German Internment

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 brought Australia into conflict with Germany. Enemy subjects in Tasmania deemed eligible for military service, were interned at Triffit's Peninsula, Claremont, later to be transferred to the Quarantine Station on Bruny Island.

When official information of the outbreak of war was received, on August 5th 1914, a German boat loading timber at Geeveston, Port Huon, was detained. It had left Hamburg on October 17th 1913, and arrived in Hobart July 27th 1914. The ship was the S. S. Oberhausen the master was Johann Gottlieb Heinrich Meir, and the stevedore was Louis Frederick Rapp. A party of 50 naval reservists was sent to bring this boat to Hobart. This force would have been totally inadequate for the job had Captain Meir wished to sail elsewhere. However, the boat was boarded and the crew surrendered peaceably.

In February 1915 the prisoners of war were moved to the Quarantine Station on Bruny Island, and were put to work felling timber and clearing land. By April 1915 there were 70 internees and a guard of about 15. This guard had to watch over a mile of shore and about 400 yards of fence where the station joins the mainland of Bruny Island; an impossible task, had the prisoners wished to escape.

Follow the link http://geschimagazin.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time/ for details of FOBIQS President Kathy Duncombe 22 March 2014 interview with online German magazine GeschiMag.