This essay was another one I did that I enjoyed doing. I got the third highest mark in the class for this, but all our grades were low, so I ended up doing a supplementry assignment after completing this one. It is about the 1920's government funded settlement schemes in Australia to bring more "white immigrants" into the country. If you read on you will soon find out what a big flop they were. I did this one for Australian Economic History 202.

The 1920s were a period of great change for Australia, the war had just ended and the economy was booming. This was a time of great prosperity for most of the world, including Australia, due to the increase in demand of goods. Export prices were high and the Australian government encouraged growth in many areas, especially agriculture and heavy industry. (Class notes, Pamela Statham) The Australian government encouraged the growth in agriculture through the Soldier Settlement scheme between 1919 and 1922 and the Empire Settlement of 1922. (Shaw, pp. 136-137) More money was spent on the latter which had the support of not only the Australian government but also the British government. It was a plan to “promote Empire Settlement and re-distribute the white population of the Empire, whose prosperity and vitality would thus be increased.” (Shaw, p 137)

As mentioned above, most of the migrants were British. A rough estimation of the amount of British migrants to Australia during the 1920s can be seen in table 1 – “Gross, net and assisted immigration to Australia 1919-40.” This table shows there was a large increase in the mid 1920’s of British migrants, but coming to the end of the 20’s and nearer to the depression of the 30’s this number fell dramatically. The migrants were lured to Australia by false pictures and promises of lovely homesteads and properties, but ended up living in shacks and working at below basic wages to establish their farms. Barely half of them actually lasted more then three years on their farms. (Macintyre, p 208)

Many of these migrants made it to Western Australia, and settled in the southwest corner of the state on numerous group settlement schemes. This can be seen in table 2 – “Costs of Rural Settlement 1919-1929” (refer to appendix). In this table it can be seen that the government allotted a lot of land in WA especially for the soldiers, and a huge amount of money was spent on the schemes. You can also see in table 3 – the “Undertakings and spending under the 34 million pound agreement”, (refer to appendix) the breakdown of what the money was actually spend on in Western Australia with the settlement schemes. It should be noted that a lot of money was spent on public services, such as the water supply, railway and roads as well as drainage of the general areas.

The first such settlement scheme started in December 1922, but this group consisted of mainly colonialists or migrants of some years standing, but after this first group they consisted nearly exclusively of migrants. (Royal Commission, p 2) On the 9th of February 1923 the Western Australia government agreed to working within the settlement act, a plan that would run over five years. (Roe, p 42) Two areas that the groups were established were the town of Northcliffe and the Willyabrup-Miamup area. The following paragraphs will refer to these two settlements but will focus more on Northcliffe. (Refer to Map 1 in the appendix of the Northcliffe groups) These two areas are very different and were settled at different times, but as was the case with most of the WA group settlement schemes, the same mistakes were made and the same problems occurred.

Part of the group settlement scheme was that migrants came to Australia on these schemes would be given 12 months training in agricultural experience when they first got to the country. (Usually as work experience on a farm) In most cases this did not happen because the labour just wasn’t needed on the existing farms in the state, and the settlers with little or no experience were rushed off to the settlements a few days after their arrival in Western Australia. (Blond, p 3) This made it very hard for many of the migrants coming in from Britain as most of them had come from cities and were not accustomed to hard manual work, let alone in the harsh climate of Australia. They all experienced cultural shock as well as mental and physical shock. Often they became withdrawn and very quiet. At the Willyabrup-Miamup settlement the following occurred: “One unfortunate woman could not cope with the strain and spent some time in a mental hospital.” (Blond, p 12)

The rush of getting the new migrants settled also had other negative affects that may not have happened had the settlements been better planned and organized. Little attention was paid to the suitability of the land or the aptitude of the settlers. New farms were also undercapitalized. At least an average of 2000 pounds of capital was needed on dairy farms, but this amount was hardly ever reached. (Macintyre, p 208) The lands chosen were often covered in Jarrah forests, and had to be cleared which took a lot of hard manual work, (Macintyre, p 208) or they were very wet, not really the type of land to be used for farming. (Royal Commission, p 4) Many had noted this problem even before the towns were built and prepared for the arrival of the immigrants.

