Life during the Great Depression
Class
- Unskilled workers were the most vulnerable to the Depression as the suffered the greatest job losses like in the steel and construction industries (Grimshaw et al).
- Many other industries were also affected as a knock-on effect.
- Middle-class jobs in the corporate and banking sector were also reduced where between 10-20 percent of job losses took place (Clark).
- Most wages in working and middle-class jobs were reduced by around 20 percent (Mirams et al).
- Women were paid wages half that of men (sometimes more). Women's jobs were more stable compared to men (Grimshaw et al).
- However people in steady in employment like teachers, government workers or even in those industries that increased during the Depression like the car repair industry (Repco is the best example) they were able to live a relatively comfortable life (McCalman).
- However many still lived in fear of future job losses (McCalman).
- Many people from the wealthier classes did quite well as their savings appreciated in real terms due to reduced consumer prices. Many of the wealthy maintained stable employment so during this time they extended their life of privilege through investing in renovations including a fashion trend of building garages (Cottles). Notably Sidney Myer was oblivious to the conditions of the Depression.
Female and Male Spaces
The streets were essentially a "feminine community" whereas men were "bonded through the pubs and at work". The street community "saved the sanity" of these many newly-wed, new-mothers who felt a sense of helplessness while the husbands were out seeking work or entertaining themselves at pubs or gambling (McCalman).
The benefits of this female community were also material - women would share cleaning materials for washing clothes and cleaning their homes, the same could be said of food. According to McCalman none of her Richmond interviewees talked of going hungry.
Women were not always cordial with each other. Female feuds were common in the cases in the Richmond Court (McCalman).
Men also engaged in various arguments that occasionally escalated to unnecessary violence. McCalman attributes this to the "underlying stress" from poverty, long-term unemployment and insecure work.
Many husbands felt "emasculated" and lacked purpose in their "diminished" role as unemployed and inept providers for their family (McCalman; Grimshaw et al).
According to Grimshaw et al men endured the "humiliation of idleness" compared to women who "worked harder than ever" to be both bread-winners fulfill their family duties.
While conversely women appeared to maintain their role as "housewife" and "mother" despite their increased responsibilities as breadwinner. Many women were able to keep their jobs during the Depression or were more likely to gain stable employment. Much work undertaken by women were in areas that men would avoid (domestic servitude, office-work, food, textiles, drink and clothing) and many employers preferred women as they could pay wages half that of men and women were traditionally more "passive" (less likely to be in a union or to demand improved wages or conditions) (McCalman; Mirams et al).
Despite many men now spending more time at home they rarely helped with the domestic cleaning, cooking of meals or the care of children. Furthermore it was still socially acceptable to enjoy their free time socialising with friends, going to the pub and gambling. At home men attempted to reaffirm their patriarchal role through taking authority over the female and younger members of the family (McCalman; Mirams et al). According to McCalman many women understood this situation and tolerated their husbands and fathers' desperate attempts to maintain their position of power.
However McCalman argues that this tolerance of patriarchy in the home had an element of "condescension" towards their husbands and fathers as they understood that they had now gained a new position of power. As many women became the bread-winners they held financial power over their male counterparts and even though few overtly exploited this power-shift many appreciated the change in the gender power-paradigm. Furthermore women became recognised as the dominant and more reliable sex with sustenance and the money dole being placed under their responsibility (it was feared that men would use it on alcohol or to gamble). Even gender power-dynamics changed amongst the wealthier classes with bank accounts and house deeds being placed in the wives' names in order to avoid the loss of savings and homes if husbands went bankrupt (McCalman).
However women also faced much mental stress during the Great Depression with Dr Brendan Ryan observing that while some mothers became consumed with despair and neglected their "household duties" others suffered from "obsessional neurosis" and rigidly maintained an immaculate house no matter how bare it became (McCalman).
Grimshaw et al adds that women deeply feared getting pregnant as they had no means of providing for a large family - also known as "the wife's fear". Many women died getting backyard abortions. Furthermore tensions rose in married relationships as wives who did not have contraception would practice abstinence.
Humiliation of being Unemployed
The "respectable" saw their unemployment as an injustice - they were willing to work but simply could not secure stable employment. Isabel notes of her uncle, "I remember once he cried and said, this is bloody degrading to think a man's willing to work and can't get it". Isabel herself found it "agony" to go up to the Town Hall for handouts (McCalman).
