Changes in Society

All information extracted from: The Experience of Nationhood: Modern Australia Since 1901. Chapter 3: Between the Wars: Australia In the 1920s and the 1930s, pages 107-108.

Returned Soldiers
When the war ended in 1918, over 260 000 Australian troops were overseas, and it was not until 1920 that the last Australian soldier had returned home. The government felt it had a special responsibility for the soldiers who had served in the war. Many thousands of the soldiers had no profession, trade or particular skill, and it fell to the government to provide for these men and help them back into society and the workforce. Many of the soldiers returning after the war found it very difficult t settle back into civilian life. Those who returned to their jobs often found that men who had not gone to the war had advanced and had better wages. The trade unions opposed attempts by the government to give preference to ex-soldiers because they feared it would damage the strength of the union movement. Returning soldiers found that the values they had lived by in the war- mateship, loyalty and honesty- did not apply in the world they returned to in the peace. A Department of Repatriation (now called the Department of Veterans Affairs) was set up to provide payment of pensions to men who had served in the war and to provide medical and hospital support for returned soldiers in special repatriation hospitals. The government also built thousands of war-service homes that were provided to former soldiers at reasonable rates. These homes were in new suburban estates out from the city centre, and streets in these new communities were often named after places associated with Australias role in World War I.

The Soldier Settlement Scheme

The sense of responsibility to the returned soldiers, as well as the belief that opening up the land and the development of rural industry were important for Australias growth, led to the Solider Settlement Scheme of the 1920s. Under this plan the state governments made available blocks of farmland to ex-soldiers and the federal government provided cheap loans for the purchase of stock and equipment. Soldier settlements began in the sugar areas of north Queensland and areas of Victoria. In all some 50 million was allocated to the scheme. Despite the worthy motives of both the government and the soldier settlers, the scheme was a failure. In many areas the land was poor or the farms were too small to support a family. Too many ex-soldiers were totally inexperienced in rural matters. The prices received for the agricultural products was too low.

Source 1: Plan of the Soldiers Garden Village. Matraville.

Source 2: A cartoon from the Bulletin, 29th September 1921.

Source 3:

Questions: 1) What is meant by the term soldier settlement? 2) Was it hard for the returning soldiers to amalgamate into Australian society? 3) Why was the Soldier Settlement Scheme a failure? 4) What does Source 2 show? 5) What does Source 3 show? 6) Compare and contrast the messages that Source 2 and Source 3 could possibly be portraying.