THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
The war also had an impact on the lives of Australians with German heritage. Once again, the Barossa Deutsch were treated with suspicion. Although there were a few Nazi sympathisers within the community – notably a local doctor, Dr Johannes Becker, who formed Tanunda’s Hitlerbund – most families were completely assimilated with the Australian way of life. Among those who were greatly impacted was second-generation Johann Schulz, also known as Mons, who worked as a teacher and missionary before taking a position at Auricht’s Printing Office on Murray Street, Tanunda. Established in 1884 by Gottlieb Auricht, the family-owned enterprise published the Lutheran Church periodical and other German-language publications. It was shut down in 1917 and again in 1940 when Johann Schulz was arrested by federal military authorities on December 13. They searched his home and office, and seized German books and a film by the handsome World War I naval hero ‘Der Seeteufel’, Graf Felix von Luckner, who had visited South Australia a few years earlier on his vessel of the same name. The Commonwealth Investigation Branch deemed von Luckner, the popular swashbuckling ‘sea devil’, to be a Nazi sympathiser and collected up most of his known contacts with German heritage in Australia. Although von Luckner was connected with the Heydrich family and inspired a young Reinhard Heydrich to join the interwar Reichsmarine, he was opposed to the policies of Adolf Hitler and his cronies. (Deemed a traitor in 1945, he was condemned to death by the Nazi government.) Despite being no security threat to Australia, Johann Schulz was interned at Wayville Detention Centre, along with local auctioneer Fritz Homburg. Although no charges were laid against Schulz, he would not be released until January 1944. Other Australians at war were the Seppelt family’s Pilot Officer John Rowland Seppelt, and rear-gunner Flight-Sergeant Peter Robertson of Young in New South Wales. They both served with 550 Squadron, which was equipped with Mark III Lancaster Bombers and based at North Killingholme, near Grimsby in Yorkshire. The unit belonged to Group 1, which had the grim distinction of having the greatest loss rate of any cohort in the Australian Armed Forces in World War II. Formed in 1943, the heavy bomber squadron flew over a hundred sorties into Europe with its last operational flights dropping off food supplies to the starving population of the Netherlands. On the lonely outward journey, the crew calmed their nerves by talking over the intercom about topics like their lives back home in Australia to pass the time. JR Seppelt often talked about wine and his family’s wine ventures in South Australia and Victoria and his enthusiasm kindled an interest in wine in Peter J Robertson. After his demobilisation, Robertson returned to farming at his family’s property. In 1969, in response to a growing demand for wine grapes, Peter Robertson planted the Barwang Vineyard, which began a new era of winemaking in what is now called the Hilltops Region in New South Wales.
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