Onset of the Great Depression - NSW: how to present?

Photo: NSW Depression Dole camp

In my last post I said that I would talk about the 1932 secession moves within NSW. I have been held up by a few practical issues.

I am trying to write from a New England perspective. This means standing outside the conventional metro frames.

When I came to look at the 1932 secession material - and it is already on blogger in draft, all I have to do is publish - I decided that I should write something about the onset of the depression to set the scene. But the Great Depression was not a uniform experience - measures of unemployment varied from 15 per cent to over 40 per cent depending on area. So one needs to factor this in. Further, there were particular factors that made the NSW state government especially vulnerable - the use of London overdraft finance for example.

No Australian government was equipped to handle the Great Depression. The policy tools developed by John Maynard Keynes did not yet exist. Governments frayed and collapsed. I need to explain this. But in doing so, I face another problem.

I checked with my daughters (19,17). They have no idea who Keynes was. He has vanished. The entire folk memory - the common memory of events and people - has gone.

I first really became conscious of this problem about two months ago when I was writing some material on the wool industry. A friend, late thirties so finishing secondary education in Sydney about 1975, asked me why. She had no idea about the previous importance of the industry or its linkage to Australian history. I then ran some tests asking people about the meaning of words in Waltzing Matilda. It appears we sing the song without knowing the meaning of the words.

I complain about the discontinuity in New England history, the way the past has vanished, but there appears to be a much bigger problem at Australian level. This is not just an issue of knowledge of Australian history itself, but rather more a series of cultural shifts that appear to have progressively cut people off from their shared past.

While I have written on elements of this on Personal Reflections, my concern here is a purely practical one. What does it mean for the way I write? How much additional information must I provide?

At the very least, I need to do some re-writing. Some of my material was written over twenty years ago. I would stand by most facts and interpretations, at this level the material has stood up pretty well to the passage of time. However, I clearly need to add more explanatory material.

The New England New State Movement and Regional Movements in Australia 1

Graphic: New England New State Movement Anthem, National Library

We will raise the banner of New England
Work for New England, Fight for New England
We will raise the battle cry of freedom
Fight for our Liberty
Part of the New England Anthem

Way up in the north of Northern NSW
There is a new state movement that's sort of on the go
But what will be the capital of this new state of ours?
That is the burning question that's being worrying them for hours
Will it be in Armidale, Tamworth or Bendameer?
Or will it be in Grafton the place where they make beer?
Song, University of New England Student Review, 1960s


This is the first part of what was a much longer post, so long that it became absolutely unreadable. I am therefore breaking it up into multiple posts that I can run over the next week or so.

One of the questions I sometimes get asked, usually out of a vague sense of curiosity since the issue now seems so remote, is why I support a New England New State.

When the Grazier's Association in NSW again suggested new states a year or so back, the metro media was confused about the idea, even those supporting the idea had little sense of the history.

There is a historical discontinuity that grows worse. Nearly all of the leaders of the post war New England Movement are now dead. There has been little academic research that I am aware of over recent decades not just on New England, but the whole Australian regional experience and history.

Regional development has become popular again, but the policy arguments largely ignore past experiences. Those now arguing in favour of regional governments in place of states have, I think, little idea of just how old this argument is, of the differences between that and the new state concept, of the way in which the various issues have been debated in the past through newspapers, public meetings, journals, Royal Commissions, pamphlets and books. An entire slab of the Australian experience has been effectively deleted from both living memory and the pages of history.

Australia's Regional Movements

The New England New State Movement forms part of what I call the regional movements, political, social and cultural responses from regional areas to the challenges they face and especially those flowing from metro domination. The regional movements in NSW that led to the separation of Victoria and Queensland are early examples of regional movements, the rise of the independents in NSW and Queensland the most recent example. Politicians such as Richard Torbay or Tony Windsor sit squarely in a long tradition.

