Social Group Historical Enquiry

1. Social Group Historical Enquiry -Changing patterns of Migration from 1945-2000 -Enemy Aliens during WWII -The Role of the Snowy Mountains scheme in Migration - Hein Bergerhausen’s Story Bibliography

2. Enemy Aliens In Australia During WWII • Soon after Australia entered the fray into World War II they were asked by the British government to Guard a large no. of enemy prisoners. The British govt. did not have the resources to feed and guard many P.O.W.’s so they thought they would give them to Australia. They also thought that if would have no means of prisoners were shipped to Australia they escape. • The Australian government was quick to show support for the British cause so they agreed. The prisoners would be kept in Agricultural camps and guarded by reservists and soldiers to unfit to serve overseas. Yanco NSW a jersey cow being shown by an Italian alien.

3. Enemy Aliens In AustraliaJEWS The first group of enemy aliens (German Jews) arrived in Sydney Australia in September 1940 when they were then transferred to a camp in Hay New South Wales. The conditions faced at Australian camps were the best the enemy aliens had ever received. Seeing that the enemy aliens wanted to fight the Axis just as much as the Australians, the guards and officials gave them a lot of leeway. In mere days after being transferred to Hay a school and theatrical group was setup up for the Jews. Many Jewish groups setup within Australia also gave the aliens support both emotionally and with material objects. When the imprisonment of these Jewish refugees was finally seen a as a huge human rights and economical blunder, the government gave them a choice they could either go and work in Britain or stay in Australia by 1941 many had chosen to begin New lives in Australia. Jewish P.O.W.

4. Enemy Aliens In AustraliaItalians • The largest group of enemy aliens held in Australia were Italians this included soldiers captured in African campaigns and merchant seaman who were captured when war was declared. Altogether the total number of Italians held as enemy aliens was 18,500. • The first group of Italians were sent to the internment camp at hay with the Jews. Many were happy to be out of the War zone because they were conscripted and wanted nothing to do with Mussolini’s empire. Other Italians that had belonged to the Fascist party thought it was their duty to escape this sometimes led to conflict. • In 1943 it was decided to use the Italians as a rural workforce because the war had depleted Australia’s workforce. The Italians were paid 10 shillings a week plus their keep. Corporal B. Rivola stacking bricks at a camp at a camp Italian prisoners being searched in El Alamein

5. Italians cont. The Italians became a willing workforce that was welcomed in Australia. Many country folk had never met an Italian and they became a positive influence. Many Australians began to love Italian food and some even began learning the Italian language. • This notice was given to Farmers concerning Italians. • 1. He cannot be driven but he can be led.  • 2. Mentality is childlike; it is possible to gain his confidence by fairness and firmness.  • 3. Great care must be exercised from a disciplinary point of view or he can become sly and objectionable if badly handled.' Italian Tomato pickers The first group of Italians returned home in 1946. Many returned to Australia.

6. Enemy Aliens In AustraliaJapanese Cowra camp where Japanese P.O.W.’s were stored • Japanese were the most bitter and angry aliens stored in Australia. Under their code of war the Bushido it was and embarrassment to be captured so many tried to perform breakouts and suicides. The largest account of mass suicides in Australia was tried by the Japanese at a Cowra interment camp. In one night 231 Japanese lost their lives along with four guards. The Japanese were planning a suicide but the guards thought they were planning a breakout. • The Japanese experience in Australia was the same as the Italian and Jewish but they seem to have had a harder time. Only because they made it harder by defying the Australian guards and trying to kill themselves.

7. Migration Patterns since 1945 From 1945 till now, almost 5.7 million people have come to Australia as new settlers, comprising about 3.0 million males and 2.7 million females. More than 590 000 arrived under humanitarian programs, initially as displaced persons and more recently as refugees. As a result, Australia's population rose about 7 million to around 19 million today. Agreements were reached with many countries like Britain, Yugoslavia, and Germany to encourage migration, including displaced people, from war-torn Europe. Between October 1945 and 30th June 1960, 1.6 million migrants arrived. In the 1960s, there were about 1.3 million, about 960 000 in the 1970s and about 1.1 million migrants came to Australia in the 1980s. Today, nearly one in four of Australia's 19 million people was born overseas. Between July 1998 and June 1999, the number of settlers arriving in Australia totalled 84 143. They were born in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, South Africa, Philippines and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "During the 1998-1999 financial year, more than 109 000 people received visas for temporary entry to Australia to

8. More on Migration • Following world war 2 The Australian government decided that they wanted to achieve high migration levels. So they cut deals with many European countries to encourage migration to Australia. • The deals were: • Free on compensated passages to Australia for British Nationals. • A sponsored travel scheme for servicemen andf ex-servicemen from the U.S. and Britain along with guerilla fighters from Holland, Norway, France, Belgium and Denmark. • A deal to settle 12,00 displaced refugees from camps around europe. • Formal and informal migration agreements which usualy involved travel grants. These deals were with; U.K., Malta, Holland, Italy, West Germany, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Austria, Greece, Spain, Belgium and other countries.. • These deals no longer exist • Today the migration program is global, using one set of criteria for applicants anywhere in the world, with migrants originating from more than 185 countries.

