Year 10 History: Student Booklet 2022

Japanese submarine in Sydney Harbour, 1942 Poster encouraging Australian women to join the services or
become involved in industry to help war effort

Topic 4: The impact of World War II, with a particular emphasis of the Australian home
front, including the changing roles of women and the use of wartime government
controls (eg. conscription, manpower controls, rationing, censorship)

Introduction
World War 2 was the first truly total war; in other words, everyone – not just those involved in the actual
fighting – was contributing in some way to the war effort. In Australia, the government took control of
ordinary people’s lives. There were restrictions on what people could say, write and do – everyone was
expected to contribute to the war and the defeat of Japan and Germany.

Activity 1:
(a) Examine the Topic 4 PowerPoint and list different ways WW2 impacted on the Australian home front.
How could your ideas be categorised? What were the overall impacts? What caused these changes?

(b) Watch FURTHER BACK IN TIME FOR DINNER: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NATION   S02 • E05
(1940s) on ClickView. (18 min)
Description of Program: “Our family travel back to the 1940s when World War Two broke out. Women
began to move into the paid workforce and food rationing was enforced. This decade also marked the end
of the war”

TASK: Identify FIVE impacts of WW2 on the Australian home front represented in this program.

Activity 2:
Refer to Oxford 10 pp. 304-309 (Life on the home front) and classify the impact of each of the topics in the
TABLE on the next page as being MAINLY an example of a political; economic; or social impact on Australia.
Provide a brief explanation of how each one related to Australia and World War Two in the TABLE
underneath. One has been done for you. Some topics could reflect multiple impacts.
 Categorise EACH of the following into the TABLE underneath and provide a brief explanation:
National Security Act propaganda Women’s role in the daylight saving
workforce
Women’s Land Army Allied Works Council WAAAF; AWAS; WRANS reservist occupations

rationing, recycling, Department of Directorate of Manpower internment

reusing Information/censorship
Volunteer Air Observers evacuation drills Civil Construction Corps reduction in some
Corps production of goods

national identity cards Australian Women’s Volunteer Defence Force blackouts

National League

groups banned Conscription (CMF) p. 301 reduced hotel/bar trading reduced annual leave
hours; maximum prices entitlements
for restaurants

The Impact of World War Two on the Australian Home Front

Political Impact (Government Economic Impact (managing and Social Impact (everyday life and
policy, controls and laws) producing resources) role of women)
Daylight saving: introduced to save
power

Refer to Sources 1-8 in Activity 3 to complete the section below:

Sources: Sources: Sources:
Source 2: Women’s Land Army Poster –
women were encouraged to join
organisations to fill the gap created by
men serving

Activity 3:
Examine the historical evidence below (Sources 1-8) and add each Source number to your Table above
into the relevant column. Include evidence from each source in your answer. Source 2 has been done for
you as a guide.

Activity 4:
Examine Sources 1-8 in this Booklet. As a class OR individually:
(a) Which TWO sources represent the most significant impact of World War Two on Australia? Explain
each of your choices.
1. Source number ?
Why?
2. Source number ?
Why?

(b) Which source (1-8) do you believe is the:

(i) most contestable; and
(ii) least contestable?
Explain your choice. CHECK the Historical Concepts & Skills PowerPoint to revise what makes a source
contestable.

Activity 5:
Analyse the historical evidence below, Sources 2-4 below using the Table provided. Source 1 has been
done for you. CHECK the Historical Concepts & Skills PowerPoint to revise how to analyse historical
evidence.

Impact of World War Two on the Australian Home Front: Analysing historical evidence
Source 1 Source 2
Origin: A primary source article written by PM Curtin that
appeared in the newspaper The Herald on 27
December 1941
Message: Australia is in great danger from Japan and
everyone must pull together and do their duty to
enable us to defeat the enemy. PM Curtin states:
“I demand that Australians everywhere realise
that Australia is now inside the firing lines.”

Purpose: Make Australians realise that they must do more

to help defeat the Japanese and not rely on USA.
PM Curtin states:
“Australians must realise that to place the nation
on a war footing every citizen must place himself,
his private and business affairs, his entire mode of
living, on a war footing.”

Perspective/ PM Curtin’s perspective is that at that time during

Point of view: WW2 Australia was under grave threat from Japan
and that Australia could no longer rely on Great
Britain. He wanted to shock Australians into
realising that they needed to do more to help the
war effort. PM Curtin states:
“the Commonwealth Government found it
exceedingly difficult to bring Australian people to
a realisation of what, after two years of war, our
position had become.”