According to Grimshaw et al one group of men pleaded with the prime minister for as they were traumatised by the "inferiority complex" and the demoralisation of receiving the dole.
The "respectable" at first were ashamed to accept charity and even sustenance (McCalman).
Families had no alternative but to sell all their possessions, piece by piece, to get them through the week (McCalman).
Immigrants
- In many ways Australians became more isolationist, individualistic and to some extent xenophobic. During the Depression anyone considered to be an "outsider" was treated with animosity as they were perceived as a threat. "Outsiders" could be European immigrants or Australians with non-British European heritage, Aborigines, and the small minority of non-white immigrants. Even newly arrived British immigrants were sometimes unwelcomed (Mirams et al).
- Unions accused southern Europeans of taking Australian jobs and as many were used as "scabs" (replacement workers) during strikes (Mirams et al).
- Over 30,000 British migrants returned home between 1930-1936.
- Organisations were formed pressuring workplaces and councils to only use "Australian" labour and to directly exclude European immigrants, mostly Italians and Maltese. In Queensland cane-cutter bosses negotiated a union agreement that promised to employ 75% British cane-cutters.
- In Kalgoorlie a pub-fight resulted in an Italian man killing an Anglo-Australian which resulted in a full-blown riot between British Australians and those of Italian, Greek and Yugoslav descent. Many businesses with "foreign sounding" names were looted and burnt to the ground. The British Australians then went on strike demanding all "unnaturalised" workers to be expelled (Mirams et al).
- "Swaggies" who took to the rails and travelled the bush were in many regards seen as foreigners and were treated with animosity and distrust. Many also saw them as competitors for jobs and the susso.
Aborigines
- Aborigines' rations were half that of white Australians.
- In NSW Aborigines could not get the dole unless they were able to prove to a local police representative that they worked full-time in a 'white man's job'.
- Half-caste children were taken away from Aboriginal mothers to be assimilated into white society was formalised and would become what we now know as the Stolen Generation.
- Protection Boards took more control over Aborigines as they became more vulnerable to the effects of the Depression. More Aborigines were forced to return or move to reserves.
- January 26, 1938 the Day of Mourning as counter-demonstration to the 150 year celebrations of white settlement in Australia by the Aborigines Progressive Movement.
Survival
Joe Grant - "If you didn't take it, someone else would" (McCalman).
"Cheating and petty theft were essential for survival, lurks and scheming an absorbing daily challenge." (McCalman).
"People were forced to beg, to steal, to sell from door to door, to live on charity and rations." (Grimshaw et al).
Politics
"Politics was not there to change life, it was just about 'teams'" (McCalman).
According to Joe Grant Richmondites were Labor; to support the others made you a 'bloody snob'" (McCalman).
"The Depression only succeeded in radicalising people when the critique fell on already fertile ground" (McCalman).
So-called 'working class conservatives' did not expect anything from their political team nor did they blame them for the Depression. It was in their political ideology that they claimed a "social superiority" as being "above and apart from the scum all around him". Subsequently politics was more an aspect of identity rather than adopting a political perspective based on rational and critical interpretation of their world-view (McCalman).
People like Joe Grant, a lifelong Labor supporter, did not blame the government nor the system for the ills of the Depression, as "governments don't make Depressions". According to him it was the fault of "greedy men" (McCalman).
Communism and the Unemployed Workers Movement
The Communist Party of Australia and other radical leftist groups campaigned and argued for the capitalist system that brought on the Depression to be smashed and replaced by a socialist/communist utopia based along the same lines as the Soviet Union in Russia (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR).
This would mean the appropriation of all businesses as they would be run by the government and that all services and goods would be provided by the government. It would also mean the end to religious practice, the freedom to choose goods and even to vote for different political parties. They believed that the conservative parties and the Labor party were tools of the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and that all economic plans were implemented only to exploit and repress workers.
During the Depression they gained much more support swelling from just 300 to under 3000 members however this still represented a very small minority (they continued to poll below 1 percent in elections).
However the CPA and other radical groups were dedicated political operators and campaigners. The CPA were instrumental in the Unemployed Workers Movement and their campaign efforts led to it gaining 30,000 supporters.
Furthermore CPA's political work in the union movement provided the opportunity to gain leading positions which led to many unions becoming more radical and militant in their organising. While in the Labor party many caucus members were sympathetic to the arguments of radical and even communist arguments causing many Labor leaders headaches as they tried to moderate their growing radicalism. Scullin, Theodore and Lang confessed to have struggle to contain some of the more radical caucus decisions. Scullin and Theodore struggled with the national caucus' decision to repudiate loans from British bond-holders while Lang opposed NSW caucus' decision for a "Soviet style five-year plan" as "capitalism had failed the workers" (Clark).
