By 1920 the Australian soldiers who had fought in

World War I had returned home. Some went back to

the jobs they had before the war, while others

began new careers. Providing jobs for returned

soldiers was one of the most important issues

facing government. Australians wanted to create a

Nation ®t for heroes, so the Commonwealth and

state governments adopted policies to give preference

to returned soldiers for employment in the

public service. A Department of Repatriation was

also established to assist the diggers in returning to

civilian life and coping with illness caused by their

wartime experience.

With the returned soldiers came a post-war

marriage boom and an increased demand for homes.

LIFE IN THE CITY BUILDING

THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM

The decade began with a building boom and the construction

of new suburbs that sprawled along the

tramlines and new railway systems of Australia’s

capital cities. By the end of the decade, almost half

the Australian population were city dwellers.

Higher wages, more jobs and better facilities

attracted approximately 250 000 country Australians

to life in the city. The ideal of owning a house

and garden in the city suburbs became part of the

Australian dream. The mass production of new

inventions, designed to make life easier, became

available for use in Australian homes. More than

half the homes in Sydney were connected to

electricity by 1929. It was the age of electric

gadgets, wireless aerials and the car in the garage.

These spacious homes of the 1920s contrasted

starkly with the tiny terraced houses of the inner

city areas. The terrace houses had been constructed

at the end of the nineteenth century, without running

water or modern sanitation. The new suburbs

were a source of national pride, standing as symbols

of the good life in a modern consumer age

The 1920s were a decade of great contradiction so, of

course, there was another side to the story of the

Australian dream. The Australian government spent

nearly £50 million on the Soldier Settler Scheme and,

on their return from the Great War, young city

dwellers were encouraged to build new lives and

homes in rural areas of northern Victoria and

western New South Wales. However, the farms were

too small to support families and with no experience

of living on the land, these city dwellers were unable

to make a success of their new lives as farmers.

The 1920s brought change to the people of country

towns. The in¯ux of soldier settlers as well as electricity,

motor cars and highways broke their rural

isolation. In 1924, the gas lamps of Bathurst in New

South Wales were replaced by electric lights. State

governments were laying kilometres of railway

tracks to link new farms to centres of business.

Governments were spending money on developing

primary production in the hope that this would

attract larger populations to the country towns. The

value of a rural way of life was glori®ed as never

before, and combined with an optimistic belief that

Australia could thrive as a nation of small farmers.

The image of the outback bushman, living in a land

that bred emotionally and physically sturdy people,

became the image of being Australian.

The sad plight of the soldier settler was expressed in this

famous cartoon from the Bulletin, January 23 1919.

DOWN ON THE FARM

Source 3.1.3

The decade began with the hope that the horror of war

could be left behind, with overseas money boosting our

economy and new migrants increasing our population.

The government’s economic policies were summed up

in a speech given by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce in

1924, in which he identi®ed three things needed to

make Australia rich: men, money and markets. To

achieve his policy aims, the Prime Minister established

schemes to bring to Australia:

· men through assisted migration from Britain.

Immigrants would help establish farms and

expand primary production.

· money through loans from Britain. Funds

would be raised to pay for the roads, bridges,

electricity schemes and factories essential to the

development of rural areas.

· markets through trade with Britain and its

empire. Australian farms and factories would

produce goods to be sold overseas.