Usefulness in Strength: shows the urgency of the situation as

learning about the Australian PM is informing people that
this topic: changes have to occur to their way of life. PM
A strength and Curtin states:
“The year 1942 will impose supreme tests”
weakness
Weakness: doesn’t show the reaction of ordinary
Australian people to his call for action at this time.
It is only PM Curtin’s call for action.
Source 3 Source 4
Origin:

Message:

Purpose:

Perspective/
Point of view:
Usefulness in
learning about
this topic:
A strength and
weakness

The Impact of World War Two on the Australian home front: Analysing Historical Evidence
Source 1: Extract from an article by Australian Prime Minister John Curtin that appeared in The
[Melbourne] Herald, 27 December 1941 entitled ‘The Task Ahead’.
The Task Ahead
…I see 1942 as a year of immense change in Australian life. The Australian government's policy has been
grounded on two facts. One is that the war with Japan is not a phase of the struggle with the Axis
powers, but is a new war. The second is that Australia must go on a war footing.…The second is the
reshaping, in fact the revolutionising, of the Australian way of life until a war footing is attained quickly,
efficiently and without question...
…the Commonwealth Government found it exceedingly difficult to bring Australian people to a
realisation of what, after two years of war, our position had become. Even the entry of Japan, bringing a
direct threat in our own waters, was met with a subconscious view that the Americans would deal with
the short-sighted, underfed and fanatical Japanese.
…Our task for 1942 is stern ... The position Australia faces internally far exceeds in potential and
sweeping dangers anything that confronted us in 1914-1918. The year 1942 will impose supreme
tests...Australians must realise that to place the nation on a war footing every citizen must place himself,
his private and business affairs, his entire mode of living, on a war footing. The civilian way of life cannot
be any less rigorous, can contribute no less than that which the fighting men have to follow. I demand
that Australians everywhere realise that Australia is now inside the firing lines.
…All Australia is the stake in this war. All Australia must stand together to hold that stake. We face a
powerful, ably led and unbelievably courageous foe. We must watch the enemy accordingly. We shall
watch him accordingly.
Source 2: Women’s Land Army Poster. Source 3: A cartoon that appeared in the Australian
Daily Telegraph (1942).

Source 4: Extract from an Australian History textbook, Experience of Nationhood, published in 2014).

The morale of the Australian people was already low in 1942, and the raids and attacks triggered a
degree of panic among the civilian population. There was a great fear that the Japanese were coming
south and that Australia was now open to attack. Britain had always been the traditional defender of
Australia and now British power in Asia retreated before the Japanese.
Although many people believed that Australia might face invasion, the reality was that Japanese military
leaders had already decided not to invade the country. By August 1942...Australia along with almost 90
000 American troops, the Australian government itself believed that the threat of invasion had passed.
However, the fear of such an event was still promoted to the Australian people in posters and
statements. It suited the government to keep the Australian people on a constant war footing so that
they would accept the restrictions that the war placed on daily life. Curtin was a clever politician, and
promoting the possibility of invasion until well into 1943 helped to motivate and unite the nation. ‘The
war’, he said, ‘could not be waged without ruthlessness.’

Source 5: Propaganda poster produced by the Australian Department for Information (1942).

Source 6: An Article that appeared in The Age, 26 June 1942.

Drastic Powers Assumed

Full details of the complete control of civilian inter-State travel by rail or commercial passenger vehicles
were issued yesterday by the Federal Minister of Transport (Mr Lawson). The restrictions will also cover
travel to and from the border stations of Albury, Tocumwal, Wallangarra, and also Broken Hill.
Applications for permits to travel must be made in writing and reasons given. Power is given to the
Director-General of Land Transport (Sir Harold Clapp) to grant or refuse a permit. Identity cards or other
means of identification may be required.
The regulations will come into force on July 1, and priority booking opens on June 23. Priority permits
will be issued in the following order, and be available to travel provide accommodation on trains is
available. (1) Defence personnel in uniform on duty (no permit required). (2) Persons on national
defence business such as Ministers, members of Parliament, departmental officers. (3) Personnel of
defence conferences, judges and associates. (4) Persons on civilian business connected with defence. (5)
Defence personnel on home leave passes, persons travelling for urgent or adequate private business
 reasons, or on account of serious illness or bereavement. (6) Special cases to avoid hardship.
Travel permits will not be issued for pleasure or holidays, for womenfolk, relatives or friends to visit or
live near members of the family unless especially good reasons are advanced, or for school children on
vacation.

Source 7: A Coca-Cola advert in an Australian Source 8: Women inspecting empty anti-aircraft

magazine during World War Two. shell cases before they are filled in a munitions
factory in South Australia.

Activity 6:
Write a SUMMARY explaining the impact of World War Two on the Australian home front using your Table
above. Write three paragraphs (political; economic; social). Structure each paragraph with a:
 Topic Sentence (Main Idea)
 Explanatory sentences; combined with
 Evidence (facts; data; opinions)
 Linking Sentence (link to Main Idea; overall topic)

Activity 7:
(c) Watch Australia at War: Japanese Attacks on Australia WW2 (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzMWwB4AJr4
and comment on how each of the following impacted on Australia (people and government):
(i) Japanese attack on Darwin
(ii) Japanese submarines in Sydney harbour Bridge
(iii) Propaganda Eg. Feature films
(iv) Prime Minister John Curtin
(v) Shortage of workers