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Stan Cross's "For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!" (Smith's Weekly, 1933) is the symbol and bellwether of the Australian cartooning tradition. It is often lionised as a national treasure, but its archival history has been perilous in a way that shows a lack of care amounting almost to national negligence. The original of this most famous cartoon of the Depression era was lost for 80 years before being rediscovered in 2014, and this article notes for the first time that Trove Newspapers lacks a record of its initial publication. We use this troubled material history of one significant cartoon to raise a range of issues about the quality and purpose of collecting and presenting Australian cartoons as a resource for Australian studies in fields ranging from media and humour studies to cultural and political history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the returned soldier, who has figured prominently in Australian historiography of war, should be understood as a site of collective memory. During the Great Depression, the Scullin government failed to remove preference in employment for returned soldiers, even though the Australian labour movement demanded the restoration of preference for unionists. Moreover, Scullin quarantined key categories of war pensions from the cuts imposed by the deflationary Premiers' Plan of June 1931. In the public debates surrounding these policy issues, the 'returned soldier' was constructed as a powerful representation of unity, national pride and sacrifice in the common good. These wartime values were now claimed to be needed as Australians faced another national crisis. Hence, even though individual returned soldiers were often affected adversely by the Depression, their privileged status as an imagined collective was affirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this important book, Joan Beaumont suggests that, for Australians at least, the Great Depression was less traumatic than the two world wars and as a result has received less attention from scholars. For Australians, like the inhabitants of many nations, the first half of the twentieth century was an era of immense turbulence. 576 pp., $AU39.99, ISBN 9781760293987, Publisher's website: https://www.allenandunwin.com/. [Extracted from the article]

This paper reports the findings of an analysis of a collection of Statutory Declaration forms completed by teachers seeking exemption from dismissal under theNSW Married Women (Lecturers and Teachers) Act(1932–1947). Most sought exemption on hardship grounds, recording details of their husbands’ inability or unwillingness to provide them with ‘adequate’ support. The collection offers insight into the gendered finances of a particular group during the 1930s Depression, revealing some complex interdependencies—such as the need to support extended kin—and offering insights into the role of the state in the making of the family as a social and economic unit. The bureaucratic apparatus of regulation and standardised paperwork operated materially and discursively to distinguish the exceptional (salaried married women) from the more desirable or legitimate order of gendered responsibilities (financially dependent wives). Finally, the forms are strikingly silent about the professional teaching work of the women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the Dad and Dave comedy films produced by film production company Cinesound such as "On Our Selection," "Dad and Dave Come to Town," and "Grandad Rudd" which depicts the interwar Australia changes. Topics discussed include the adaptation of the stories of author Arthur Hoey Davis with the pen name of Steele Rudd, the films' exploration of social developments like the Great Depression and the Second World War, and the American popular culture influence in the films.

An essay is presented on early 20th-century Australian society and literary fiction provided in the novels of novelist Ronald McKie, which form a point of intersection between various ideologies and literary and social ideas. Topics discussed include vision of Australian life during the World War I, the Depression, and the 1920s, how McKie's novels incorporate ideas about nationalism, war and immigration, and how McKie's fiction forebears in being politically right-wing.

We use a standard New Keynesian model of a small open economy, extended to include a government sector, to investigate the Great Depression in Australia. A calibrated model with a fixed exchange rate regime, similar to the gold standard, does well in replicating the dynamics of output during the interwar period. We then ask to what extent shocks to the economy would have been moderated by adopting modern-day policies. We find that if policymakers had adopted a flexible exchange rate with a Taylor rule policy that output fluctuations during the Great Depression would have been moderated by up to 25%. Changes in government fiscal policy would also have moderated output fluctuations, but by a slightly smaller amount. Overall, we find that improved policy could have reduced output fluctuations by almost 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detailed - one might even say loving - attention that Lozanovska gives to the physicality of the things migrants build means that Migrant Housing, despite being so richly theorized, always has its feet planted solidlyin the terrain that migrants inhabit. These"twinhouses"arerepresentativeofoneofthebook'srecurrentthemes, which is that the houses migrants build, whetherlocatedintheadoptivecountryor the ancestral country, are an alloy of emplacement and displacement. Similarly, in their adoptive countries migrants are often "serial builders", moving from onedreamhousetothenext,thusrepeating the act of emplacement and attachment but also perpetuating an ongoing state of displacement. [Extracted from the article]

An essay is presented on the trend of secession in Australia. It mentions that secession was popular in 1930s because of the Great Depression and economic problems in Australia. It also discusses the case of Western Australia in context of secession and also offers information on several micronations in Australia. It also analyses the arguments from several persons on whether secession is justifiable or not.

