AFTER many years of suggestions and planning, historic interpretation signs have now been erected along the Wingecarribee River walking path at Berrima.

Nineteen illustrated panels explain the story of German internees who made use of the area during World War I.

The signage walk was officially opened on March 1, 2015. This date is significant as it was a century earlier, on March 1, 1915, that the first German internees arrived in Berrima.

A brief overview of their story follows here.

After a period of disuse in the early 1900s, the dilapidated old gaol at Berrima became an internment camp during World War I for hundreds of German and Austrian men. The majority were captains, officers and engineers of merchant ships and some were inhabitants of German colonies in south-east Asia. They were later joined by officers and men captured from SMS Emden.

Confined to their barracks between dusk and dawn, internees were allowed out by day provided they remained within a two-mile radius. They began organising themselves to make the best of their stay, constructing rustic huts along the banks of the river with jetties and moorings for the small craft they built or purchased for leisure boating.

Their daytime activities ranged from swimming and boating to gymnastics and other sports as well as vegetable gardening, woodcarving and language classes. Music was an important part of their lives and the orchestra formed in the camp performed both for their fellow internees and local residents. In a makeshift theatre the thespians among the prisoners produced both dramatic and comic plays for their compatriots.

One of the first important structures the internees built was Hansa Bridge, a high-level wooden footbridge across the river. It was used to gain quick access to the sports field and three tennis courts they also constructed. Initially, the internee huts built along the river banks were of simple brushwood but, later on, substantial cabins and elaborate villas appeared. Models of warships, submarines, sailing ships and even a floating Zeppelin were made from whatever materials they could lay their hands on. Parades of these, together with water sports, formed the basis of spectacular carnivals by which significant events such as birthdays of the Kaiser and Crown Prince were celebrated.

The extensive gardens of the internees produced a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. These not only went to the internees' kitchens, but were also eagerly purchased by the villagers. The gardens set the seal on the respect and friendly acceptance that most villagers had come to feel for their compulsory 'guests'.

While some of the internees had wife and children who came to live in the village, and others had friends visiting from Sydney and elsewhere, the fame of the bridge, the huts, villas and gardens, as well as the spectacular water carnivals, spread far afield and brought many additional visitors to see the wonders for themselves.

The internees, in fact, by their works gave Berrima its first incarnation as a tourist attraction. After war ended the internees were repatriated to Germany in August 1919 and were very agreeably remembered by the majority of Berrima folk for their contributions to the daily life and economy of the village.

However, their existence at Berrima soon faded from local memory and the remnants of their structures, mostly built from bush materials, gradually disappeared. The section of river where they had roamed became infested with willow trees and weeds after a reservoir was built upstream in the 1920s, reducing the flow.

THE new signage along the Wingecarribee River walk commences in the Berrima recreation reserve off Oxley Street at an Introduction Panel. From there, 19 panels are spread along the 1.8 km walk through Crown Land that extends around the river bend at Nobbys and beyond. Three signs acknowledge that the walk is on Gundungurra land. At the locations of huts and important sites, photo images and descriptions are provided on the panels.

Based on period photos, memoirs and a 1918 hand-drawn map, these locations were surveyed in 1999 by the late Dr John Simons who wrote Prisoners in Arcady, an book on the Berrima internee period.

During the 1990s it was proposed that the river stretch and banks be cleared and interpretative signage erected. A committee formed by the late Dennis Brown of the National Trust proceeded to remove invasive species.

The signage walk is dedicated to these two men and to the memory of Berrima man Alan Terrell who helped make it a reality.

This level, easy-going walk is worth a visit.

To be continued

This article compiled by PHILIP MORTON is sourced from the archives of Berrima District Historical & Family History Society, Bowral Rd, Mittagong. Phone 4872 2169.

Email bdhsarchives@gmail.com.

Web: berrimadistricthistoricalsociety.org.au