Sport among the internees 1914-1919

During the First World War, thousands of enemy aliens were interned in Australia. Most were German residents and other foreign residents, but a number of them were officially prisoners of war. Unlike the Boer prisoners who had to be taught in 1899- 1902 by their British captors how to play games, for four years the internees in Australia passed their time and avoided boredom by engaging in theatricals and in their pre-war sporting activities. One internee, Frank Bungardy, who had fought professionally in South Australia before 1914, organised boxing in the camps. When he was deported home he embarked upon the newly-legalised profession of boxing in the Weimar Republic.