preview

How Did The Great Depression Affect Australia

Decent Essays

The great depression (1929-1932) was a time of extreme hardship of people living in Australia. Even before the wall street crash, unemployment in Australia was already at 10%. After the crash of wall street Australia’s unemployment rate nearly doubled. The cause of the great depression is still the subject of debate by economists. Although the collapse of New York Stock exchange determined its timing there were several factors involved. Reasons were a fall in export price sales, a fall in overseas loans leading to reduction in government capital spending, a fall in construction. Socially this impacted Australia in many ways. Without work for more than 30% of Australians and a steady income people lost their homes and were forced to live out on the streets, other social effects of the great depression were, …show more content…

Politically the great depression hit Australia hard, as many Australians lost confidence in their government representatives. A number of radical or extremist organizations gather strength and popularity as a result of the large scale public dissatisfaction. In Australia the developing of the new capital Canberra was put to a stop leaving a population of 7,000 in limbo, workers were laid off and the federal capital commission was abolished. The Sydney harbor bridge was a great way of bringing employment back into Australia during the depression. At the time of the war and after the great depression it was Australian best interest to have an alliance with Great Britain. Australia needed to form an alliance with Great Britain during World War II, because if the war ended up near or in Australia, we would need the help from Great Britain and their allies. Having Great Britain as its ally at that time was the right thing to do as it protected its colonies from the imperil japan and other foreign invaders. During the period of 1942 Australia was extremely worried as the fall of Singapore in February 1942 and had the threat of a possibility of a Japanese

Get Access