Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Wars & the Depression
On 1 January 1901, WA and the other colonies federated to form the nation of Australia.
This was not a declaration of independence. This new Australia was a dominion within the
British Empire. It was as citizens of the empire that thousands of Australian men volun-
teered to fight in the Australian Imperial Force when WWI broke out in 1914. They fought
in Turkey, Sinai and in Europe - notably on the Somme. More than 200,000 of them were
killed or wounded over the terrible four years of the war. Today, in cities and towns across
the state you will see war memorials that commemorate their service.
Though mining, for the time being, had ceased to be an economic force, farmers were
developing the lucrative WA wheat belt, which they cultivated with the horse-drawn
stump-jump plough, one of the icons of Australian frontier farming. At the same time, a
growing demand for wool and beef and the expansion of dairying added to the state's eco-
nomic growth.
Nevertheless, many people were struggling to earn a living - especially those ex-soldiers
who were unable to shake off the horrors they had endured in the trenches. In 1929, the
lives of these 'battlers' grew even more miserable when the cold winds of the Great De-
pression blew through the towns and farms of the state. So alienated did West Australians
feel from the centres of power and politics in the east that, in 1933, two-thirds of them
voted to secede from the rest of Australia. Although the decision was never enacted, it ex-
pressed a profound sense of isolation from the east that is still a major factor in the culture
and attitudes of the state today.
In 1939, Australians were once again fighting a war alongside the British, this time
against Hitler in WWII. But the military situation changed radically in December 1941
when the Japanese bombed the American fleet at Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. The Japanese
swept through Southeast Asia and, within weeks, were threatening Australia. Over the next
two years they bombed several towns in the north of the state, including Broome, which
was almost abandoned.
It was not the British but the Americans who came to Australia's aid. As thousands of
Australian soldiers were taken prisoner and suffered in the torturous Japanese prisoner-of-
war camps, West Australians opened their arms to US servicemen. Fremantle was trans-
formed into an Allied naval base for operations in the Indian Ocean, while a US submarine-
refuelling base was established at Exmouth. In New Guinea and the Pacific, Americans and
Australians fought together until the tide of war eventually turned in their favour.