There have been many regional movements between the successful Queensland and Victorian separation movements and today's independents: the other attempts to create new colonies during the nineteenth century; the Decentralisation Leagues that sprang up in the 1880s in Victoria and New South Wales; the regional development and decentralisation campaigns of the early part of the twentieth century; the Country Party; the creation of county councils in NSW; the various twentieth century new state movements across Australia; the populist movements of the depression period including Western Australia's attempts to secede from the Commonwealth and the threatened secession from NSW of New England; the regional councils movement associated with post war reconstruction; the various regional university movements; the growth centres concept of the Whitlam Government.

To the degree that they are still written about, many of these various movements are presented as populist conservative in a historical frame determined by metro focused conventions. Thus the potential secession moves - the break up of NSW - in the period leading up to the dismissal of Jack Lang are presented, if even recognised, as a footnote within a frame set by New Guard and Old Guard, radical and conservative responses to Lang.

These moves were much more than this because they drew from an incipient sense of regional nationalism, were led by dominant regional leaders, had press support and were set within a historical frame created by years of political endeavour. They had also defined a constitutional base for irregular action based on the case of West Virginia, drawing from advice provided by J G Latham among others.

Coming Posts

In my next post I will look briefly at just how close NSW came to break up in 1932, writing not from the conventional metro perspective, but looking at it as a New Englander who could have wished for a different outcome.

New England New State Movement - Reference Sources

Photo: New England flag

I have established this page to provide a source of information on material relating to new states in general, the New England Movement in particular. I will update progressively.

General

• Kingdom of New England. An entertaining alternative history site. Following a declaration of independence from Australia on 19 February 2006 and a bitter civil war, New England's status as an independent nation was confirmed by the Treat of Wellington in 2015. Initial relations with Australia were tense, but have improved following New England's victory in the five days war (2032) with Australia supported by locally based US forces.
• Potential New States Home Page. A web site discussing possible new states in Australia including some historical material.
• New States for Australia. Web site arguing the case for new states within Australia.

