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The Great Depression was triggered on October 24th 1929 when the New York stock market collapsed. This saw companies collapse, prices for raw materials like wool and wheat plummet and a surge in unemployment.
In Western Australia the 100th anniversary of foundation celebrations were just over and despite low commodity prices there was a great optimism about the future. When world markets collapsed the effects were eventually felt in almost every corner of the state. In the first six months unemployment went from 9.6% to over 15% and was to continue to rise to a peak of around 25% by December 1930.
A sustenance allowance was introduced and camps set up for single men with the first being at Blackboy Hill. As conditions worsened there were demonstrations in the streets and in march 1931, violence erupted outside the Treasury buildings.
Although life in the country at least held the promise of milk and some basic foods over 700 farms were abandoned in 1932 and in the following year Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, although this never eventuated.
Kalgoorlie was one of the few areas to feel little of the effects during this time and some people, those who managed to keep their jobs or who had money behind them could actually profit from the misfortune of others.
In some ways Western Australia was better off than other parts of the world. Many people, especially in the country, would do all they could to help out strangers and few people in need of food were ever turned away. The Australian ethos of mateship came to the fore and when the depression eventually ended there was much less bitterness evident here than elsewhere.
People certainly suffered during the depression, especially the 'groupies' in southern areas of the state many of whom lived on starvation rations, but Western Australia had bred a hardy self sufficient group of people who were used to hard times and who knew how to make do with what was available. The rabbit plague that had spread across the state now provided people in the country with 'underground mutton', there were still kangaroos to shoot and eventually in 1934 things slowly began to change for the better.
Apart from the hardships the depression imposed on many people, it also focussed the government's attention more on urban development. Prior to the Great Depression a great deal of effort had been invested in rural infrastructure but with the drift in population away from the country to the larger centres, there was suddenly an urgent need for greater emphasis on development in the urban areas.
Another effect of the depression was on immigration. During the Great Depression and immediately following it, World War Two, the state actually recorded a net migration loss during some years. |
