Government Censorship In Australia During World War II

It was a time when fear was induced amongst many Australians – World War II. Germany had declared war against Australia’s greatest ally; Great Britain and Japan’s threat of invading was nearing. As a result, strict regulations called wartime controls were set in place. These regulations included censoring articles/news portrayed in dark light, forcing men to join the army via conscription and promoting war effort through the use of government propaganda. This all majorly influenced the lifestyles and livelihoods of many Australians back at the home front.

Censorship is the act of concealing news or any other forms of communication from the general public. In World War II, the Menzies government established the Department of Information to manipulate

This source – a newspaper article on the ‘Japanese bombing of Darwin’ reveals a perfect example of censorship during World War II. The government explains what happened in the bombing but not in much detail, censoring out some important/major information such as casualties and damage done. Whilst this article isn’t very reliable, it did maintain public morale so that nobody would be scared to continue participating or being in the vicinity of the war.

Government Propaganda was an often exaggerated but extremely convenient method to persuade people’s feelings. Government propaganda occurred in many different forms - posters, videos, images, any vessel of information that could raise the morale of the Australian populace. The most prominent type of government propaganda was posters, with an undoubtable

Employment suddenly rose for women to replace the jobs of men who enlisted for the war and were no longer confined to nursing, medical and voluntary roles. Women were encouraged to partake in factory and shipyard work traditionally completed by men to produce weapons such as bomb casings, tanks, and parachutes.

The AWLA (Australians Women Land Party) was created not as a group to fight for Australia in the war, but to fill in the missing jobs of farmers and rural residents where there were no men left to take on the hard labour. They worked without the benefits of a military force (pensions, deferred pay and bonuses) but still took on the roles to help society. By 1944, the AWLA had about 3000 members. This source on the ‘Australians Women Land Party’ represents the fact that some women were extremely keen to take on the jobs of men to help out the country.

The impacts of these actions to cement the changing roles of women has demonstrated high efficacy, with modern results proving that women contribute to an important and large sector of the workforce. Despite the fact women were paid lower than men and were expected to leave their job and return to normal duties after the war, World War II - which created a sudden absence of men, has shown Australia just how important the recruitment and employment of women