The Great Depression

The Great Depression began in 1929 when the Wall Street Stock Market in New York, America crashed. Although the crash originated in America this did not stop widespread panic and disaster being caused throughout many countries across the world. Due to the drop in demand for Australian products and the stop of production of many goods, a large amount of Australian workers lost their jobs and became unemployed. Being unemployed during the depression brought many challenges. However, there were some Australians who were wealthy and for them the Depression benefitted them greatly often allowing them to become wealthier.
The unemployed were affected the worst in Australia and were the first to suffer the effects caused by the Great Depression. People who were unemployed were not able to find work and therefore unable to pay their rent. As shown in Source A, many families were evicted from their homes because they couldn’t pay their landlords and were forced to live in temporary housing in places such as Happy Valley or in the Domain. These temporary housing areas were often unhygienic and the living conditions were poor. The families then had to rely on essential living supplies donated by charities but as the Depression progressed and worsened these supplies became limited. Many people were forced to depend on sustenance payments to survive and many men went ‘on the wallaby’ wandering the countryside looking for work and checking in to local police stations to get weekly rationings of either food or small amounts of money. A large number of families were broken when men decided to abandon them to escape the terrible situations they had to face. For those men who did stay with their families, they often had to work far away and felt guilty and depressed because they couldn’t support their families.
During the Great Depression not everyone in Australia experienced great hardships and sufferings. However, on rare occasions some wealthy people who earned their money by