On The Homefront: Business & Retail

For up to a decade from 1940, rationing controlled the sale of some foodstuffs, as well as clothing, tobacco, alcohol, petrol and rubber. Helen McMonagle, wrote in her history Rationing on the Ipswich Home Front:

Internationally, Australia was under pressure due to its position as a dominion of the British Empire, and its reliance upon America as an ally – these relationships meant the Australian government had to provide suitable export supplies to support the Allied armies and British population. These international responsibilities to her Allies, along with a number of other factors, led to the Commonwealth government’s decision to limit the civilian consumption of food and clothing through the introduction of ration coupons.

 

The period of rationing during the Second World War is often remembered as a time of struggle, where clothing, petrol and food stuffs were hard to come by and ‘making do’ was a way of life… The high unemployment and resultant financial hardship experienced during the depression years meant many households had become self-reliant in terms of fresh food supplies and maintaining clothing.

Rationing aimed to manage shortages, control civilian consumption, and curb inflation by reducing consumer spending, hopefully leading to a higher level of savings by the population and greater investment in the government war loans program. Ration coupons were presented to retailers, who carefully removed the appropriate number of coupons for the goods purchased.

Rationing of food and clothing lasted for several years after war's end. By mid-1948 restrictions on clothing, sugar and meat had been lifted; it took until mid-1950 for rationing of tea and butter to cease.

The Queensland Times reported on 28 June 1948 of the "relief" felt in Ipswich clothing stores and butchers at the lifting of rationing.