Furthermore Hirst argues that due to the CPA being an organisation well-known for being "cunning and unscrupulous" the fact that it is small is irrelevant if they are able to take control of the leading institutions of the country which was the greatest fear of reactionary conservative groups like the New Guard.
The New Guard
The New Guard was a political organisation with a para-military organising principle. It's ideology was a mix of conservatism and fascism in that it campaigned and literally fought for the maintenance (and in some aspects a return) of "Old Australia" (Clark).
They were defending Australia's British identity and Christian moral compass against Communism (and its various incarnations notably including Jack Lang), Jewish business-power and the declining morality of Australian society. It was led by Eric Campbell, a veteran of World War I and a number of leading businessmen who were also former-AIF (Australian Imperial Forces).
The recruited men were like-minded (many of whom were also WWI veterans) and organised them along military lines based on the physical and intellectual abilities under the leadership of divisional and zone commanders. The New Guard had access to a substantial cache of weapons and many members secretly carried small hand-guns in public. The would drill and make preparations for what they thought to be the very likelihood of a future communist coup to takeover Australia (Mirams et al).
The New Guard were notorious in violently breaking up meetings of unionists, radical organisations like the Wobblies, unemployment groups and especially communist groups. The New Guard also took to the streets to fight any leftists who challenged their conservative notions of Australia. Many times the New Guard had the secret-support of police (through non-intervention) when they would bust into peaceful meetings in their relentless search for communists (Macintyre).
The New Guard created a climate of fear amongst the leftists as they were concerned for their safety from gun-totting New Guardsmen but amongst the general public the New Guard represented and encouraged as sense of paranoia and hysteria over the imagined impending wave of communist revolution that was apparently going to tear Australia asunder.
There was one particular night in March 1931 when country Victoria New Guardsmen dug trenches and fortified their towns as they heard rumours that Sydney had been taken over by communists and they were marching onto Melbourne.
Apart from communists the New Guard's main target was Jack Lang who they considered to be a communist agent and many were convinced that Lang was secretly plotting a communist revolution. Their greatest public victory came when one of their members charged down on their horse and cut the ribbon to the opening of the Habour Bridge, an honour originally planned for Premier Lang. Once Lang was dismissed from government and Australia began to recovery from the Depression the New Guard lost momentum and members. The organisation split in the late 1930s when Eric Campbell pushed to openly support Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party (Mirams et al).
The Group of Six
A group of leading businessmen from Melbourne who were influential in encouraging Joseph Lyons to led a conservative revolt against the Labor party in parliament and to form an opposition party. They gained more support from other leading businessmen, media-owners like Keith Murdoch and politicians like Robert Menzies in pushing to form a conservative coalition (firstly the All for Australia League and then the United Australia party) that could topple the Scullin government and implement economic policies that would be more favourable towards big business in Australia (Clark).
Dole, Susso and Relief Schemes
If you owned your home, you were not eligible for a money dole (McCalman).
To the respectable unemployed it seemed that all the help was going to the 'no-hopers' (McCalman).
Entertainment
Paid entertainment was hit by the slump (McCalman).
Football was still popular with huge crowds coming to watch legends like in Richmond matches featuring Captain Blood. However football was regularly interrupted by youths who would rush the field (McCalman).
Other sports that were popular were cricket and horse racing. Huge crowds were go to watch Don Bradman play test cricket around the country while the controversial 'Bodyline series' brought out passionate animosity towards England who used their bowlers to attack batsman's body and head. Despite Australians being outraged from the unsportsman-like behaviour England persevered and eventually won the Ashes. It has been suggested that the anger over the tactics of the English cricket team overflowed into international politics cooling relations between Australia and the mother-England (Stradher; Mirams et al).
Another sporting spectacle that people enjoyed watching was horse racing especially the all-conquering Phar Lap who won the Melbourne Cup and two Cox Plates. Phar Lap's death led to great controversy with a full autopsy suggesting poisoning (Stradher).
Dances were still popular and even though many could not afford they found ways of gaining entry - sneaking in late, becoming friendly with the door-staff or even simply finding alternatives to the front entrance (Potts).
Hoyts chain of cinemas, live theatre and Luna Park recorded huge profit losses (Mirams et al).
