards and the community got to know the internees they were grant a certain degree of liberty and privileges.

The condition of the object in general is fair to good. It is significant that such an object remains in good condition at the place where it has an historical association with.

The importance of the Gaol Cell Door lies its potential to interpret the place as a site associated to internment, the internment camp itself and the experience of German communities. The Collection presents the opportunity to interpret the stories of various individuals who were interned at Berrima.

1 Simons, J. Prisoners in Arcady, Bowral, 1999. p.44.

Bibliography

Coupe, S. & Andrews, M.
Was it only Yesterday? Australia in the Twentieth Century World,
Longman Cheshire, Sydney, 1992.Simons, J. Prisoners in Arcady, Bowral, 1999.

Fischer, G.W. & Helmi, N.
Internment at Trial Bay during World War One,
unpublished thematic history,
MHC & NPWS, 2004.

Fischer, G.W. Enemy Aliens, QUP, 1989.

Regional Histories of NSW,
Heritage Office & Dept of Urban Affairs & Planning, Sydney, 1996.

Significance: A guide to assessing the significance of cultural heritage objects and collections,
Heritage Collections Council. 2001.