In this episode we take a deep dive into the hidden gem that is the Berrima District Museum, nestled in the picturesque Southern Highlands region of New South Wales.
We are joined by a passionate volunteer named Bud, who takes us on a journey through the museum's unique exhibits. The first stop is the Prisoners of Arcady exhibit, which tells the story of about 200 German merchant seamen who were interned in the Berrima district during World War 1. Bud shares fascinating insights into the lives of these men, including the hardships they faced and the ways they made the best of their situation.
Next, Bud takes us to the digital gardening display, which he helped create in collaboration with BDHS member Harlan Hall. The exhibit showcases the history of some notable gardens in the Southern Highlands region and how they have been influenced by the region’s unique climate and geography and evolved over time.
Whether you're a history buff, a gardening enthusiast, or simply curious about the hidden treasures of Australia, this episode is not to be missed!
Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225
Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast
In this episode we take a deep dive into the hidden gem that is the Berrima District Museum, nestled in the picturesque Southern Highlands region of New South Wales.
We are joined by a passionate volunteer named Bud, who takes us on a journey through the museum's unique exhibits. The first stop is the Prisoners of Arcady exhibit, which tells the story of about 200 German merchant seamen who were interned in the Berrima district during World War 1. Bud shares fascinating insights into the lives of these men, including the hardships they faced and the ways they made the best of their situation.
Next, Bud takes us to the digital gardening display, which he helped create in collaboration with BDHS member Harlan Hall. The exhibit showcases the history of some notable gardens in the Southern Highlands region and how they have been influenced by the region’s unique climate and geography and evolved over time.
Whether you're a history buff, a gardening enthusiast, or simply curious about the hidden treasures of Australia, this episode is not to be missed!
Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225
Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast
Bud:
There's a huge value in these museums, you don't measure them in dollars. an intrinsic value.
Kate:
Welcome to Roadshow and tell a podcast for people hoping to improve their pub trivia team score. I'm your host, Kate, and I'll visit museums so you can learn things you never knew you wanted to. Today we're visiting the Berrima District Museum in the Southern Highlands. The Southern Highlands is a beautiful region, about one and a half hours southwest of Sydney. It's comprised of a handful of historic towns and villages like Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, and Bundanoon. The region is a popular weekend destination and is especially known for its beautiful landscapes and gardens, and is a delight for leaf peepers year round. Berrima is a historic village within the southern highlands, with a population of 813 according to recent census data. Despite its small population, Berrima has a really interesting history and I'm so thrilled that it's well researched and presented at the District Museum. The Berrima District Museum is run by volunteers from the Berrima District History Society. It's actually one of my first regional museums I fell in love with, and I was so excited to go back and talk to them. In this episode, we are touring the museum with Bud Townsing, who is actually the curator of a gardening exhibit in the museum called,
Bud:
it's Gardens and Landscapes of the Southern Highlands then and now.
Kate:
but we'll mostly be exploring the Prisoners of Arcady exhibit. In this episode, you'll find out why a couple of hundred unwelcome German men became popular residents of Berrima in the early 20th century, the story of Friedrich Machuka, a guy that just couldn't catch a break, and also get a sniff of the horticultural history of the Highlands. whose land are we on?
Bud:
We are Gundungarra land,, but we're also on the border of the Tharawal and Dharug people.
Kate:
So, why is Berrima known as Historic Berrima? Berrima as a township was established in the early 1830s, and the courthouse and jail became the principal institutions as Berrima became the administrative center of the region. Locals hope that the launch of a railway line in the 1860s would further catapult Berrima's prominence in the region and also in the colony. But, the regional train line that opened in 1867 bypassed Berri ma by going through the nearby towns of Colo Vale, Mittagong, Bowral and Mossvale. This reduced the passing trade and its income, and the small village slipped into decline until.... In 1914, Australia declared war with Germany. The government decided all Germans in Australia were considered enemy aliens and required to spend the duration of the war in internment camps. So these were German civilians either living in or traveling through Australia, who had done nothing wrong, but were interned solely on their nationality. A number of internment camps were set up across the country, including a large camp at Holsworthy near Liverpool. because of the infrastructure of the old jail, Berrima was chosen as a location for a satellite internment camp of this larger Holsworthy camp. Internees started arriving from March, 1915, and by the end of the war there were 200 internees living there. They were free to leave during the day and had to only report to and sleep in the jail overnight. The Berrima internees were predominantly German merchants seamen, with few civilians and prisoners of war. So this meant that they were skilled, disciplined, and largely came with a ranking system, which contributed to the smooth running of the internee society. The arrival of the internees doubled berrima's population overnight. It was probably a bit of a Culture shock when newcomers with foreign accents and cultures started appearing on the main street. However, the locals soon became used to the strangers and accepted them into the community. Because of their seafaring occupation, most internees spoke adequate English and the locals soon warmed to their presence.