“I had the opportunity of viewing the site about a week ago and was not at all impressed with the locations….. the nature of the ground (flat and wet) is not anything like good for a town site.” (said by Assistant Engineer in chief E. Tindale concerning the site of Northcliffe) (Gabbedy, p 5)

This area was very wet not only in winter, but also quite often in summer. An example of this can be seen in the picture “The founding of Northcliffe” (refer to appendix). This picture shows a very muddy winter day in the main street of Northcliffe in 1925. A lot of money was spent by the Western Australian government in drainage of these areas. (As can be seen in table 3). The drainage of these areas cost the West Australian government roughly one pound an acre. This drainage was essential before the land could be cultivated with any hope of success. (Royal Commission, p 3) These areas were obviously unsuitable, especially for inexperienced migrants who had never worked on the land before.

The West Australian government lost a lot of money during this period due to many foolish decisions apart from the bad choices in land. There was a “considerable amount of mismanagement” especially of the earlier groups. Some of the excessive costs for example were the costly methods of clearing, experimental cropping, seeding and fertilizing. (Royal Commission, p 3) A lot of money was also spent on sustenance provisions to the settlers too, which wasn’t really what the settlers wanted. Many found the provisions demoralising. (Royal Commission, p 11)

As can be seen in table 3 a lot of money was also spent on train lines to the towns, although they always got there later then had been promised. The Northcliffe train line was supposed to be completed in the mid 1920’s but didn’t actually get completed till 1933. This made transport very hard as there were no cars, just horse and buggy on very rough roads. These roads too had been made poorly not as a result of penny pinching by the government, but due to the rush to settle the migrants. “All road making material was transported by horse drawn tip-dray which was filled by picks and shovels, sweat and blisters.” (Gabbedy, p 7) As well as the train line arriving reaching the settlement later then promised, the phone line took a few years longer then expected too. It finally got there in April 1926, nearly 2 and a half years after the town had been settled. Even then no provision was made for a manual switchboard, and all inward and outward calls were made to and from the post office. (Gabbedy, p 20)

In October 1925 the first comprehensive report on the town of Northcliffe was completed by chief inspector of factories. It was quite a negative report, and soon reached the Department of Public Health. The Departmental Inspector R.W. Rossiter made a report on the town and pointed out its main problems in this report. Some of the things he noted were: 1. Few children actually went to school, and those that did had problems travelling to and from school.

Coming home was not as well organized, the youngsters sat on the roadside and waited for the first truck. They knew one would appear at some time. (Said in the report by R.W. Rossiter in his report on Northcliffe) (Gabbedy, p 22)

2. Water supply consisted of roof catchments and from Gardner River which is a 1.5km from the towns eastern boundary which necessitated a lot of carting. (Gabbedy, p 22)

3. Living conditions were very unsanitary and primitive. This is illustrated in the fact that at the time 25 of the 27 residences listed used kerosene tins as toilets, therefore each household was issued with a notice to comply with the by-laws. (To provide two regulations sanitary pans and one lid and a ring.) (Gabbedy, p 22)

4. The land needed to be drained to be productive. (Gabbedy, p 22) Considering these problems there could have been a lot done to fix the problems (at minimal cost) that occurred in the earlier periods, but there was a lack of communication and co-ordination in Northcliffe as there were with most of the other group settlements. (Gabbedy, p 5) If the town had been planned better, it would have been placed not only on less swampy land, but also closer to a river where fresh water could be easily accessible to most of the community. It could have also grown a lot faster if the train line had been built earlier then it was, and supplies would have been more regular and transport in and out of the area a lot easier.