I compare and contrast relief efforts by governments in response to the extraordinary unemployment of the Great Depression in the US and Australia. The effectiveness of relief spending in America at the local level is discussed using recent studies estimating the relationship between relief spending and various demographic measures. I develop a new panel data set for the Australian states from 1929 through 1939. Increased income in manufacturing and rural production were associated with lower infant mortality rates and death rates and higher fertility rates. In contrast to the US experience, however, higher per capita relief spending was associated with lower birth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Depression is famous for enticing a whole generation of young men and women into studying economics especially in Britain and America and even in this country. What then of the great financial turbulence caused by the subprime crisis? Did it provoke an increase in student interest in economics? Or perhaps the relatively milder traverse Australia has enjoyed over the past three years has meant that student interest was not ignited by what was happening overseas. This paper scrutinises the latest enrolment data for Australia and the other Anglophone countries to ascertain whether there has been any marked increase in economics degree enrolments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This lecture examines the lessons learnt from Australia's experience in the 1930s, and how these lessons have informed more recent economic policy decisions including the policy responses to the current global financial crisis. The lecture argues that the lessons learnt from the Great Depression have informed the macroeconomic frameworks of today. While Australia's policy frameworks of the 1930s were tragically ill equipped to cope with anything other than small, inconsequential macroeconomic or financial market shocks, the policy frameworks put in place in the modern era have rendered the economy much more resilient to such shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the household debt in Australia. It notes that private debt is largely ignored by conventional macroeconomics, but the impact of it on the economy is affected by its scale relative to gross domestic product (GDP), its composition, purpose and rate of change. It describes the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 to the Great Depression in 1929-1930, which is caused by high levels of debts and Ponzi schemes.

The article focuses on the dynamics of political parties in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. It states that progressive political parties appear unprepared to initiate the types of processes needed to pose a threat to neoliberalism. It comments on the disintegration of the Australian Labor governments of Ramsay MacDonald and James Scullin during the Great Depression, and how socialist or social democratic responses were belated in several countries. It talks about the breakdown of Keynesian social democracy in the 1970s and the encroachment of neoliberalism. It mentions the 2008 U.S. presidential election of Barack Obama and increases in voter turnout, and suggests that Australia is also seeing political re-engagement that may lead to change.

This study examines the unique publicity activities devised by the Tooth's brewery in Sydney during the Great Depression and the 1930s. Unlike many advertisers, the brewery did not turn its back on advertising or marketing. Recognising the importance of publicity, the brewery developed innovative advertising and marketing initiatives in an attempt to arrest its declining sales. Such strategies included the development of co-operative advertising campaigns, the creation of advertisements directly targeting female consumers, and the renovation of pubs owned by the brewery. However, the significance of these initiatives extends beyond the immediate economic concerns. They were also celebrations of modernity. By locating Tooth's advertising, marketing, and public relations activities within the broader social, cultural, and political context, this study provides a revealing insight into the way in which such campaigns simultaneously informed and reflected the Australian experience of modernity during the 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors contributing to unemployment in Australia during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Previous writers have emphasised the role of demand–side variables but it has also been argued that excessive real wages caused unemployment. The Layard–Nickell model, developed originally for the postwar British economy, is applied to Australian data. The empirical results confirm that demand shocks in the form of changes in government spending and in the terms of trade were important in both downturn and recovery. Wage indexation resulted in some rigidity of real wages but this was not a major cause of unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a coal strike at the State Coalfields in Wonthaggi, Victoria in 1934. Particular attention is paid to the coal miner's struggle for survival over a five month period during which the miner’s displayed resilience, cohesion, and received significant community support. The political implications the strike had on revitalizing the Victorian labor movement towards the end of the Great Depression are assessed. The unique social and political conditions of the Wonthaggi Township created by the Powlett River Branch of the Miners' Federation are detailed. The successful conclusion of the strike in favor of the coal miner's demands is recounted.

The article discusses the state response in Queensland to the Great Depression, and how that response differed from those of other states in Australia. Topics discussed include: the comparatively low levels of unemployment in Queensland due to its smaller industrial base and larger agricultural sector; the importance of the sugar industry; government unemployment relief programs in Queensland under the premiership of Arthur Edward Moore; and the response of the Australian Labor Party to the economic crisis.

