1915 - 1945 : WWI, Depression, WWII

Introduction

For Western Australia the thirty year period from 1915 to 1945 was a series of contrasts. Technology through aviation, telephony, electric light and wireless improved both the quality of life and the capability of being connected with a wider community. The completion of the Trans Australian Railway in 1917 had a major impact on the movement of people and goods across Australia. Electric power supply was enhanced by the opening of the East Perth Power Station with 12.5 megawatt generating capacity in 1916.

On the other hand, mechanisation and more efficient transport reduced the need for labour. New skills were required in industries such as aviation with wheelwrights becoming redundant and mechanics and electricians being in short supply. Farming was transformed with tractors and trucks replacing horses and the introduction of bulk grain handling.

World War I

One in ten, over 32,000 of the West Australian population of 321,000 enlisted in World War I. Engineers played a significant role in the type of warfare of that era where thousands of troops and thousands of horses required sophisticated water supply and supply lines. Tunnelling was another area where the combined skills of miners and engineers came to the fore.

Table 1. Western Australia Population 1915 to 1945

Year	1915	1920	1925	1930	1935	1940	1945
Population	321,440	330,172	372,817	429,112	447,178	473,254	487,692

The population decline from 1915 to 1918 and the regional uncertainty created by World War I led to a “populate or perish” mentality by State and Federal Governments. The National million farms scheme and the local group settlement land development were seeking to use Crown land as a lever to populate areas outside of the capital cities. Immigration was seen as a necessity for economic survival.

Despite the attempts to increase regional population, Western Australia’s population became more urbanised. In 1911 Perth had one third of the State’s population. By 1947 half of the State’s population lived in Perth.

Structural change in the economy following World War I, driven by technology and social change, created both opportunity and challenge. This structural change promoted industrial unrest. 1919 saw the “Bloody Sunday” conflict on Fremantle wharves involving a crowd of 3,000 lumpers and supporters in response to the use of non union labour. In the financial year ended June 1920, the State Government reported that strikes had cost it £34,000. The 1921 teachers strike was the first time in Australia that a profession had engaged in industrial action.

Western Australian Institution of Engineers

The Western Australian Institution of Engineers (WAIE) that had formed in 1909 was pivotal in establishing a national body. W B Shaw and H T Haynes from WAIE were members of the Institution of Engineers Australian Provisional Council that met in Sydney in May 1918. A draft constitution dated March 13, 1919 was sent to each engineering society with the invitation to be a Foundation Society. WAIE was one of the twelve Foundation Societies of the national body having accepted the invitation to join by the deadline of August 1, 1919. WAIE was one of the first bodies to commit with its members having voted to join at a meeting in Perth on July 2, 1919. F W Lawson from WAIE was founding National Vice President in 1919 having attended the first Council meeting of the national body on October 20, 1919 with T M Carey, another WAIE member. C E Crocker from WAIE was National President in 1926 after having been National Vice President in 1924.

WAIE came to an end with the election of Western Australian Division office bearers for the new national body on January 14, 1920. Over 70 members of WAIE became members of the national body. WAIE had served a very important purpose in facilitating the development of a national engineering body as well as increasing the influence of engineers, publishing technical papers and supporting engineering education and professional development.

Depression and Unemployment Relief Works

Governments had overreached themselves in borrowing in the 1920’s to fund infrastructure, particularly a sustained expansion of the rail network. The Western Australian State debt increased from £47 million to £69 million. Governments then exacerbated the Great Depression by cutting back on capital expenditure (see Table 2).

Table 2. Western Australian Capital Expenditure Depression Years

Year	1927/28	1928/29	1930/31	1931/32	1932/33	1933/34	1934/35
Capital Spend £,000	5,351	4,572	3,917	1,495	1,365	2,123	2,480

The Great Depression hit Western Australia hard in the early 1930’s with the unemployment rate topping 30%. The State Government, faced with 14,000 unemployed men, initiated sustenance schemes. These schemes include projects such as firewood cutting, river training, land clearing, digging the Harvey River Diversion, road straightening and reballasting rail lines. Australia's first trolley bus services began operating in Perth in 1933, but the planned expansion of the system was curtailed by lack of funds, due to the Great Depression, until 1938.

Excavation of the Harvey River Diversion typically involved 2,000 men wheeling earth in barrows up planks or throwing earth from their level to a level above from a depth of twenty feet. The depth of cut reached seventy feet at the ocean end. The Diversion was completed in 1932 with some mechanical excavation.

Wheat production expanded rapidly in the 1920’s and by 1929 the wheat crop was worth over three times the value of gold production (see Table 3). The Great Depression also saw moves to improve farming productivity through bulk handling of grain. Cooperative Bulk Handling Limited was formed in 1933 and impressively by 1937 had 102 sidings equipped for bulk receival.

Table 3. Western Australian Wheat Production and Value 1920 to 1929

Year	Wheat Production (bushels)	Wheat Production Value	Value of Mineral Production
1920	9,151,125	£2,451,698	£3,259,411
1925	14,985,953	£5,158,020	£2,581,162
1929	26,091,098	£6,692,046	£2,087,893

Wool production expanded rapidly between 1926 and 1934, despite prices falling by 60% in 1930 31. However, a drought between 1935 and 1940 devastated the industry. In 1935 the pastoral areas of the State carried 5.5 million sheep. During the following 5 years, 4.2 million died in the drought. By 1946 (long after the drought had ended), sheep numbers were still only half the number in 1934.