New England Archival Material

• MS 7990 - AITKIN, Don, 1937- (5 boxes) Academic and Country Party historian. Original minutes, correspondence, financial records and notes relating to Australian Country Party (N.S.W.) activity in the period 1919-72, especially in the New England district. Includes State records of the Progressive Party, Annual Conferences, Central Council and Central Executive, and Electorate Councils and a large body of Gunnedah Branch records. Other documents, including press releases, relate to the New England New State Movement, elections and election broadcasts. Available for reference. List available (14 p.) Australian National Libary
• BETTER COMMUNICATIONS LEAGUE: RECORDS. Minutes, correspondence, reports, maps, brochures, political speeches, submissions, newspaper clippings and other papers related to the activities of the League in forwarding its aims and objectives. According to its constitution, those objects were: "to take whatever steps may be necessary or desirable to obtain better communications for the northern portion of this State, but with initial emphasis on the completion of a) a new, modern highway between Glen Innes and Grafton, b) the construction of a deep sea port at Iluka c) the building of a railway linking Inverell and Glen Innes." A detailed provisional listing of these records (8p.) Is available in the Archives. c.1938-1978. A245 University of New England Archives.
• DODD RECORDS, 1876-1918; AND THE NEW STATE LEAGUE, (GLEN INNES) RECORDS. Includes records of the Glen Innes branch of the New State League, 1920-23. These include the Minutes of the inaugural meeting (24 May, 1920) constitutions, correspondence, leaflets, accounts and a petition. 9 vols., 9 folders. 1920-1923.A275. University of New England Archives
• DRUMMOND, DAVID HENRY: PAPERS. A large and miscellaneous collection of papers of the late David Henry Drummond from every period of his political life. Many of these papers discuss two of his major interests, education and constitutional issues. A complete list of this material is available on request. a member of the Joint Parliamentary. 20 Volumes, 37 Boxes. 1874-1965. A248. University of New England Archives
• MS 1006 - ELLIS, Ulrich, 1904-83 (12 folders). Political Secretary to Earle Page and Director, Federal Country Party Secretariat. Documents relating to his career as a journalist and his association with the Country Party, 1900-1961. Material includes: newspaper clippings; correspondence; notes and sources on the formation and history of the Country Party, as used for his study A History of the Country Party in Australia; election papers; collections of speeches by Arthur Fadden, John McEwen and Page; subject files on the constitution, transport, water resources, centralism and postwar reconstruction. Also documented are Ellis' work on the executive of the New England New State Movement and the political figures Lyons, Menzies and Bruce, and academic Don Aitkin. Available for reference. List available (5 p.). Australian National Libary
• MS 748 - ELLIS, Ulrich, 1904-83 (14 boxes). Includes: Australian Country Party (N.S.W.). Annual Conference record of proceedings, 1949-51; summary of decisions on resolutions submitted, 1951-52; notes on White Australia Policy. Available for reference. List available (7 p.) Australian National Libary
• Farrell, Tom Papers. Newcastle business man and community activist. Includes new state papers. University of Newcastle Archives
• MS 8471 - GRAHAM, Bruce Desmond, 1931- (2 folders). Academic and Country Party historian. Notes on oral history interviews made in 1956-57 while he was writing his history The Formation of the Australian Country Parties. The interviewees include Page, Weiley, Vincent, Bruxner, Buttenshaw, Budd, Main, C.L.A. Abbott, Latham and Bruce; emphasis is given to the activities of the New South Wales division of the Party. Also included are some documents relating to the New England New State Movement.
  Information pertaining to interviews is available for reference; restricted access to documents concerning the New England New State Movement. List available (4 p.) Australian National Libary
• GUNDY See under Northern New States League: papers, 1921-24 Waverley Station, Gundy: records, 1914-1961 1921-1924 & 1914-1961 A219 & A271. University of New England Archives
• HARRISON, P.N. Papers-New England New State Movement 1950s and 60s
  1950's - 1960's. A1427. University of New England Archives
• MS 7507 - NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA (148 boxes). Comprehensive collection of Federal, State, Electorate and Branch records, 1915-1983 (bulk, 1950-83) including: minutes; files; election material; documents relating to Young Australian Country Party.
  Restricted access. List available (19 p.) Australian National Libary
• mfm G675, G7320, G7748 - NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA. Microfilmed minutes of Inverell and other Branch Councils, 1927-56. Restricted access to G675; G7320, G7748 available for reference. Australian National Library
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT, ARMIDALE: ANNE PHILP, INCLUDING ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS. Headquarters records of the Movement in three 4-drawer filing cabinets. An index to the files is available in the Archives. 3 filing cabinets
  various A547 University of New England Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: An extensive collection of papers, press clippings and printed material, meeting minutes and agendas, petitions and surveys, reports etc. Date range 1950s-1960s. 3 boxes. 1950's & 1960's. A1427. University of New Engalnd Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: BOOKLETS BY ULRICH ELLIS
  1964 - 1970. A811. University of New England Archives.
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: FURTHER PAPERS c.1962 A963 University of New England Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: NEW ENGLAND CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, 1955 (ARMIDALE EXPRESS REPORTS) Feb. 1955A1212. University of New England Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: PAMPHLET PUBLICATIONS
  1933-1961 A948. University of New England Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT: RECORDS OF P.N. HARRISON 1950-60S.
  1950's & 1960's. A1427.University of New England Archives
• NEW ENGLAND NEW STATE MOVEMENT RECORDS. Newspaper cuttings and papers relating to the Cohen (N.S.W.) Royal Commission of 1924-5; correspondence (general and inter-branch); minute books, press releases and propaganda leaflets; convention papers. 1919-1960. A1. University of New England Archives
• NORTHERN NEW STATES LEAGUE, UPPER HUNTER DISTRICT. Minute book of the Upper Hunter district council of the Northern New States League, covering the period from the inaugural meeting presided over by Mr H.L. White at Scone (llth May, 1921). The league was formed by the combined representatives of the movem ent from Aberdeen, Gundy, Parkville and Scone; representatives from other northern districts were to join in later years. Minutes end with the meeting of 15th May, 1924, when arrangements were made regarding evidence to be given before the New States Commission due to sit at Scone on the 6th and 7th June, 1924. 1 Volume. 1921-24. A219. University of New England Archives.
• O'BRIEN PAPERS. (Re: New State Movement.). c.1963-68. A544. University of New England Archives.
• PAGE PAPERS. A large and highly miscellaneous collection of papers accumulated over nearly 60 years in the life of an eminent and many-sided Australian. Speeches, press-releases, correspondence and notes on medical, political, social, economic and family matters conce rning Earle Page at various times in his long career. 8 boxes, 3 folders.
  1903-66. A1. University of New England Archives.
• MS 1633 - PAGE, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton, 1880-1961 (ca. 250 boxes)
  Leader of Australian Country Party. Substantial collection of personal, semi-official and official documents, consisting of subject files of correspondence, telegrams, cables, cuttings, reports, memoranda, speeches, Cabinet papers, press statements, parliamentary bills, statistics, election material and notes. Topics covered include primary industry, taxation and banking, foreign affairs, national insurance, federalism, industrial relations, constitutional reform and referenda, social services, immigration, trade, new state movements, formation of the Bruce-Page Government, and the Country Party. Bruce, Bruxner, Casey, Latham, V.C. Thompson, Lyons, Paterson, Spender, Menzies and Fadden number in Page's various correspondents. Official and non-official papers available for reference; restricted access to Country Party papers. List available (43 p.) Australian National Libary
• SCONE. See under Invermein Station, Scone: records Northern New States League: papers, 1921-24. 1855-1934. A226. University of New England Archives
• WRIGHT, PHILLIP ARUNDELL, DIARIES. The personal diaries of Phillip Arundell Wright of "Wallamumbi Station" from 1906 to 1945. A breakdown of the contents of the diaries by year exists for a little under half of the material. 3 Boxes RESTRICTED 1906-1945. A635. University of New England Archives.
• WRIGHT, PHILLIP ARUNDELL, DIARIES. RESTRICTED 1946-1970 A666. University of New England Archives

