Torrens Island Concentration Camp

The camp opened on 9 October 1914 and held 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.

The South Australian population included a large minority of German descent, and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a wave of anti-German feeling.

At official level, the War Precautions Act permitted sweeping powers of search, seizure of property and arrest.

They were only a small fraction of the people of German descent in South Australia; and, with them, the army had rounded up some citizens of Sweden, the Netherlands, and one from the USA – all neutral countries.

Despite these hardships, the inmates managed to organise cultural events and entertainment, and even published a number of editions of a camp newspaper, Der Kamerad.

He encouraged an atmosphere in which guards became routinely offensive and violent in their behaviour, and soon afterward stories of brutal treatment began to be circulated.

There were also rumours of worse brutalities and prisoners being shot dead by guards, but the facts about Torrens Island are difficult to verify.

[7] The locations of the sites of the Torrens Island Internment Camp are known fairly accurately, but there is no physical evidence remaining today.

The site of the first camp was on the western side of the island on the bank of the Port River, a few hundred metres south of the Quarantine Station, much of which still stands.