Soldier settlement
The report focused specifically on a federal-state cooperative process of selling or leasing Crown land to soldiers who had been demobilised following the end of their service in this first global conflict.
[3] Other than supporting soldiers and sailors that were returning from those wars the various governments also saw the opportunity of attracting both Australians and specific groups of allied service personnel to some of the otherwise little inhabited, remote areas of Australia.
Annie Smith, a returned nurse who began a dairy farm in Thorpdale, near Moe was repeatedly criticised by overseers from the Closer Settlement Board for having to hire labour to do some of the more difficult physical tasks.
The Board disregarded the fact that the plot she had been assigned had no water, and that Smith often obtained local labour for free, swapping nursing advice for one-off jobs.
Confounding the Board's assumption that her status as a single woman had rendered her unequal to the task, the two subsequent male owners of the property also failed to make the land profitable.
Soldiers who were successful in gaining such a block of land had the opportunity to start a farming life in a number of rural activities including as wool, dairy, cattle, pigs, fruit, fodder and grain.
Indeed, specifically following World War I, in some cases these new farmers, unable to cope with the climatic variances of Australia and lacking the capital to increase stock or quality of life, simply walked off the land back to the large towns and cities from whence they had come.
[11] The success of the program increased after World War II when the infrastructure required for these new farmers was improved as a direct result of learning from the mistakes that came during and after the first attempts at such settlement.
The South Australian government responded as early as 1915 with the first of the acts of parliament designed to both repatriate and compensate returning servicemen, and to meet the political and economic need to 'sponsor' the development of intensively productive agriculture pursuits.
Settlement schemes during and after the conclusion of World War I saw properties specialising in dairy, grapes, vegetables, grains, and grazing develop along the River in Cobdogla, Waikerie, Berri, Cadell, Chaffey and near Renmark.
Settlement schemes after World War II also led to the establishment of the new towns of Parndana on Kangaroo Island and Padthway in the south east of the state.
Irrigation schemes that eventually arrived saw the advent of the productive orchard and vineyard concerns that became so important to the overall region as it exists today.
New South Wales also repeated the process following World War II with settlements commencing in areas including Dareton.
In Western Australia, the War Service Land Settlement Scheme settled hundreds of soldiers, in the Wheatbelt and south west region.
