While the menfolk were away fighting, Mrs Yonge, then Pamela Eddison, was a "land girl" who remained on the farm to help with the chores and, in short, put food on the nation's tables. Farming families had it a little easier than the townsfolk did, rationing, for example was less of a problem, however they did not escape the war completely. Mrs Yonge gives her account of the war experience.

The lives of many Australian women changed dramatically between 1940 and 1945 when there was pressure for young women to participate in the war effort, particularly in the armed services.

Australian Government Office For Women in the Department of Families

At first the government politely discouraged those women who wanted to perform some kind of military service. It soon became clear that the war was going to demand much more than the government had expected. Women could do the technical jobs normally performed by men, freeing those men for combat.

The involvement of Australian women in each war is closely connected to their role in society at different times, and the nature of each war.

The consequences of World War II for women's employment, familial roles and personal freedom have received substantial attention, as have the new forms of domesticity that followed the war.

The Council of Action for Equal Pay functioned from 1937 - 1948 as a single issue affiliate body, predominantly composed of trade unions and several women's organisations. This journal explores the breakdown of gender divisions on the labour market during World War II influencing the course of women's political and economical justice.

This link contains search results relating to the United States and Word War II from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made it clear that, if forced to choose, he would use English troops and equipment to defend England itself, rather than helping to protect Australia against the Japanese in the Pacific. The Australian Prime Minister John Curtin then called on America for help. Many older Australians who retained the traditional loyalty to England were shocked by this new allegiance

This link contains search results for Migration issues around World War II from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

Immigration timeline - click through the decades (1940's onwards) on the side bar of the page, to see how the migration policy changed from decade to decade.

During the Second World War migrant ships were redeployed to war service. After the war increasing numbers of migrants from all over the world again began arriving at Station Pier. Many came to Australia on government-assisted passage schemes, drawn by promises of a better way of life.

Since October 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia—over 800 000 of these people arrived under the Humanitarian Programme.

When the war ended, the government took an entirely new approach to migration. The near invasion of Australia by the Japanese caused a complete rethink of ideal population numbers. As Prime Minister Ben Chifley would later declare, ‘a powerful enemy looked hungrily toward Australia. In tomorrow’s gun flash that threat could come again. We must populate Australia as rapidly as we can before someone else decides to populate it for us.’

The end of World War Two brought in its wake the largest population movements in European history. Millions of Germans fled or were expelled from eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, survivors of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, sought secure homes beyond their native lands. And other refugees from every country in eastern Europe rushed to escape from the newly installed Communist regimes.

Since World War II Australia has experienced prolonged large-scale immigration, both refugee and other, averaging one percent of the total population a year and totalling, from mid 1947 to 1985 nearly 4.3 million.

This link contains search results relating to the Internment during World War II from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

Before World War II, many Jewish citizens of Germany and Austria were driven out of their countries by the rise of the Nazis. They sought refuge in various countries, including England and Australia. When the war began, the British and Australian governments wondered if they could trust these recent arrivals from what were now enemy countries.

The influx of Italians in the 1920s combined with the rise of Fascism in Italy provoked discussion of Italian immigration in the various Australian parliaments. Italian immigration was construed in a negative light and unemployment figures were drawn on to bemoan the rising number of Italians in Australia.

This link contains search results relating to the Indigenous and World War II from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

The search result provides a list of links relating to the Indigenous and World War II from the Australian Government ANZAC portal.

Indigenous women have made significant contributions both in peacetime and in war. Many of the books and web links in this list discuss Indigenous women's contributions.

This journal explores the inequalities of sacrifice for Aborginal and TorresStrait Islander Labour in Northern Australia during World War II. Debate ensued about mobilising Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people. Was their 'loyalty' to the nation - which was ultimately fighting to preserve a white British bastion?

This link contains search results for social services during World War II from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

1945: National introduction of sickness and unemployment benefits. With memories of the Great Depression still fresh in the nation’s collective psyche, the Curtin government announced in 1943 that it would create a national system of welfare, including unemployment and sickness benefits.

To ensure that everyone received a basic amount of essential supplies such as meat, butter, sugar and tea, the government brought in a system of rationing. Everyone had to apply for ration books, which contained a number of coupons. Each coupon gave the holder permission to buy a certain amount of something, usually over a weekly period. Despite the hardship, rationing was well received by the public because it applied to everyone equally.