Historical sources on the Australian Home Front in WWI

Extract A

"At midnight on August 4, 1914, messages were telegraphed from London to all parts of the British dominions announcing that a state of war with the German Empire existed from that hour. Australia was prepared for the news. Information from the Imperial Government had warned Commonwealth ministers, and the cablegrams in the newspapers had kept the public informed of the intense anxiety and breathless suspense existing in Europe during the interval between the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, at Sarajevo, on June 23, and the ultimatum presented by Austria to Serbia on July 23." 

Extract B

"Both the Prime Minister who was in office at the time of the commencement of the war, Cook, and the leader of the Opposition, Fisher, were agreed as to what the imperative [necessary] duty of Australia was. Cook said on July 31: 'whatever happens, Australia is a part of the Empire and is in the Empire to the full; when the Empire is at war, Australia is at war.' Fisher was equally emphatic [forceful]: 'Should the worst happen after everything has been done that honour will permit, we Australians will help and defend the mother country to our last man and our last shilling.'" 

Extract C

"Within four days of the outbreak, the Inspector-General of the Australian military forces, Major-General Sir William Bridges, had, with his staff, worked out the details for the organization of the Australian Expeditionary Force — the A.I.F. The call for enlistment evoked an enthusiastic and eager response from every quarter of the continent. Training camps were established. All the resources the Government could command were strained to the utmost to produce equipment, uniforms, and all the immensely multiple requirements of an army." 

Extract D

"The result of the first referendum gave to one section of the community a severe shock, while it encouraged those who had contended that voluntary enlistment was sufficient for Australia's needs. There were affirmative majorities in three States, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania. The total number of affirmative votes was 1,087,557; but the negative votes numbered 1,160,033." 

Extract E

"In 1917 Britain sought a sixth Australian division for active service. Australia had to provide 7,000 men per month to meet this request. Volunteer recruitment continued to lag, and on 20 December 1917 Prime Minister Hughes put a second referendum to the Australian people. The question asked was: 'Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the A.I.F. [Australian Imperial Force] oversea?' Majorities against the proposal were recorded in four States, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. The number voting in the negative was 1,181,747; the affirmative votes numbered 1,015,159." 

Extract F

"It was therefore determined to take a referendum of the people on the question: 'Are you in favour of the Government having in this grave [serious] emergency the same compulsory [required by law] powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service for the term of this war, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the Commonwealth?' The voting took place on October 28, 1916. This Government was impressed with the need for obtaining recruits in greater numbers than were coming forward for voluntary enlistment. But the numbers required were not realised [achieved]." 

Contextual information:

Ernest Scott (1867–1939) was a British-born journalist and historian who became Professor of History at the University of Melbourne in 1913. He wrote Australia During the War as Volume XI of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, completing it in 1936 after consulting government archives and private manuscript collections across all Australian states. The extract describes the mood in Australia at the outbreak of war in August 1914 and the rapid formation of the Australian Imperial Force. 

Bibliographical reference:

Adapted from Scott, E. (1936). Australia during the war (Vol. XI, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, pp. 1–2, 9, 351, 353, 357). Angus and Robertson.  

Copyright: Public domain. 

"PART XIII.—EXEMPTIONS FROM PERSONAL SERVICE. 138.—(1.) The following shall be exempt from the training mentioned in Part XII. of this Act in time of peace, so long as the employment, condition, or status on which the exemption is based is still continuing:—(a) Those who have been reported by the prescribed [approved] medical authorities as unfit for any naval or military service whatever; and (b) Those who are not substantially of European origin or descent, of which the medical authorities appointed in that behalf under the regulations shall be the judges." 

Contextual information:

The Defence Act 1909 was a Commonwealth statute passed by the Australian Parliament on 13 December 1909. Section 138 set out who was exempt from compulsory military training, and its racial exemption clause was a direct expression of the White Australia Policy that governed immigration and military eligibility at the time. The Act was in force at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and determined who was eligible for military training. 

Bibliographical reference:

Commonwealth of Australia. (1909). Defence Act 1909 (Act No. 15 of 1909), Part XIII, Section 138(1). Commonwealth of Australia. 

Copyright: This is an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia and is not subject to copyright.

"The day was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services across Australia, a march through London, and a sports day in the Australian camp in Egypt. In London more than 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched through the streets; a London newspaper headline dubbed them 'the knights of Gallipoli'. Marches were held all over Australia; in the Sydney march convoys of cars carried soldiers wounded on Gallipoli and their nurses. For the remaining years of the war Anzac Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns, and parades of serving members of the A.I.F. were held in most cities." 

Contextual information:

The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national institution for the commemoration and study of war, established by an Act of Parliament in 1925. This passage describes how Anzac Day was observed during the First World War, drawing on the Memorial's archival holdings. The first Anzac Day was held in 1916, on the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, and was organised as a public demonstration of support for the war effort and for recruiting. 

Bibliographical reference:

Australian War Memorial. (n.d.). The Anzac Day tradition. Australian War Memorial. https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/traditions

"'The White Feather Brigade,' — that is those members of the community who are too pusillanimous [cowardly] and supine [passive] to go to the war themselves, but who are so anxious to get other people to go." 

Contextual information:

The Don Dorrigo Gazette and Guy Fawkes Advocate was a rural New South Wales newspaper published between 1910 and 1954. This article appeared on 7 August 1915, at the height of the white feather campaign in Australia. Women presented white feathers to men who had not enlisted as a way of publicly accusing them of cowardice, and the practice was widely reported and debated in the Australian press throughout 1915 and 1916. 

Bibliographical reference:

The White Feather Brigade. (1915, August 7). The Don Dorrigo Gazette and Guy Fawkes Advocate, p. 2. 

Copyright: Public domain.