Class
- Unskilled workers were the most vulnerable to the Depression as the suffered the greatest job losses like in the steel and construction industries (Grimshaw et al).
- Many other industries were also affected as a knock-on effect.
- Middle-class jobs in the corporate and banking sector were also reduced where between 10-20 percent of job losses took place (Clark).
- Most wages in working and middle-class jobs were reduced by around 20 percent (Mirams et al).
- Women were paid wages half that of men (sometimes more). Women's jobs were more stable compared to men (Grimshaw et al).
- However people in steady in employment like teachers, government workers or even in those industries that increased during the Depression like the car repair industry (Repco is the best example) they were able to live a relatively comfortable life (McCalman).
- However many still lived in fear of future job losses (McCalman).
- Many people from the wealthier classes did quite well as their savings appreciated in real terms due to reduced consumer prices. Many of the wealthy maintained stable employment so during this time they extended their life of privilege through investing in renovations including a fashion trend of building garages (Cottles). Notably Sidney Myer was oblivious to the conditions of the Depression.
Female and Male Spaces
The streets were essentially a "feminine community" whereas men were "bonded through the pubs and at work". The street community "saved the sanity" of these many newly-wed, new-mothers who felt a sense of helplessness while the husbands were out seeking work or entertaining themselves at pubs or gambling (McCalman).
The benefits of this female community were also material - women would share cleaning materials for washing clothes and cleaning their homes, the same could be said of food. According to McCalman none of her Richmond interviewees talked of going hungry.
Women were not always cordial with each other. Female feuds were common in the cases in the Richmond Court (McCalman).
Men also engaged in various arguments that occasionally escalated to unnecessary violence. McCalman attributes this to the "underlying stress" from poverty, long-term unemployment and insecure work.
Many husbands felt "emasculated" and lacked purpose in their "diminished" role as unemployed and inept providers for their family (McCalman; Grimshaw et al).
According to Grimshaw et al men endured the "humiliation of idleness" compared to women who "worked harder than ever" to be both bread-winners fulfill their family duties.
While conversely women appeared to maintain their role as "housewife" and "mother" despite their increased responsibilities as breadwinner. Many women were able to keep their jobs during the Depression or were more likely to gain stable employment. Much work undertaken by women were in areas that men would avoid (domestic servitude, office-work, food, textiles, drink and clothing) and many employers preferred women as they could pay wages half that of men and women were traditionally more "passive" (less likely to be in a union or to demand improved wages or conditions) (McCalman; Mirams et al).
Despite many men now spending more time at home they rarely helped with the domestic cleaning, cooking of meals or the care of children. Furthermore it was still socially acceptable to enjoy their free time socialising with friends, going to the pub and gambling. At home men attempted to reaffirm their patriarchal role through taking authority over the female and younger members of the family (McCalman; Mirams et al). According to McCalman many women understood this situation and tolerated their husbands and fathers' desperate attempts to maintain their position of power.
However McCalman argues that this tolerance of patriarchy in the home had an element of "condescension" towards their husbands and fathers as they understood that they had now gained a new position of power. As many women became the bread-winners they held financial power over their male counterparts and even though few overtly exploited this power-shift many appreciated the change in the gender power-paradigm. Furthermore women became recognised as the dominant and more reliable sex with sustenance and the money dole being placed under their responsibility (it was feared that men would use it on alcohol or to gamble). Even gender power-dynamics changed amongst the wealthier classes with bank accounts and house deeds being placed in the wives' names in order to avoid the loss of savings and homes if husbands went bankrupt (McCalman).
However women also faced much mental stress during the Great Depression with Dr Brendan Ryan observing that while some mothers became consumed with despair and neglected their "household duties" others suffered from "obsessional neurosis" and rigidly maintained an immaculate house no matter how bare it became (McCalman).
Grimshaw et al adds that women deeply feared getting pregnant as they had no means of providing for a large family - also known as "the wife's fear". Many women died getting backyard abortions. Furthermore tensions rose in married relationships as wives who did not have contraception would practice abstinence.
Humiliation of being Unemployed
The "respectable" saw their unemployment as an injustice - they were willing to work but simply could not secure stable employment. Isabel notes of her uncle, "I remember once he cried and said, this is bloody degrading to think a man's willing to work and can't get it". Isabel herself found it "agony" to go up to the Town Hall for handouts (McCalman).
According to Grimshaw et al one group of men pleaded with the prime minister for as they were traumatised by the "inferiority complex" and the demoralisation of receiving the dole.
