Digging in to help their country
To mark ANZAC Day, we reflect on a vital yet often overlooked chapter of Australia’s home-front history: the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA). While the contributions of those who served overseas are rightfully honored today, the security of the nation also rested on the shoulders of the thousands of women who left their city lives to ensure the country remained fed and supplied.
In the Geelong and Bellarine regions, these ‘Land Girls’ faced hard physical labour, stepping into roles left vacant by men serving abroad and proving that the spirit of service extended far beyond the battlefield.
The following article, well researched by Ruth Hill and first published in Investigator magazine, Vol 29 No 2 1994, captures the lived experiences of these women through personal interviews and local records.
By documenting the daily realities of life on the farms of Highton, Barwon Heads, and Bellarine, Ruth Hill ensured that the ‘living history‘ of our community would be preserved. On this ANZAC Day, we republish her work to recognise the resilience and dedication of the AWLA, whose hard-won efforts in the fields were essential to Australia’s wartime endurance.
You can listen to a reading of the article by clicking the link below:
Digging in to help their country
A shortage of labour
If you were to read the Geelong Advertiser for 1942, it could at first strike you that the war reported on pages one and two was quite remote. After page three the life of Geelong carried on with the usual social, sporting and domestic items. The weekly paragraphs from such places as Inverleigh, while reminding residents of the card afternoon or an approaching kitchen tea, also mentioned socks being knitted for the Red Cross, and the problems farmers were having with harvesting and fruit-picking due to labour shortages.
By March, however, “black market” petrol tickets, daylight saving (disliked by farmers), and passengers who would raise the tram blinds during the blackout, were taking over the headlines. At Mount Duneed farmers had begun harvesting jointly. Dairymen were still harassed and working under difficulty. Various suggestions were made (see report below) as to who could help the man on the land—schoolboys, internees, prisoners of war, women, pensioners, girl guides and Volunteer Defence Corps members were mentioned. Nurses from Geelong Hospital were taken out to Wallington to pick fruit after tea in the dark.
ACUTE LABOR SHORTAGE: Employment of Internees
Early Decisions to Be Sought
(From the Geelong Advertiser, 19/1/1942)
Ministerial Action: The Minister for the Army (Mr. Forde) will press Cabinet for an early decision on the question of the employment of internees and prisoners of war as a means of relieving the acute labour shortage particularly in country districts.
Security Concerns: He said there were many difficulties; they had to be employed in districts where, if they escaped, they would not be in a position to cause trouble or to make contact with enemy agents. There was also a problem of providing adequate guards.
Fruit Industry: Growers in the Goulburn Valley, who produced 75% of Australia’s canning fruits, reported that itinerant labor could not be obtained for the upcoming pear and peach picking seasons.
Work for Schoolboys: Three camps to accommodate 600 public school boys were being constructed. While providing valuable assistance, they often had to return to school before the picking was completed. Two hundred had been working at the Shepparton Cannery.
Wages: The growers emphasised they had always paid Arbitration Court wages and paid schoolboys double the juvenile rate.
Fate of Bean Crop: A deputation from East Gippsland stated that unless labour could be obtained, the bulk of the bean crop in the Orbost area would be lost. Growers had been urged to grow navy beans as an essential food for troops.
Women to the rescue
Relief was on the way: the formation of the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA) was announced in Canberra in February 1942. This was to stand beside the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS), the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRAN) as a women’s war service. Women were by now largely employed in the munition and canning industries, in ambulance driving, in waste paper sorting and the women’s police auxiliary force.
Empire Needs
A government policy of Empire Preference meant that by 1942 Australia and New Zealand were providing food not only for their home populations and their fighting forces but were also sending shiploads of food to Britain. Food rationing here had already been introduced. However, with the extension of the war to the Pacific by June 1942, there were about 88,000 American servicemen in Australia, rising to approximately 863,000 by June 1945.
Various backgrounds
The Land Army began in earnest in August 1942. In Victoria, total enrolment was about 1,500. Preference was given to girls not already working on farms as they needed to have mobility at short notice. Most recruits came from offices and shops (regarded as non-essential occupations), though others from Bushells (tea) and Davies Coop (cotton spinners) were in industries considered essential. Single women were preferred but a number of married women enlisted.
