Summary of the decade
The Great Depression severely affected Australia. The Wall Street stock market in New York had crashed in the previous year. The collapse of international commodity prices, including wheat and wool in the late 1920s, meant that the heavy debts run up by federal, state and territory governments were almost impossible to pay off at the previously agreed rate.
Some politicians argued that the loan repayments shouldn't be made as the money would be better used creating local jobs. Other politicians said that the most important thing was Australia's financial standing and the debts had to be repaid or else the nation would be declared insolvent.
While the politicians were proving ill-equipped to come to an agreed solution, the Australian people showed themselves to be extraordinarily good at devising their own solutions to the problems of economic crisis and mass unemployment. They became more self-reliant, tilling backyard gardens to grow food, and devising cheap ways of entertaining themselves. Many relied on family or charity support to survive. Due to severe unemployment, there were many families who could no longer pay their rent and were evicted from their homes by the banks and forced to live in camps, which dotted the outskirts of the major cities.