The men had no incentive to work longer then 8 hours a day even though they could have improved their own land a lot more. For example by clearing land and stopping re-growth of bushes. (Royal Commission, p 3) They were told what to do and when to do it, and it was hard enough for them to survive, let alone do extra work. Quite often farms were abandoned or just used as a place of residence while the owners found employment elsewhere. (Royal Commission, p 6) Conditions were actually that bad that in mid 1926 a temporary suspension of further settlements was imposed due to the negligence towards recently arrived domestics in WA. (Roe, p 75)

Things in the group settlements were not only rough for the men, but also the women and children. It has been mentioned previously that one woman spent time in a mental hospital after migrating to Australia. Not only did the women have to try to keep a home running, but also they had to be the main support for their husbands who were often working 12-16 hour days just to survive. Many women bore the brunt of their husband’s tensions as can be seen in the following quotation:

“One day I helped to hold a fencing wire to thread through posts, unfortunately I got a ‘kink’ in the wire which touched a vital spot, and before I knew where I was my husband threw me down by catching hold of my throat with his muddy hands.” (Macintyre, p 210)

Women also had many domestic problems. Many of them had problems adjusting to the isolation and lack of supplies, learning how to make do with what they had. Most families had to survive on about 3 pounds 10s a week, (below the basic wage of the time) so women had to put in a lot of work to make ends meet. Of course it was a little hard to spend the money when it was hard to get the supplies in the first place. (Blond, p 15) In the Willyabrup-Miamup area they had to send away for monthly orders which came in from Perth or Busselton. Often these orders were delayed as they were brought by road. Things got better in this area when the railway was completed in 1923 and supplies became more regular for the whole community. (Blond, p 12-14)

Education as mentioned earlier was a problem in both Northcliffe and Willyabrup-Miamup. Not all the children actually went to school, and those that did had problems getting to and from school. There was also the schools themselves. The male teachers of Northcliffe actually requested that no female teachers brought to the settlement due to the fact that “they would have to bear the roughness of general conversation level and lack of facilities.” (Gabbedy, p 12) Even though, female teachers still arrived in the area, and were almost always accorded the degree of respect they merited. The children suffered from the lack of education basically because there was hardly any money to be spent on their education, and because not all of them actually went to school. For example in Willybrup-Miamup library books were basically non-existent except for private books brought along by the children of the colony (Blond, p 27)

Overall, living conditions in general were terrible for women and children and were a shock for many of them. One man was quoted on saying the following: “My wife thought she had come to the last of her days. She asked me ‘have we do live in this’” And they did. (Macintyre, p 208) (Referring to the primitive shacks also known as humpies that were all that was available for the new settlers to live in) Had the WA government put more time and planning into these settlements the hardships that men women and children had to put up with would not have existed. It also could have been done much more cost effectively, but once again time was of essence and things had to be done as soon as possible no matter what the cost. By 1930 the WA group settlement scheme had lost roughly 3 million pounds, and average cost of each farm had gone up from 1000 pounds to 3404. (Macintyre, p 209)

The final cost of the horrendous mismanagement and lack of organization in the group settlements really fell on men women and children. They were forced to live in the horrible makeshift accommodation often of hussian and galvanized iron, and find their financial position worsening each year no matter how much work they did. (Macintyre, p 210) Their feelings and the conditions they had to live in are perfectly portrayed in the poem called “The Group Settler’s Lament.” (Refer to Appendix) Those who were actually lucky enough to make it through the early years found their financial position worsening because export prices started to fall due to the increase in world capacity.

The WA settlement was seen by many as ‘a tragic monument of stupidity,’ at best ‘a scheme for survival of the fittest.’ (Roe, p 135) A complete utter failure and an expense to the government of Australia and Britain that was never repaid, all just to strengthen Australia’s agricultural base and colonial ties with England. It all could have possibly worked if they money had been spend wisely and more time had been taken in the planning of the group settlements. Then again if they had not happen in the 1920’s they probably would not have happened at all because Australia basically fell straight from post war prosperity into deep depression.