The article discusses the experience of the Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA) during the Great Depression. The history of the labor union since its founding in 1909 is briefly discussed, followed by an extended discussion of increasing unemployment and other economic factors in the 1930s. Industrial arbitration awards by the Australian government are also discussed. Relations between the FIA and the Australian Council of Trade Unions are discussed, as is the influence of the Australian Communist Party on FIA leadership.

The article discusses the effect of the Great Depression on employment policy and labor politics in Australia through the 1960s. The psychological effect of high rates of unemployment in the 1930s is discussed, as are policies of full employment, influenced by Keynsian economics, that prevailed in Australia after World War II. In particular, the government's White Paper on Full Employment, published in 1945, is discussed, as are the political reactions of labor unions and the Australian Labor Party.

The article presents the results of a social survey taken in Australia in 1967 to determine what, if any, social and political attitudes distinguish the "Depression generation," defined as those Australians who reached voting age between 1930 and 1937. These are compared with other sets of voters who came of age during blocks of time between 1901 and 1966. The Depression generation were found to differ little from older and younger generations, except for supporting an increase in unemployment relief.

The article discusses the history of the All For Australia League, a short-lived political party formed in New South Wales in 1931, seen as tapping into a distinctly Australian form of conservative political rhetoric. The party's formation in Sydney by right-wing business interests reacting to economic policies proposed by the federal and states governments to deal with the Great Depression is discussed. The party's economic and political platforms are discussed, as is the role of party president Alex J. Gibson and other leaders.

The article discusses the effect of the Great Depression on the state politics of Tasmania, where the election of 1931 retained the Conservative government of Premier J. C. McPhee in power, and the election of 1934 brought in Australian Labor Party Premier A. G. Ogilvie. The long-running economic difficulties of Tasmania even before the Depression are discussed, including its delayed industrialization and reliance on mining and rural economic activity. The place of Tasmania in the federal politics of Australia is also discussed.

The article discusses conflicts within the Australian Labor Party early in the Great Depression, during the term of Prime Minister James Scullin. A particular focus is the "Premiers' Plan," an economic program agreed to in 1931 by the state and federal governments, calling for sharp reductions in government spending, government debt conversion, increased taxation, reduction of interest rates, and private mortgage relief. Opposition to the plan by labor unions and the Labor Party faction led by New South Wales Premier Jack Lang is discussed as well.

The article discusses the impact of the Great Depression on Western Australia, which suffered less compared to the rest of the country because it was more rural and less industrialized. The emphasis of the government of Western Australia on agricultural employment policies is discussed, as is the resilience of its gold mining industry. State politics are discussed, including the Labor Party premiership of Philip Collier (1924-1930) and that of Nationalist Party Premier James Mitchell (1930-1933), followed by the return of Collier (1933-1936).

The article discusses the response of the New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation to the Great Depression in Australia. The labor union in 1929 is described, before the onset of the Depression, as are its initial efforts to maintain traditional policies, followed by its withdrawal into passivity after 1934. The role of Federation president C. H. Currey in this change of policy is discussed. The union's relations with the New South Wales Department of Education are also discussed, as are rates of unemployment and other working conditions among teachers during the Depression.

The article contributes to the economic historiography of the Great Depression in Australia by discussing industrialization and urbanization as contributing factors, in contrast to traditional historical analyses focusing mainly on external factors in the world economy. These external factors are discussed, including the export markets for wool and wheat, and then domestic conditions in Australia are discussed, including 19th-century antecedents, the shift toward a manufacturing economy in the 20th century, and the pressure this placed on capital resources.

The article explores the social effects and the economic history of the Great Depression in Australia. The author reflects on the electoral success of legislator Jack Lang and aspects of his economic policy such as repudiation of overseas debts, influence over trade unions, and radicalism on behalf of the labor movement. Emphasis is given to the relationship between Lang and the administration of prime minister James Scullin. Other topics include unemployment, Lang's dismissal, and balancing the budget.

Examines aspects during the 1929-32 economic depression in Australia. Account on economic policy formation during the depression; Details on struggle of policy-makers to cope with depression; Reaction o international economic crisis.

The article reviews the exhibition "Scarred and Strengthened: Australians in the Great Depression" at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory from May 17, 2007 to February 24, 2008.