Infrastructure and the Economy

Major progress was made in some areas with better water supply, sewerage, housing and health services combining to reduce infant mortality in 1948 to be one third of the rate in 1913. The State Steamship Service had commenced in 1912 with the purchase of the S S Kwinana and the S S Western Australia to carry livestock, freight and passengers to and from ports between Wyndham and Eucla. In 1919 it became the State Shipping Service and provided a valuable service linking to the remote north west.

The 1920’s in Australia saw significant application of technology with the first transcontinental flight in 1920, the first airmail service in 1921, the conversion of Perth’s streetlights from gas to electricity by 1923, the first use of reinforced concrete piles for marine works in 1923 and radio station 6WF commencing broadcasting in 1924.

Government rail still dominated, operating 84% of the rail network in 1940 (see Table 4).

Table 4. Western Australian Government and Private Rail Lengths

Year	Western Australia Private Rail Line (miles)	Western Australia Government Rail Line (miles)	Western Australia Total Rail Line (miles)
1920	918	3,549	4,467
1930	847	4,111	4,958
1940	831	4,381	5,212

Figure 1: Western Australian Government Railways Track Length 1891 to 1941

Roads came to greater prominence during the 1920’s with greater numbers of cars and trucks being registered. In 1927 there were 25,270 motor vehicles in Western Australia being a tenfold increase from 1918. The Main Roads Board was created in 1926 becoming responsible for 503 developmental roads, 19 trunk roads and 3 arterial roads. Road transport impacted passenger numbers and the growth of freight on rail (see Table 5).

Table 5. Western Australian Government Railways Passenger Numbers and Freight

Year	Miles of Rail Line Open	Passengers Carried	Tonnage Carried
1900	1,355	6,225,068	1,384,040
1914	2,910	19,208,420	3,170,144
1928	3,977	16,032,536	3,697,648

December 18, 1930 saw the first interstate telephone call just in time for Christmas. The Daily News newspaper reported that 81 calls were made on Christmas Day alone between Perth and Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

Perth’s water supply was made more secure by the completion of Canning Dam in 1940 after a seven year construction period. Irrigation in the South West was given a boost in the early 1930’s with the completion of the Drakesbrook and Wellington Dams and the raising of the Harvey Weir. The revival of the gold mining industry, which had been in steady decline since the turn of the century, buoyed the State’s economy in the late 1930s and enabled Western Australia to avoid the full extent of the downturn experienced in other States, despite the onset of drought.

A rapid increase in the price of gold attracted new investment in the industry. The resultant increase in capital and the development of new processes enabled gold production to return to 1914 levels with 1.2 million fine ounces of gold being produced in 1939. After 1939, however, gold production fell again, with labour shortages during the Second World War causing a large number of mines to cease operation. High costs of inputs following the war also reduced the potential for profit and many mines did not re-open.

Figure 2: Western Australian Gold Output - 1891 to 1941

Competition for scarce jobs during the depression added fuel to anti immigrant sentiment. 1934 saw mob violence against the Yugoslav and Italian communities in the goldfields after an accidental death.

Figure 3: Trade Union Unemployment Rates - 1914 to 1946

World War II

World War II had a big impact on the State with raiders operating off the Western Australian coast and an air raid on Broome in 1942 killing 88 people. The War accelerated improved road connections across Australia including the Eyre Highway, although still unsealed. Perth Airport was developed as a military base with two 6,000 foot runways and a 2,000 ton slipway was operational at Fremantle. Defence facilities, including the Fremantle Fortress, were developed along the coast with a series of airstrips and fuelling facilities. Fremantle became a major submarine base and resupply port. Midland Workshops contributed to munitions manufacture by making 2,000,000 25 pound shells during World War II.

Government Industry

Government enterprise flourished through the period 1915 to 1945. In the interwar period the Midland Workshops workforce peaked at 2,000 representing 40% of the manufacturing workforce in Western Australia. When coupled with State Brickworks, State Sawmills and State Engineering and Implement Works, the majority of manufacturing was controlled by State Government.

The State Engineering and Implement Works at Rocky Bay opened in March 1914. It had a wide role with the public and private sector as it undertook general engineering and jobbing work, manufacturing, sale of agricultural and farm machinery, purchase and sale of imported agricultural and farming machinery and spare parts, oil, twine and general farming and agricultural sundries.

In the 1920s and the 1930s, the Works manufactured equipment to replace overseas imports, such as oil engines, harvesters, seed drills, chaff cutters, binders and cultivators. They also made windmills, irrigation equipment and water well drilling machines. The Work's research department developed an improved version of the stump jump plough in 1926.

The Works drifted away from agricultural engineering and into structural and mechanical engineering. Government Departments such as State Shipping, the PWD and power generating authorities were major clients. They also did extensive work for private clients, being the only firm in WA capable of manufacturing steel castings.

During World War II the Works fabricated bren gun carriers, submarine propeller shafts and floating docks, and made emergency repairs for hospitals, airfields and harbours.

Private Industry

The era between 1915 and 1945 saw the Western Australian economy move from one dominated by gold mining to a more diversified economy that now included agricultural and manufacturing industries. World War II had given a stimulus to the growth of the private sector and an expansion of the manufacturing. As at June 1944 there were 521 industrial metals factories in Western Australia employing 11,810 persons. Gross factory production for all sectors was £29,208,588. As a comparison, mineral production in 1944 was £4,915,804.