Terms and conditions
Workers were not issued with working clothes until they had been in the service for some months. Dress uniforms took longer, and they had to find gumboots and hats where they could. While training, girls received 20/- per week and keep; working for an employer, 30/- plus keep or 50/- if no keep. Pea-pickers were paid 2/6d to 5/- per bag in addition to their pay.
Prepared for anything
Training depots at Mont Park, Kooweerup and Werribee gave recruits a brief introduction to dairying, poultry, agriculture, horses and machinery. One record of service reads:
6/12/1942 General training, Mont Park
25/12/1942 Mixed farming, Wallinduc
23/1/1943 Orchard, Foster, Merrigum, Murchison
15/3/1943 Headquarters – publicity work
29/3/1943 General training, Werribee
19/4/1943 Orchard, Murchison
27/9/1944 Vegetables, P. Ling, Barwon Heads
14/11/1944 Dairy farming, W. Wiffen, Bellarine
1/3/1945 Temporary Field Officer 3, Merrigum
A new crop
While traditional farming was increasing, one new crop widely grown was flax. Previously imported, linen was now being used extensively for army uniforms, parachute harness, ropes, and canvas. Linseed oil was also used in paints, waterproofing, and lubrication.
Local land girls
Four AWLA girls were employed on Mr. H. Earl’s pea crop at Highton in 1943 and 1944. Some girls found they were not suited to specific tasks; some became dizzy bending to cut asparagus, others developed conditions like weeping dermatitis, cow pox, or hay fever.
Asparagus crops
In 1944 and 1945, about eight girls looked after asparagus on Ling’s property at Barwon Heads. Asparagus was also grown with AWLA help on Mrs. Carroll’s property at Batesford. An asparagus factory was erected in the 1930s at Drysdale, where the harvest was packed and despatched.
Rough conditions
Early rising was a feature at Bellarine also. Girls assigned to Wiffen in 1943 moved into an old unoccupied house that needed a complete “spring-cleaning”. They slept on palliasses filled with straw. No electricity was connected, so candles and lanterns were used. Their responsibility was growing onions, peas, garlic and potatoes. Everything had to be done by hand and the work was hard.
Chain of command
The AWLA was controlled from headquarters in Melbourne with Miss Kitty McEwan as Executive Officer. Each group had a Field Officer (FO) assigned to act as the link between headquarters, the farmer, and the girls. Known Field Officers at Bellarine were Misses L. Hicks, B. McKibbin, M. White, F. Gilbert and E. Powell.
Off duty fun
Being a group, the girls were able to organise concerts, with players and audience. It is thought that there were thirty or so girls who spent some time at Bellarine. At Portarlington they once put on a concert and dance for the Save the Children Fund and raised £17/4/6. There were dances at Drysdale and Geelong. They could play tennis or g o to the pictures. Buses probably ran o n Saturdays but not Sundays. On November 28, 1943, the AWLA ran a church service at Portarlington resulting in a record collection. Large numbers of young people turned up at Wiffen’s for Sunday night tea. Where there are girls you will always find boys – and vice versa.
The end of hostilities and lack of recognition
In December 1945, the Bellarine base closed as the service was disbanded and men returned home to their jobs. Some months before the war finished, legislation was proposed to give the AWLA equality regarding deferred pay and ex-service benefits, but it was shelved when the war ended. The RSL was hesitant to admit personnel who had not served outside Australia. Consequently, the AWLA was not recognised as a War Service for many years. Only in 1987 were members permitted to march in Melbourne on Anzac Day*. There had been an association of ex-members which ceased operation in the 1970s. Any official records relating to the AWLA seem to have been lost or destroyed, so that the only list of ex-members has come from
the members themselves.
* This article was written before the recent belated recognition of the services of AWLA and other groups.
REFERENCES
Several quite good volumes have been issued in the last decade, including girls’ own accounts of their service:
Jean Scott, Girls with Grit, Allen and Unwin 1986.
Mary Lowe, Down to Earth, 1991.
Sue Hardisty, Thanks girls, goodbye, Viking O’Neil 1990.
The official background is given in Paul Hasluck, The Government and the
People, Vol. 2 of Australia in the War of 1939-45.
Ex-members of AWLA who have provided information are Mrs. J. Malcolm, Mrs. B. Laurie, Mrs. M. Lowe, Miss M. White, Mrs. N. McPherson, Mrs. M. Dopper, Mrs. J. Sawicki and Mrs. R . Wiffen.
The Bellarine Historical Society also provided information.