Bud:
So they were, they were allowed out during the day and established this village on the river here. And built a range of huts and generally entertained themselves. They were important members of the local community.
Kate:
At first, there wasn't adequate bedding supplied in the jail cells. The internees then got creative by installing small stoves with chimneys fashioned from empty jam or kerosene tins, and covering the cold stone floors with layers of potato sacks. After a year and a half, when the internees realized that the war wasn't ending anytime soon, they started to build bush huts along the river. They used what was at hand like kerosene tins, eucalypt logs, or bark walls. They gave them idealistic names such as Villa Marcella, Aslterberg, and Schloss am Meer. There's a photo of about 15 internees picking up a hut called Castle by the Sea via its log foundations, and walking it to relocate it. The move of the castle aimed to appease a few disgruntled locals after some rather rowdy celebrations marking the German Kaiser's birthday in 1918. While the internees were not forced to work, they could hire themselves out for employment in the district.
Bud:
Many of them were on half pay cuz they were, they were merchant seamen presumably the German steamship companies had the ability to keep on paying them. So they're on about half pay. Which would've, that would've been nice.
Kate:
The Commonwealth of Australia also paid each internee an allowance of four shillings per week. In the difficult war years, they became comparatively well off, and in turn, boosted the economy of Berrima. The most extraordinary thing about the intern is how they lived a relatively normal life with ease while being interned. They could live their lives freely during the day and report to the jail overnight. They organized leisure activities such as gymnastics, wrestling, football, swimming meets, and athletics teams to keep themselves active. There was a camp choir, a band, an orchestra and theater. The internees created a pleasure garden and a flotilla of canoes on the Wingecarribee River. Word of this spread to towns further away than the southern highlands, and introduced visitors to the town to sightsee, Thus rekindling Berrima's dwindling tourism industry. Most visitors were there to sightsee, but some did just want to fight. For a while there was even a German school started by some of the families called die Deutsche Tochterschule Berrima.
the German daughter's school.
Kate:
The museum even shows a photo of internees rescuing a valuable horse called Prince, who had fallen into a large underground cistern. They used a system of ropes and planks to lift the horse out. Die deutsches Theatre was a theater group formed by around 40 internees. They produced a new main item each fortnight, writing revue-sketch-type material that drew on latest happenings within the camp. Most plays they produced were of the popular German and Austrian playwrights of the day, and the theater company custom made all of the costumes, sets and props for each production. It was reported that"there was many a frantic battle with stubborn corset laces to force a muscular Germanic figure to assume ladylike curves. The plays were publicized in the community through expertly produced playbills and posters with the help of Otto Monkedieck, an intern who was also a trained lithographer. These are on display in the exhibit, as well as a nine minute film that includes rare footage of the internees activities along the Wingecarribee River. In the most extreme case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, let me tell you the story of
Bud:
a guy called Frederick Machotka
Kate:
Friedrich Machotka was not a Mariner. He wasn't even German, but ended up in internment camps for the duration of the war. Machotka was a Czech farmer who emigrated to Australia with his American born wife and their two children in 1913.
Bud:
So they came here for whatever he wandered into some place in Sydney and was deemed to be German. He was wearing the wrong hat at the wrong time. And he probably had an accent as well. Yeah. And being Czech, people weren't, didn't discriminate too closely. If you're a German, you're fairly unpopular. Machotka was wearing this and took him from a member of an enemy merchant Navy and directed him to return in three days time:"you chaps are to be sent to a camp up country". So he had to, fall in, and he was interned.
