How Did The Depression Affect Australia In 1914

Australia was settled by the British in 1788 as a convict colony but without the Aboriginal contact and consequences, experience of non-Europeans, the gold rushes and their political, social and economical impact on the nation, the Depression in the 1890’s and living and working conditions all contributed to what our nation is today. Within 120 years as a result of aboriginal contact with Europeans the experience of non-Europeans, the social, political and economical impacts of the gold rushes of the 1850’s, the depression in the 1890’s and the living and working all contributed to what Australia became in 1914.

As the colony of the nation expanded, some settlers came into conflict with the aboriginal people. The aboriginal people reacted

The Victorian diggings had been so rich that, in the earliest years the regular diggers earned two or three times more than his normal wage. In 1851 Australia’s population was 400,000 and 12 years later the population grew to 1,200,000 as migrants came in search for gold, in that same period of time Victoria’s population grew seven-times bigger from 77,000 to 540,000 ( Discovery of Gold in Australia). From 1854 and later it became hard to find gold in the goldfields, diggers became miners, dropping shafts deep into the ground in search of gold reefs. Companies were created. Despite the value of gold the absolute fortune of places like Bendigo and Ballarat lay far beneath the Earths crust. In 1860 a large number of diggers left the goldfields. Gold had continued to be Australia’s main export until it was taken over by wool. The Aborigines were forced off their traditional land in and around the goldfields, their sacred sites were damaged or destroyed. The Gold Rushes impacted on the population of the nation but the Depression had a great impact on the

Around 52% of Australian citizens lived in towns and cities of a population greater than 2500 people, the rest of the citizens lived on farms or small rural communities supplying wool, minerals, wheat, meat and fruit to the colonial markets and the international markets ( Nelson Connect with History, page 290). Even though the working conditions were harsh through the 19th century, Australia was known as the workingman's paradise because of the short hours a day which you couldn’t get in Europe at the time. The workers were paid a low wage, middle class citizens were usually professional workers. The men had to provide for their families, most manual labourers worked in the city in factories and the factories had poor working