The Great Depression began in 1929 after the Wall Street Crash - shares in the United States were at an all-time high. Investors panicked and sold all of their shares because they knew the prices of their shares could not go any higher – only decrease. This massive sell-up of shares was the catalyst for the Great Depression, which was to cripple the economy of the leading nations of the world for almost a decade.

As the American economy withered, so did the economies of the countries it had ties with. Australia was one of the worst to be aff

Unemployment in Australia had been fluctuating during the late 1920’s. In 1925, 8.8% of the trade unionists were without jobs, 1926 saw a decrease in unemployment with 7.1%, in 1927 7% of trade unionists were unemployed, in 1928 the rate leapt to 10.8% and in 1929, the year the Depression began, unemployment reached 11.1% . The unemployment levels of each individual state went to a different pattern. New South Wales decreased until 1927 - it went from 11% in 1925, to 7.4% in 1926, to 7.3% in 1927 and then up to 11.3%, which brought the rate back to the same level as the other states of Australia. Conversely, South Australia’s unemployment levels increased steadily from 1925 up until 1932; 1925 had 4.3%, 1926 had 5.2%, 1927 had 7.2% and 1928 had 15% of trade unionists unemployed.

At first, the government looked to charities for funding to help the unemployed, poor and destitute, but charity could only assist to a certain degree. By 1930, state governments had introduced the “susso”, a sustenance scheme geared towards providing food rations and relief. Funded by taxation, the susso was only given to those who met certain requirements – applicants had to own no property other than a house, have no savings and be currently unemployed. Preference was given to married men, and some females of middle class because they could be paid less. In the country, receivers of the susso had to go to the police to get it, where they were often humiliated. In the cities, people had to queue up to receive their susso. This treatment made many feel inadequate and bitter towards authority figures. It reinforced the class divisions of society, producing cynical attitudes towards the image of Australia as an “egalitarian, classless society”.

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