Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The aftermath of WWII, along with postwar immigration programs, made Australia
more appealing to migrants from Europe. Australia experienced new growth and prosper-
ity, Sydney's population exploded and the city's borders spread west.
Despite a strong trade-union movement, Australia came to accept the US view that
communism threatened the increasingly Americanised Australian way of life. In 1965 the
Liberal Party government sent troops to serve in the Vietnam War, even though Britain did
not.
In 1967 a national referendum was held on whether to allow Aboriginal people the right
to vote, which was passed by 90% of eligible voters. Meanwhile, civil unrest over con-
scription to Vietnam eventually helped to bring about the election of the left-wing Aus-
tralian Labor Party (ALP) in 1972, the first time in 23 years that it had held power.
During the Vietnam War years, the face of Sydney changed again, as American GIs flooded
the city. Kings Cross provided the kind of belt-level R&R the troops desired.
During Labor leader Gough Whitlam's short stint as Prime Minister, the government
withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam, abolished national military service and put the
Governor General in 1975 fuelled unease with the constitutional system and generated
calls for a republic (a referendum on the issue was voted down in 1999).
