THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
The Torrens Island Internment Camp was a World War I detention camp which held up to 400 men of German or Austro-Hungarian background between October 1914 and August 1915. Photograph, 1914. [SLSA B12161]
of the estate and how it was dealing with phylloxera. Although many vineyards in northeast Victoria were pulled up, some families replanted their land with grafted vines. Among these were John Francis Brown in 1916 and the Grossman brothers in 1922, at Milawa. . . . The South Australian government’s Nomenclature Act of 1916 was an attempt to ‘de-Germanise’ South Australian place names. The prevailing government policies of de-Germanisation, internment, travel restrictions, and such were a reaction to the appalling losses of young men and security fears. Around 1916, there were around 50,000 inhabitants of German origin, almost all of whom had contributed to the development and success of South Australia. But the hysteria caused by grief created a political storm that challenged the ‘win the war’ federal government of Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes. Place names such as Kaiserstuhl (renamed Mount Kitchener), Blumberg (Birdwood), New Mecklenburg (Gomersal), Siegersdorf (Bultawilta), and Mount Edelstein (Mount Edelstone) were all rubbed off the map. The village of Krondorf was gazetted a new name, Kabminye, which remained the official place name until 1975. Krondorf was just one of several German place names in South Australia
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