On The Homefront: Economy

Ipswich, and Queensland more generally, ended the 1930s on the back of economic recovery from the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early to mid-1930s. The pastoral, grazing, dairying and agricultural sectors were expanding, and the Ipswich area coal mines remained the State’s most important field. Manufacturing had also recovered, especially in southeast Queensland, including in and around Ipswich, but investment in construction and railways had stagnated.

The Second World War would see a ramping up of manufacturing across a number of Ipswich industries vital to the war effort. In terms of the local economy, the period of the War and some years after that may be regarded as a study in contrasts for Ipswich. For families and individuals, rationing and shortages often meant some hardships (although ameliorated by backyard gardening, family and friends on local farms, and perhaps leftovers or “foreigners” made in places of work); but the high levels of activity of local manufacturing industries working hard to provide materials and equipment required for the war effort provided much employment for men and women on the homefront.

The economic conditions experienced during the war created significant risks of inflation. The Australian Government sought to mitigate the inflationary risks posed by low unemployment, increased consumer spending power and constrained supply by introducing rationing, and a series of austerity campaigns. It also raised funds with a war loans program.

Planning for an Australian postwar economy had begun as early as 1941. A wide range of factors affecting the everyday life, and economic future, of Australians included repatriation and retraining of returned servicemen, population growth, housing, immigration, rural reconstruction, and development of secondary industries.

Locally, in 1944 the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce began preparing a case for rural reconstruction in the West Moreton region.

By the late 1940s the Australian economy had substantially recovered from wartime stringencies. Although a housing shortage remained, more than 130,000 houses and flats had been built across the country since 1945; soldier settlement schemes were beginning to bear fruit; primary industries had generally recovered from both drought and wartime restrictions; the population was rapidly growing due to the birth rate and immigration from Great Britain and Europe; and secondary industries had expanded dramatically. With post-War expansion, labour shortages provoked a push for high immigration levels. Ipswich was a beneficiary of these widespread labour shortages, as manufacturers relocated to Ipswich where the labour position was considered to be more favourable, and many existing companies worked overtime to meet demand.