John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to pay special tribute to the Australian Women’s Land Army, whose members served the nation with such grit and determination and to whom our nation really owes so much. The Australian Women’s Land Army was created specifically to overcome the shortage of rural workers due to the men joining the armed forces. During the Second World War, the demand for labour had become critical, particularly in rural industries necessary to feed, clothe and equip military personnel while trying to maintain the maximum possible supplies of food for the general population.

In my home state of Tasmania in August 1940 a meeting was held in Launceston to assess the viability of forming a women’s land army in Tasmania, similar to the one that was already operating in Great Britain. By 1941 it was estimated that there were 235 women from all walks of life working on farms throughout Tasmania. Recruits were required to be between 18 and 50 years of age, and many of these women were able to continue with their university education or jobs in the city but gave up their holiday time to fulfil their commitment to such a worthy cause.

By November 1941 the foresight of the group of women in 1940 was recognised when the Tasmanian state government provided funding for the building of accommodation and facilities for the Australian Women’s Land Army Training School at the Cressy Research Station—a model that was later replicated right across Australia. At Cressy, trainees were given up to eight weeks of intensive training in all aspects of general farm work. With the working day starting at 6.30 am, each trainee was given the chance to experience every type of work that they might be expected to do when they left the school to go out to their assignments. Lectures were also given three nights a week, and only a very small percentage of trainees failed to qualify over the three years the school operated.

The fact that 90 per cent of the trainees were from non-rural backgrounds perhaps highlights the sense of adventure and patriotism displayed by these very dedicated women. They left their jobs in offices, department stores and factories to try something completely unknown in a world full of total strangers. Land army members worked outdoors in all weather conditions, from full sun in summer to icy, cold and wet conditions in winter. They worked in shearing sheds, milked cows and followed the harvest season for fruit and vegetables. They learned to drive tractors, harness teams of horses correctly, pitch sheaves of grain, press straw and tend stock. Perhaps the most telling indication of their contribution to the war effort was the huge increase in the production of flax—a product critical to the manufacture of rope, uniforms and tents for the armed forces. Nationally between 1939 and 1944 flax production increased from 2,000 acres to 40,000 acres.

The friendships and the camaraderie formed during this time carried these women through remarkable feats of physical endurance, loneliness and hardship. Their work and dedication to duty won the respect of initially very sceptical farmers. The concept, strongly supported by Tasmanian Dame Enid Lyons, Australia’s first female member of the House of Representatives, became national in July 1942 and was administrated under the Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service, with a recommendation to improve the status of the Australian Women’s Land Army by instituting it as a fourth women’s service.

In January 1943 cabinet endorsed the status of both divisions of the Australian Women’s Land Army, full-time members and auxiliary members, as the ‘official fourth service’. The organisation was to be formally constituted under the National Security Regulations. However, a final draft of these regulations was not completed until 1945 and was not acted on before the end of the war and the demobilisation of the Australian Women’s Land Army. Despite the vital contribution to the broad Australian war effort throughout the three years from its formation to the end of the war, the Australian Women’s Land Army was not given the status of military service and therefore its members were not accorded the same benefits as members of other women’s services. At the end of hostilities and on its demobilisation on 30 November 1945, there were over 2,500 members of the Australian Women’s Land Army—many of them foundation members of their state organisations who had provided five years of hard physical work and dedicated service to their country.

It is perhaps a sad reflection of history that, until 1985, members were denied the opportunity to march on Anzac Day in the bigger city parades and were denied the opportunity to join the RSL until 1991, some 46 years after the end of the war. Their lack of status also led to the destruction of service records. In 1997 many members became eligible for the Civilian Service Medal in recognition of their contribution to the Australian Women’s Land Army and other wartime organisations that contributed to the war effort. Many of the longer-serving members of the women’s army regard it as a very small token gesture of appreciation to women who had given so much of their youth, and they believe their efforts did indeed match that of the women from the other services.

Honourable senators, as you can appreciate, the types of actives undertaken were especially detrimental to the physical health of such women when you consider that the training was very brief and, even more importantly, that it did not cover good lifting practice. They lifted heavy bags of wheat and chaff, which were indeed heavy in those days. They lifted these heavy bags of grain and vegetables on a regular basis. Further, much of their work, as in hand weeding or turning flax for days on end, involved bending from the waist. It is also interesting to note that no medical examinations were given upon discharge. Many have for the rest of their lives suffered from health conditions, including back pain, arthritis and mobility problems, no doubt due to the heavy physical work undertaken while serving with the army.

Mrs Jean Scott’s book, Girls with Grit: Memories of the Australian Women’s Land Army, published in 1986, is an excellent publication. The back cover contains the following quotation, which I believe reflects the outstanding contribution of those women and the Australian Women’s Land Army:

On the farms and in the dairies,

On the outback station runs,

Those girls with grit are needed,

Just as much as men with guns.

Post-war Prime Minister Ben Chifley stated:

On this Parliament rests the responsibility of seeing that the right thing is done.

There is little doubt that the ‘right thing’ was done for the enlisted ex-service men and women, but sadly not for the members of the Australian Women’s Land Army. As a member of a very grateful nation I personally say, ‘Thank you for a job well done,’ and strongly advocate that members of the Australian Women’s Land Army be granted the recognition and entitlements they deserve through a formal legislative approval of it as the fourth arm of the women’s services. I think that that action would indeed be a small tribute to such wonderful women. I thank the Senate.