9. How the Snowy Mountain Scheme impacted Australian Immigration • The Snowy mountain scheme established what was to come later in Australian society which is a permanently multicultural country. Politicians of the day painted the Migrants in an acceptable way to all Australians. This was a hard job considering that Australia was pretty much a monoculture from British backgrounds. In the rural areas that migrants were sent to, to participate in the Snowy Mountain scheme many people knew little or nothing of the world outside Australia. That is why non-British migrants had to be painted in a good picture by then Immigration minister Arthur Calwell. In fact 2/3rds of workers on the Snowy scheme came from a language other than English background. • The relationships between the Australians and migrants were mainly good ones. There were only two instances where trouble arose between racial groups; these were between the Serbians and the Croatians, and the Germans and Poles. These were the only known racial conflicts. In fact most migrants in quite friendly into the Aussie culture many War veterans from other counties were allowed into Australian RSL.

10. Snowy cont. • Many migrants that came to Australia had enough money to start a family and buy homes after a 2 year contract. This sent out a positive message and encouraged future migrants to leave their war torn countries and come to Australia.

11. Snowy cont. • The Snowy River Scheme played an enormous part in making Australia a multicultural country. Before the scheme Australia was a monoculture country and after the scheme Australia consisted of people from over 40 countries. From this stat alone you can see the role the Snowy scheme played on Australia’s society. Australia has benefited from this very much you can see this from all the Chinese restaurants in every town and also by the relative ease that almost every Australian has when communicating or working with people of a different ethnic background.

12. Hein Bergerhausen New Arrivals This is an account of Hein Bergerhausen’s stint working on Snowy Scheme. • Former Luftwaffe pilot, Hein Bergerhausen couldn't remember ever being so cold in his life. It used to be cold, freezing even, sitting in the cockpit of a Stuka before a dawn take-off in winter on the eastern front; but this felt different. This felt lethal. He was sure he was frozen to the core. • It was his first night in Cooma, early in September 1951. Outside the spartan barracks the world was encased in ice. Inside it wasn't much warmer. The walls were thin and heaters were considered a fire risk, so were prohibited. In addition, it seemed someone had forgotten to supply blankets for the new arrivals. • Hein had crawled fully clothed under the mattress and lay huddled on his bunk's wire base, gritting his teeth and wondering just what he had got himself into. It was nightmarish and judging by the noisy shivering and swearing elsewhere in the darkened barn of a room, he was not alone in his torment.

13. Hein’s story • In contrast to the night, the day was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Many of the men, Hein included, gazed upwards in rapture. It was the most beautiful, cloudless blue they had ever seen. • They had also stared unbelievingly at the wooden poles fixed into the ground outside the hotels and some of the stores -- horse rails, some with horses attached. It was a paradox they didn't understand. Australia was clearly a rich country but by European standards, it still seemed materially backward. They couldn't see why anybody in 1951 would still be riding a horse instead of driving a car. • Hein was signed on as a diesel fitter at the Polo Flat workshops on Cooma's north-eastern outskirts. After lunch on his third day the leading hand, an Englishman and his offsider, an Irishman, beckoned Hein to join them in the cab of a small truck. On the back was a large bulldozer radiator. Hein grabbed a box of tools and they drove about twenty kilometres out of town on the Adaminaby road. They turned onto a rough track which wound its way through thick scrub to a small clearing where a bulldozer was parked beneath a tree. Hein deduced that they were to change the machine's radiator. But as soon as he had unloaded his tools the Irishman told him, with a blend of English, sign language and a smattering of German, that he and the leading hand were leaving. He tapped his wristwatch to indicate they would be back at five o'clock.

14. Hein’s story • When the rattle of the truck had faded, the silent bush wrapped itself around the nervous German. This was his first encounter with the Australian wilds and he had no idea what perils and beasts lurked within its inhospitable, dry-looking foliage. Hein was alone and not feeling particularly brave about it. It was very different bushland to the soft green forests of Germany. • Fortunately the dozer was under a sturdy limb so with rope from its tool box he was able to rig up a pulley system with which to lift and replace the heavy radiator. He worked busily and finished the job with time to spare. Still nervous about the surrounding bush, he planted his toolbox against the solid, comforting wall formed by the massive steel blade and sat to await the return of the leading hand and his Irish mate. • Five o'clock passed. So did five-thirty. By six o'clock Hein was sitting in the dark, a lone in an alien world of strange, frightening sounds which conjured invisible monsters and beasts of the night. When a kookaburra launched into a maniacal cry in a tree beside him, the young German was terrified. He scrambled up onto the bulldozer's seat. As it got later and colder, Hein thought about lighting a fire but was already conscious of the fear that Australians had of bushfires. He also worried a fire might attract bush animals and he had no desire to confront any such creatures. So he curled up on the bulldozer seat and tried to sleep, to shut his mind from the biting cold and the bush noises ... though he later confided to friends that he was "too bloody frightened" to feel the cold: "You wouldn't believe the noises; and I didn't know what was making them," he said. This was experienced by many immigrants who worked on the snowy scheme. There are many other stories just like Hein’s. Many migrants felt confronted and scared of the Aussie bush and didn’t dare go into it at night. I acknowledge that this is the words of Hein Bergenhausen and this is not my own

15. Bibliography http://users.bigpond.net.au/snowy/migrants html http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/04fifty.htm http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages discipline/pow-aust.htm http://www.fdn.uq.edu.au/students/2001%20February/farid/immigration.htm http://www.phm.gov.au/hsc/snowy/impact.htm#impact_society http://www.atse.org.au/index.php?sectionid=289 The Power of Water pamphlet/book