Impacts of WWI on Australia

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Australian government's control
on the homefront in World War
One.

World War One had a significant impact

on Australia. A young nation with a
population of less than five million in
1914 lost over 60000 young men as a
result of the war. Many of these men
were the fittest and most able of the
male population. As a percentage of
total troops sent to war, Australias
losses were the highest of any of the
Commonwealth nations.

Source: A comparison of British Commonwealth

Casualties, statistics from Australian Campaigns in the
Great War, Lt. The Hon, Staniforth Smith

Country Total Total casualties % of casualties

soldiers (captured, missing,
sent to war wounded or killed)

Britain 5 000 000 2 535 424 50.71

Canada 422 405 210 100 49.74
Australia 331 781 215 585 64.98
New 98 950 58 526 59.01
Zealand

India 1 096 013 140 015 12.77

 Impact of war on the Australian
home front

Despite the significant loss of

Australian lives, World War I did not
touch the Australian home front to
anywhere near the same degree as it
did in the countries where fighting had
taken place, such as France, Belgium,
Italy, Russia, Turkey and Britain. In
these countries, civilians suffered food
shortages or were driven from their
homes because of the conflict. All the
European nations introduced some
form of conscription (compulsory
military service). In Australia,
conscription was one of the most
divisive and bitter arguments of the
war.

The conscription issue

By 1916, most of the initial enthusiasm
for the war effort had been replaced by
the grim realisation that war meant
suffering and death. Although there
was a peak in enlistments after
Gallipoli, from late 1915, numbers of
enlisting soldiers steadily declined.
Because of the decline in the number of
Australian volunteers, heavy Australian
losses and the critical state of the war
on the Western Front, Labor Prime
Minister Billy Hughes announced that
there would be a national referendum
(a special national vote). If it had
passed, the Commonwealth
Government would have had the power
to force men of military age to join the
army for service in the war overseas.
Hughes first put the referendum to the
Australian people in OCtober 1916.
They voted no by a small margin.
Under pressure for Britain, Hughes held
a second referendum in December
1917, with the same result.
The most important reason for the
failure of the conscription referendum
was that despite government
propaganda, the official support of the
Protestant Churches and an energetic
campaign by the Prime Minister, the
Australian people were not convinced
that Australia was at risk. The war was
half a world away. Australians also
believed that, for the size of its
population, the country had done more
than its fair share to support Britain and
the Empire. The conscription debate
divided the country, and highlighted
existing divisions along the lines of
religion and social classes. Supporters
of conscription were more likely be
upper-class people of British and
Protestant background. Opponents of
conscription were more likely to be
working class, Catholic and Irish
background.

Wartime Controls/Censorship
In 1914, the newly elected Australian
Labor government, under Prime
Minister Andrew Fisher, passed two
items of legislation to extend
Commonwealth power. These were
known as the Trading with the Enemy
Act and the War Precautions Act.
These two pieces of legislation
represented a significant increase in
the central authority of the Federal
government - a move that continued in
many areas of law even after the war
ended in 1918. These Acts gave the
government power to:
collect income tax.
Increase censorship of letters,
telegraph cables, newspapers
and magazines, with the goal of
preventing information about
military operations from
reaching the enemy.
Set prices for certain goods
Control the movements of
enemy aliens - in other words
German-Australians - and even
intern (imprison) them.
Ban trade with companies from
enemy countries fighting against
the Allies.

Impact on the economy

The redirection of raw materials to the
war effort caused inflation (price rises)
across Australia, with the cost of living
rising by up to 50% during the war
years. On the positive side, Australia
developed new industries to
manufacture products that could no
longer be imported because of naval
blockades and the use of cargo ships
for military purposes rather than for the
transportation of consumer goods.
There were also changes in the
structure of economy. While agriculture
continued to be important, there was
also significant growth in Australian
secondary industry (manufacturing)
such as the expansion of the BHP Steel
Works and the Sulphide Corporation.
Both these companies were involved in
smelting and processing metals that
were vital to the war effort.

Impact on Australian Women

Before the war, most women had been
homemakers, with a small number
working in traditional female roles such
as teaching, nursing, dressmaking and
domestic work. However, with over
300,000 men fighting overseas, women
wanted to support the war effort at
home. Unlike women in Britain and
Germany, Australian women did not
move into factory work in significant
numbers. They did, however, move out
of their traditional roles, taking up jobs
in banks and offices that had previously
been male occupations. By the end of
the war, the percentage of women
outside the home had risen by 13%. At
the end of the war, most women
returned to their duties at home.
However, there were roles such as
secretaries, typists and telephonists
that continued to be regarded as
womens work.

Wartime propaganda
Wartime propaganda was aimed at
encouraging people to support the war
effort by enlisting to serve or by working
on the homefront. Another key
objective was to generate negative
feelings and emotions towards the
enemy, which in Australia meant
fuelling anti-German sentiments in the
general public. During World War I,
Germans and Turks were demonised in
the Australian Press, in posters and in
day-to-day life. Many German-
Australians changed their names to
more English-sounding ones to avoid
discrimination.

Internment of enemy aliens

From the 1850s onwards, German
settlers coming to Australia had formed
communities in places such as the
Barossa Valley in South Australia and
the Riverina in New South Wales, as
well as across parts of south-east
Queensland and Western Australia.
During WWI, the Australian government
set up internment camps in remote
places around Australia and sent
thousands of enemy aliens to be
detained there. The government of the
time regarded enemy aliens to be any
men, women or children born in
countries at war with Australia who
were thought to pose a threat to
Australias security. About 4500 people
were interned during WWI, and many
more were secretly kept under
observation by police and neighnours in
their communities.