During World War II, it housed the largest internment camp complex in Australia, with some 5,000 detainees.

Civilian inmates were given the option of undertaking paid agricultural, husbandry, or woodcutting work in nearby areas, such as growing medicinal opium poppies or raising pigs, and were made to wear coats dyed red when outside the camp.

[7][9] Other well-known foreign nationals included Alfred Freund-Zinnbauer and Carl Georg von Brandenstein.

In November 1942, Italian anti-fascist activist Francesco Fantin was killed there by a fellow pro-fascist internee.

The Cobdogla Irrigation and Steam Museum has a substantial display devoted to the internment camp, maintained by the National Trust (check their website for open days).