November 5 2025 Speaker Report

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Enlisting and Resisting

At our November Society meeting, we were privileged to hear from Dr Bart Ziino of Deakin University, whose talk, Enlisting and Resisting: Why Did Australian Men Decline to Enlist in the Great War?, offered a compelling exploration of the decisions made by those who stayed behind in Australia rather than enlist in the First AIF.

While the stories of those who served are well known, Dr Ziino reminded us that every Australian soldier in the First World War was a volunteer. Despite two national referenda and relentless recruitment campaigns, many men chose not to enlist. Their reasons, rooted in family, finances, health, and conscience, defied the simplistic labels of cowardice or selfishness. Dr Ziino’s research invites us to consider not just who went to war, but why so many stayed behind, and how their decisions reflected the moral and emotional weight of a nation almost at war with itself.

Beyond the Stereotypes

Dr Ziino stressed that the recruitment campaigns of the time leaned heavily on masculine ideals. He noted that C.E.W. Bean’s assertion that enlisting was “a real man’s job” implied that those who didn’t were somehow deficient. Posters and speeches invoked caricatures of cowardice and selfishness, but the reality was far more nuanced.

The Call to Arms Forms

At the heart of Dr Ziino’s research is a detailed study of a subset of documents that were known as The Call to Arms. By 1915, it was obvious to the government that the pool of volunteers was drying up. The Commonwealth government responded by distributing a survey to 600,000 military-aged men, those aged between 18 and 45. Amongst other questions relating to their health, their employment and marital status, it asked two pertinent questions: Are you willing to enlist now? If not, why not?

Near the end of the war, in 1918. the returned forms were destroyed , but one committee’s cache, around 10,000 forms, from the Third Military District, survived in Parliament House Melbourne until rediscovery in 2002. These now reside in the National Archives and offer rare insight into the minds of those who declined. Of interest to local research, the Third Military District included Geelong, most of Victoria and the Riverina.

Family, Finance, and Fragility

The responses reveal a tapestry of reasons; personal, familial, economic, and moral. Dr Ziino stressed that The Call to Arms cache of records show that enlistment was rarely a solitary decision. Many men cited poor health, family obligations, or financial hardship. He give our members a real sense of connection when he selected the responses of local Geelong men to highlight his observations. Their responses gave the talk added piquancy:

• Henry Lane, a Geelong labourer, said he couldn’t support his family on a soldier’s pay.
• William Caldwell feared leaving his family “to the cold mercy of the world.”
• Mark Tonkin of Bannockburn said enlistment “would be the death of my mother.”
• Alfred Joy from South Geelong had to run the family printing business
• John Hargreaves feared the loss of family traditions
• Thomas Rankin of Highton had £30 in debts and couldn’t leave his wife to face creditors alone.

Farmers faced acute pressures.

Dr Ziino drew the meeting’s attention to the devastating drought of 1914 which pushed many farmers to the brink, and the good rains of 1915 had farmers hoping that the 1916 harvest would lift them out of debt. “If I sell out now, my last five years will be for nothing,” one wrote. Michael Kennedy of Little River, aged 41, had said he had invested 20 years into rented agricultural land, and enlistment would mean financial ruin.

The Reality of War

By 1916, Australian men were more informed of the reality of the war experience. Letters from brothers at the front often discouraged their younger siblings from enlisting. The treatment of returned soldiers, the wounded, maimed, or neglected, was a powerful deterrent to many. The records show that Australian men were making pragmatic decisions: weighing risk, responsibility, and consequence.

Conscience and Class

Around 3% cited conscientious objection. Others expressed political resistance: Hubert Kee, who was a labourer at Lara, wrote, “Not till the wealthy class do their share“.

Dr Ziino noted that the pressure to meet the war’s insatiable need for manpower and the government’s coercion placed Australian families in a vice and led to what he described as a paralysis of decision-making and the pressure of recruitment campaigns created a fraught emotional landscape.

Hierarchies of Sacrifice

When asked a question about the support for conscription Dr Ziino noted that even though the two referenda were lost, what was remarkable was that so many supported it. The first was lost by only 72,000 votes out of about 2 million votes cast. Even many of the respondents who replied that they would not join expressed a desire for conscription to be introduced.

These men saw it as a circuit breaker, or a way to avoid personal responsibility for the enlistment decision. Dr Ziino described challenge of whether to enlist as an “hierarchy of sacrifice,” where men and their families faced many competing pressures and that conscription appeared to relieve individuals from that burden of choice. It was something that cut across all social classes, occupations and social circumstances.

Subsequent to his talk, Dr Ziino kindly remained for supper and members peppered him with questions and observations about the war and related topics. The society is most appreciative of our speaker’s detailed and thought provoking talk. All the more relevant as Rememberance Day is only six days away.