The "respectable" at first were ashamed to accept charity and even sustenance (McCalman).
Families had no alternative but to sell all their possessions, piece by piece, to get them through the week (McCalman).
Immigrants
- In many ways Australians became more isolationist, individualistic and to some extent xenophobic. During the Depression anyone considered to be an "outsider" was treated with animosity as they were perceived as a threat. "Outsiders" could be European immigrants or Australians with non-British European heritage, Aborigines, and the small minority of non-white immigrants. Even newly arrived British immigrants were sometimes unwelcomed (Mirams et al).
- Unions accused southern Europeans of taking Australian jobs and as many were used as "scabs" (replacement workers) during strikes (Mirams et al).
- Over 30,000 British migrants returned home between 1930-1936.
- Organisations were formed pressuring workplaces and councils to only use "Australian" labour and to directly exclude European immigrants, mostly Italians and Maltese. In Queensland cane-cutter bosses negotiated a union agreement that promised to employ 75% British cane-cutters.
- In Kalgoorlie a pub-fight resulted in an Italian man killing an Anglo-Australian which resulted in a full-blown riot between British Australians and those of Italian, Greek and Yugoslav descent. Many businesses with "foreign sounding" names were looted and burnt to the ground. The British Australians then went on strike demanding all "unnaturalised" workers to be expelled (Mirams et al).
- "Swaggies" who took to the rails and travelled the bush were in many regards seen as foreigners and were treated with animosity and distrust. Many also saw them as competitors for jobs and the susso.
Aborigines
- Aborigines' rations were half that of white Australians.
- In NSW Aborigines could not get the dole unless they were able to prove to a local police representative that they worked full-time in a 'white man's job'.
- Half-caste children were taken away from Aboriginal mothers to be assimilated into white society was formalised and would become what we now know as the Stolen Generation.
- Protection Boards took more control over Aborigines as they became more vulnerable to the effects of the Depression. More Aborigines were forced to return or move to reserves.
- January 26, 1938 the Day of Mourning as counter-demonstration to the 150 year celebrations of white settlement in Australia by the Aborigines Progressive Movement.
Survival
Joe Grant - "If you didn't take it, someone else would" (McCalman).
"Cheating and petty theft were essential for survival, lurks and scheming an absorbing daily challenge." (McCalman).
"People were forced to beg, to steal, to sell from door to door, to live on charity and rations." (Grimshaw et al).
Politics
"Politics was not there to change life, it was just about 'teams'" (McCalman).
According to Joe Grant Richmondites were Labor; to support the others made you a 'bloody snob'" (McCalman).
"The Depression only succeeded in radicalising people when the critique fell on already fertile ground" (McCalman).
So-called 'working class conservatives' did not expect anything from their political team nor did they blame them for the Depression. It was in their political ideology that they claimed a "social superiority" as being "above and apart from the scum all around him". Subsequently politics was more an aspect of identity rather than adopting a political perspective based on rational and critical interpretation of their world-view (McCalman).
People like Joe Grant, a lifelong Labor supporter, did not blame the government nor the system for the ills of the Depression, as "governments don't make Depressions". According to him it was the fault of "greedy men" (McCalman).
Communism and the Unemployed Workers Movement
The Communist Party of Australia and other radical leftist groups campaigned and argued for the capitalist system that brought on the Depression to be smashed and replaced by a socialist/communist utopia based along the same lines as the Soviet Union in Russia (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR).
This would mean the appropriation of all businesses as they would be run by the government and that all services and goods would be provided by the government. It would also mean the end to religious practice, the freedom to choose goods and even to vote for different political parties. They believed that the conservative parties and the Labor party were tools of the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and that all economic plans were implemented only to exploit and repress workers.
During the Depression they gained much more support swelling from just 300 to under 3000 members however this still represented a very small minority (they continued to poll below 1 percent in elections).
However the CPA and other radical groups were dedicated political operators and campaigners. The CPA were instrumental in the Unemployed Workers Movement and their campaign efforts led to it gaining 30,000 supporters.
Furthermore CPA's political work in the union movement provided the opportunity to gain leading positions which led to many unions becoming more radical and militant in their organising. While in the Labor party many caucus members were sympathetic to the arguments of radical and even communist arguments causing many Labor leaders headaches as they tried to moderate their growing radicalism. Scullin, Theodore and Lang confessed to have struggle to contain some of the more radical caucus decisions. Scullin and Theodore struggled with the national caucus' decision to repudiate loans from British bond-holders while Lang opposed NSW caucus' decision for a "Soviet style five-year plan" as "capitalism had failed the workers" (Clark).