Kate:
Machotka's wife and children were granted permission to live at Berrima to be close to Friedrich. They rented a house on Oxley Street, which had a large grassed backyard full of weeds, rocks, and rubbish. With his agricultural knowledge and the help of his children, Machotka transformed the wasteland into a showplace of flower and vegetable gardens. Crops such as asparagus appeared for the first time in Berrima, as well as corn, peas,and beans. This inspired a gardening frenzy within the Internee community-similar to the fiddle leaf fig frenzy of 2018. With his advice, the internees' Gardens were developed to supply the camps kitchens continuously with a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. And the villagers gladly bought any surplus. One of the problems during this craze was the lack of fresh manure for the gardens, which prompted the internees to race to find manure each day. The diaries of internee Captain Bahl reports the bush and paddocks were searched thoroughly for the products of the cows hinder end, never were the streets of the village cleaner than during the time of the intern ees." Also, never again will I use the word bum now that I've heard the term hinder end. After the war, Machotka and his wife and children were finally reunited to live together under one roof. When the other internees were deported back to Europe, Machotka applied for special permission to remain in Australia, and it was granted. He started working at a local farm called Hopewood, owned by a wealthy local called Lebbeus Hordon.
Bud:
When he was working at Hopewood, there was a strong anti-German sentiment post World War I, and Machotka he was never the right guy in the right place at the right time, he was deemed to be German. And so people really got up in their arms about him being employed by Lebbeus at Hopewood. So Lebbeus helped him to finance a farm there. But unfortunately, Machotka passed away, got a chill after going out in a severe winter storm, and he died and the family returned there.
Kate:
He is buried in Berrima cemetery. when the Armistice was signed there was no need for the internment camp anymore. On the 12th of August, 1919, the Berrima Guard marched the men to the Moss Vale Railway station. On the way, punters at the Surveyor General Hotel gave the men three big cheers. The men boarded the SS Ypiranga from Pyrmont wharf. It would take 950 internees from Berrima and Holsworthy back to Germany. Over the next months, the government deported most of the remaining internees of Holsworthy to Germany. There were very few internees granted permission to stay in Australia after the war, and they were mostly naturalized or native born Australians. So that's the Prisoners of Arcady exhibition. Now we move into another display of the Museum of historic items from older times. Immediately what catches my eye is the old fashioned pantry. The pantry is a big metal cylindrical drum with four levels of drawers in it. The drawers pull out in a triangle shape from the drum, and are quite deep. Each drawer has a label like cocoa oatmeal, cake, flour, tea, and coffee. And the whole cabinet is rotatable as well. this this, um, what's hunky dory? The hurdy. gurdy. hurdy
Bud:
well, it's pretty simple. This was in your kitchen. This is the exact setup in her kitchen. So this is a traditional kitchen. This is where you kept your stuff. So your cocoa went in there and you just and you just spin it around and uh, there you go. There you go.
Kate:
We also see what looks like a small wooden chest of drawers with two sections each fastened closed with silver latches. This is, in fact an early non mechanical refrigeration device. On opening the doors, the compartments look similar to a mini fridge with wire shelves and insulating materials on the side. There is one compartment where the ice went in at the top and the ice would melt around the main compartment and then drain out of the bottom into a catching pan. So this used to be an early refrigerator.
Bud:
Well, I would call it an ice box. An ice box. Right. So ice chest, your ice went in the in the top. And I can still remember we would've had, yeah, the iceman used to come wa when I was brought up. Yeah. We still would've had the iceman in the late, late forties, early fifties. So the block of ice went in there and that's what kept everything cool and it melted down there and you emptied. So it would come out the water tray down the bottom. So that was what, how you kept kept things cool. Yeah. Every town had its own ice works back, back then.
Kate:
What about the history of the museum?
Bud:
Yeah, the museum came here in the 1970s and was a relocated house from Mossvale and there was a group of volunteers. The land here was owned by the council, but the development of the museum is part of the Berrima History group. And everything here is being done by volunteers including all of the buildings here. Council has, been a good land that owns the land. But you know, the development of the museum has been totally done by local volunteers for 45, 50 years.
Kate:
Where do most of the things come from? Is it donations? Or do you buy them from to deceased estates or just a mix?
Bud:
A lot just come through the door here, basically. There's a couple of suitcases under a desk there, which is somebody's contributed, I mean, the difficulty with museum like this is that you keep on getting what we'll call more stuff, and it's how you handle that stuff. And if people give something to you, they then want to see it on exhibition.
