Many of the more than 100,000 Germans living in Australia during the outbreak of World War I were jailed without trial in three main centres in New South Wales: Berrima in the Southern Highlands, Trial Bay on the North Coast and Holsworthy, in Liverpool in Sydney's west.

Holsworthy was the largest and longest-running internment camp, remaining open until the last internees and prisoners of war were repatriated in 1920.

The front gates at the Liverpool camp. They were decorated with wrought iron made by the internees. ( Australian War Memorial )

An elevated view of the German internment camp at Holsworthy, looking north and showing the number 3 and 4 compounds. ( Australian War Memorial )

According to the National Archives of Australia, the camp housed 6,000 men at its peak.

Detainee 26, K Diekamp, was placed at the Holsworthy camp in Sydney in 1915. ( National Archives of Australia )

Detainee 4735, Wilhelm Adena, was interned at the Holsworthy camp in 1915. ( National Archives of Australia )

Germans and others classed as "enemy aliens" were housed at the camp.

Two unidentified internees behind a lathe which they had built in one of the camp workshops. ( Australian War Memorial )

Detainee 4726, Marcks Lothar, was placed in the internment camp in Liverpool during World War I. ( National Archives of Australia )

Detainee 236, Hermann Sommer, was placed in the internment camp in Liverpool in 1915. ( National Archives of Australia )

Beginning as a collection of tents, the camp grew into a small town featuring theatres, restaurants and other small businesses, along with an orchestra and sporting and educational activities.

Inside the grocery store at the Holsworthy camp during World War I. ( Australian War Memorial )

A view taken from the north-eastern corner of the German internment camp at Holsworthy, showing tennis courts and some of the buildings in the compound, circa 1916. ( Australian War Memorial )

Members of the Mililar football club, formed by inmates of the German internment camp at Liverpool in Sydney in 1917. ( Australian War Memorial )

Detainees experienced difficult living conditions with overcrowding and basic sanitary facilities. Most inmates were ultimately deported in 1919 in a government-backed form of ethnic cleansing.

Detainee 4732, Dr Graebner Fritz, was interned at the Holsworthy camp in Liverpool in 1915. ( National Archives of Australia )