Furthermore Hirst argues that due to the CPA being an organisation well-known for being "cunning and unscrupulous" the fact that it is small is irrelevant if they are able to take control of the leading institutions of the country which was the greatest fear of reactionary conservative groups like the New Guard.
The New Guard
The New Guard was a political organisation with a para-military organising principle. It's ideology was a mix of conservatism and fascism in that it campaigned and literally fought for the maintenance (and in some aspects a return) of "Old Australia" (Clark).
They were defending Australia's British identity and Christian moral compass against Communism (and its various incarnations notably including Jack Lang), Jewish business-power and the declining morality of Australian society. It was led by Eric Campbell, a veteran of World War I and a number of leading businessmen who were also former-AIF (Australian Imperial Forces).
The recruited men were like-minded (many of whom were also WWI veterans) and organised them along military lines based on the physical and intellectual abilities under the leadership of divisional and zone commanders. The New Guard had access to a substantial cache of weapons and many members secretly carried small hand-guns in public. The would drill and make preparations for what they thought to be the very likelihood of a future communist coup to takeover Australia (Mirams et al).
The New Guard were notorious in violently breaking up meetings of unionists, radical organisations like the Wobblies, unemployment groups and especially communist groups. The New Guard also took to the streets to fight any leftists who challenged their conservative notions of Australia. Many times the New Guard had the secret-support of police (through non-intervention) when they would bust into peaceful meetings in their relentless search for communists (Macintyre).
The New Guard created a climate of fear amongst the leftists as they were concerned for their safety from gun-totting New Guardsmen but amongst the general public the New Guard represented and encouraged as sense of paranoia and hysteria over the imagined impending wave of communist revolution that was apparently going to tear Australia asunder.
There was one particular night in March 1931 when country Victoria New Guardsmen dug trenches and fortified their towns as they heard rumours that Sydney had been taken over by communists and they were marching onto Melbourne.
Apart from communists the New Guard's main target was Jack Lang who they considered to be a communist agent and many were convinced that Lang was secretly plotting a communist revolution. Their greatest public victory came when one of their members charged down on their horse and cut the ribbon to the opening of the Habour Bridge, an honour originally planned for Premier Lang. Once Lang was dismissed from government and Australia began to recovery from the Depression the New Guard lost momentum and members. The organisation split in the late 1930s when Eric Campbell pushed to openly support Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party (Mirams et al).
The Group of Six
A group of leading businessmen from Melbourne who were influential in encouraging Joseph Lyons to led a conservative revolt against the Labor party in parliament and to form an opposition party. They gained more support from other leading businessmen, media-owners like Keith Murdoch and politicians like Robert Menzies in pushing to form a conservative coalition (firstly the All for Australia League and then the United Australia party) that could topple the Scullin government and implement economic policies that would be more favourable towards big business in Australia (Clark).
Dole, Susso and Relief Schemes
If you owned your home, you were not eligible for a money dole (McCalman).
To the respectable unemployed it seemed that all the help was going to the 'no-hopers' (McCalman).
Entertainment
Paid entertainment was hit by the slump (McCalman).
Football was still popular with huge crowds coming to watch legends like in Richmond matches featuring Captain Blood. However football was regularly interrupted by youths who would rush the field (McCalman).
Other sports that were popular were cricket and horse racing. Huge crowds were go to watch Don Bradman play test cricket around the country while the controversial 'Bodyline series' brought out passionate animosity towards England who used their bowlers to attack batsman's body and head. Despite Australians being outraged from the unsportsman-like behaviour England persevered and eventually won the Ashes. It has been suggested that the anger over the tactics of the English cricket team overflowed into international politics cooling relations between Australia and the mother-England (Stradher; Mirams et al).
Another sporting spectacle that people enjoyed watching was horse racing especially the all-conquering Phar Lap who won the Melbourne Cup and two Cox Plates. Phar Lap's death led to great controversy with a full autopsy suggesting poisoning (Stradher).
Dances were still popular and even though many could not afford they found ways of gaining entry - sneaking in late, becoming friendly with the door-staff or even simply finding alternatives to the front entrance (Potts).
Hoyts chain of cinemas, live theatre and Luna Park recorded huge profit losses (Mirams et al).
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