Kate:
And why do you volunteer here?
Bud:
Oh, it's a good question, isn't it? There is a simple reason. My wife passed away two and a half years ago, so I was looking something to do on Sundays, which was my tough day. So I said, I'll volunteer at the museum here. Which I did. And then I joined the Australian Garden History Society and and I said, I don't wanna be treasurer, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna be that, but I'm happy to do a thing like doing an exhibition. So that, led to me being involved in pulling the exhibition.
Kate:
Let's visit this exhibit that Bud has put together. Remember, it's called,
Bud:
It's Gardens and Landscapes of the Southern Highlands then and now.
Kate:
It's 10 screens with a rotating slideshow, each featuring a different pictorial journey of the last 200 years of horticulture in this region. One display I loved was on the Atkinson ladies: Charlotte Waring Atkinson, her daughter Louisa Atkinson, and her daughter Jeanette Kosh. You might recognize the name Charlotte Waring Atkinson. She was the first published children's novelist in Australia in 1841. All three were talented writers, naturalists, and artists, and some of their books and illustrations are on display in this exhibit. There's also a display about a property at Bowral known as Bengal a. Frank and Ethel Davenport had recently lost their son, Frank, in the first World War when they started these gardens in 1920. They initially called it Shangrila, and it later became known as Ben gala. Throughout the next 100 years, the gardens thrived and then eventually fell into neglect. New owners bought the property in 2007 and set about restoring the house and gardens in a way that honors its original character. The then are now photos of Bengala are quite impressive and really reflect the distinctive character of the gardens of this region. Yeah. What was the effect of covid on the museum?
Bud:
Oh. We just closed, which was pretty simple, but it, it meant I was able to do that exhibition in a constrained way. I simply used material that I had at hand, or we had within the archives at hand, and a whole lot of people like Linda Emery from friends in Bundanoon. All contributed segments, high life and just were able to put that together under lockdown conditions. It was actually, it was actually a, that was a benefit because meant I couldn't go elsewhere.
Kate:
What are the other challenges facing the museum? The running of the museum?
Bud:
Biggest challenge is, Is to get people through the door. This exhibition has been quite successful because it's projected at a market if you like, which are, which are gardening people. And also it's benefited from having a wet winter cuz we had gardening groups come through, the garden's been washed out. We say, well come here We're an all weather venue. So on this example of how you can use technology like in the screens, and do an exhibition at low cost.
Kate:
And why should people visit the Berrima Historical Museum?
Bud:
Cause it's one of the best, it's, it's a good local museum. It's extremely well and professionally organized by Lynn Hall. And yeah, so it, it's, it's got this, this gallery, which does a good job. You've got well called traditional museum artifacts, which are here and extremely well organized and laid out. And then you've got the gallery, which gives us the opportunity to, to do bigger displays. And I think our displays are quite professional and We compare favorably with other museum. Every museum, every regional museum is different. They've all got their own character, which reflects the people who develop them. They're in a real asset to the town. There's a huge value in these museums, which you can't, you don't measure them in dollars. It, it's, it's an intrinsic value.
Kate:
The Berrima District museum is open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Friday to Sunday, except for public holidays. The cost of admission is$10 for adults,$8 for seniors and concessions, and children can enter for free, but must be accompanied by an adult. The museum is on one level and accessible to wheelchairs and walking frames. There are also visitor chairs placed throughout the museum for comfort. So there you have it. There is way more than meets the eye in the town of Historic Berrima. Again, this is one of my favorite small town museums, and it's only a day trip away from Sydney, so I would highly recommend getting down there if you can. Plus, there's an excellent bakery to population ratio in Berrima and many delicious cafes and fancy restaurants too. You can check out any of the items described in this podcast on our Instagram at Roadshow and Tell. Thanks for listening to Roadshow and Tell. If you enjoyed this deep dive into a specialty museum, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode. We're a new podcast. So if you wanna help support us, please share it with a friend and leave a rating and review. If you are involved with or know of a regional or specialty museum that should be featured, please get in touch at roadshowandtell@gmail.com. I'm your host, Kate. Roadshow and Tell was edited and produced on the lands of the Gadigal people. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the various lands on which you may be listening from, and the lands that the museums featured in this podcast reside on. I also acknowledge any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people listening to this podcast. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging, and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters of Australia.