History of New England, Australia - Pause for Reflection

Having set the scene with an introduction to the history of New England's railways, I was going to discuss the rise of agriculture. However, I find that there are gaps, puzzles, about some of the structure that I have been using as a historical framework.

Part of this relates simply to dates. More precisely, the absence of them in some cases. Chronology, while somewhat in disfavour today, remains important. There is no point in arguing that a causes b if in fact b came first.

Take the question of freight costs. Yes, the railways were critical to the expansion of wheat production, especially for export markets. But it's not as simple as that. Agricultural expansion in fact began in advance of the railways, notwithstanding the very high cost of horse or bullock transport. The answer here appears to lie in the combination of mining with town growth, increasing the size of the immediate local market. But to check this, I need to say something about mining and its impact. Do the dates fit?

I also need to look again at the history of Newcastle because I have some gaps here. Again taking a transport example. The extension of the Great Northern Railway benefited Newcastle at the expense of Morpeth, that is clear. Again, it is clear that Newcastle lost out to Sydney once the bridge over the Hawkesbury River was completed. But the actual period in which Newcastle held economic sway comes back to railway completion dates and may have been shorter than I thought.

One of my very real difficulties is that there is so little stuff on line and that which is there is fragmented. This simply reflects the fact that no one has really focused on the history of the broader New England - at least no one that I am aware of - over the last twenty five years. That after all is why this blog came into existence.

At the moment I do not have the time or money for that matter to go back into the painstaking business of checking primary sources such as local newspapers or private papers held in the archives. I need to work from my own previous research, from personal knowledge and from what secondary sources there are, pointing to questions and gaps, at least creating the structure for future research.