On the Homefront (1940s-1953)

Ipswich in the 1940s and early 1950s

The pace was slower than today, but Ipswich was beginning to look more recognisable to us now. It had its own radio station 4IP but no television. The baker still used a horse and cart and a few people still drove sulkies around the streets. Stockmen continued to drive herds of cattle through West Ipswich streets to the sale yards at Churchill. Not every family had a car or a telephone. Refrigerators were becoming more common, but the ice-man still called at many houses with blocks of ice for the ice-chest. Most families had a washing machine, but a few people preferred their old-fashioned copper for boiling clothes. The Victa lawn mower and the Hill's Clothes Hoist were about to be invented and by the mid-1950s the outdoor "dunny" had disappeared from a majority of Ipswich backyards.

During this period the war moved ever closer, local men were fighting oversees and rationing was introduced. The RAAF Base at Amberly commenced operating on 17 June 1940 with a focus on recruitment and training. An army camp was established at Redbank with work commencing in October 1939, not long after war was declared. Approximately 60 huts were built within two weeks to accommodate the recruits who enlisted, the first contingent being 400 men, but the number quickly reached 2500. In 1941 a hospital opened at the Ipswich Showgrounds with the main pavilion being converted to a convalescent ward and other pavilions utilised as an orderly room, pharmacy, linen store and a canteen.

From early 1942, following the December 1941 Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Queensland became the Allied staging zone for the war in the Southwest Pacific. Over the next four years more than two million Allied servicemen, mainly American, would arrive in the state. Although they were stationed across Queensland, many came to the greater Brisbane area which in 1941 had a population of only 340,000. Ipswich was not isolated from this influx, which would severely strain the city's resources. The war effort also demanded much from the city's manufacturing industries and civilian population.

Not long after Japan entered the war, the United States Air Corps began to arrive at Amberley and by 1943 there were 2290 personnel stationed at Amberley. There were increased demands on local industries during the war including for coal, and uniform materials and blankets from the Woollen Mills. Wartime production by the Railway Workshops ramped up.

The aftermath of war ushed in a period of virtually full employment with its associated high wages, as well as a somewhat Americanised culture and expanding leisure opportunities. It would be the beginning of a long economic boom.

But there was much work to be done. Robyn Buchanan wrote of the immediate postwar period:

"The struggles of World War II had left Ipswich exhausted. No new construction had taken place unless it related to the war or was absolutely essential maintenance. Roads had been damaged by wartime traffic and Council equipment was old. Everything people owned was old or needed refurbishment, from clothes to cars and factory equipment. Shortages continued for a long time, and couples trying to build homes had difficulty obtaining basic materials and fittings."

At war's end, the Council began to plan the city on a grand scale with the production of the first Ipswich Town Plan 'Master Plan' which was prepared in 1949 by Brisbane architects Scorer and Scorer, engineers Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey and the Ipswich City Engineer D. J. McCulloch. The plan was approved by council in May of that year but it was never implemented. A sewerage scheme began in the Eastern Suburbs with houses in Jacaranda Street, East Ipswich being connected in the latter part of 1949. By 1953, 7200 homes were connected, comprising almost three-quarters of dwellings in the Ipswich City Council area. The first Housing Commission homes were built in Bostock Street and new suburbs were developed.