Australia's Role In Ww1

Australia was a young nation when it participated in World War 1 and became an independent nation through Federation on the 1st of January 1901. Before 1901, Australia consisted of six separate colonies that each had their own government, laws, defence force and collected taxes. This was abolished due to the system's inefficiency in regulating laws, immigration and how weak each individual was. Australia was a juvenile nation stepping into the brutalities of WW1 having a small population with little understanding of military tactics. The reason behind Australia’s involvement was their dedication to their mother country, Britain, not to mention since Britain declared war on Germany, Australia was undoubtedly involved. The significant locations

Throughout World War 1, the Home Front experienced a drastic change in the role of women in society. When the men went to war, the women had to take on the duties that had previously been the responsibility of men. Women took on traditional male roles such as store clerks, bank tellers and working in munition factories. WW1 had also had a massive impact on the economy. The cost of supplying weapons, ammunition and resources overseas and at home simultaneously was immense. In order to meet the costs, the federal government brought in income tax, and obtain funds from oversea mainly Britain. Using this borrowed money, they manufactured wartime infrastructure for instance increased railways. Because we were supplying most of the raw materials to the war, this suddenly caused inflation. Therefore, the cost of living in Australia went up to 50 per cent during the war years. Furthermore, WW1 made Australia a divided country because of conscription that involved recruitments of women, trade unions, men going into war and voluntary work for women. Conscription means the compulsory enlistment of people to serve in the armed forces. People who agreed with conscription were mainly middle and upper-class people of British background. They argued that it was a patriotic service for Australians to maintain the support of the war effort. People who disagreed were commonly the working class, which consisted of Catholic and Irish background. They didn’t agree with conscription because they declared that Australia has already ‘given enough of its young