History of New South Wales - Post World War Two

Post World War Two

The postwar years, however, saw renewed industrial conflict, culminating in the 1949 coal strike, largely fomented by the Communist Party of Australia, which crippled the state's industry. This contributed to the defeat of the Chifley government at the 1949 elections and the beginning of the long rule at a Federal level of Robert Menzies, a politician from Victoria, of the newly founded Liberal Party of Australia. The postwar years also saw massive immigration to Australia, begun by Chifley's Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell, and continued under the Liberals. Sydney, hitherto an almost entirely British and Irish city by origin (apart from a small Chinese community), became increasingly multi-cultural, with many immigrants from Italy, Greece, Malta and eastern Europe (including many Jews), and later from Lebanon and Vietnam, permanently changing its character.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme began construction in the state's south. This hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in the Snowy Mountains called for the construction of sixteen major dams and seven power stations between 1949 and 1974. It remains the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia and necessitated the employment of 100,000 people from over 30 countries. Socially this project symbolises a period during which Australia became an ethnic "melting pot" of the twentieth century but which also changed Australia's character and increased its appreciation for a wide range of cultural diversity. The Scheme built several temporary towns for its construction workers, several of which have become permanent: notably Cabramurra, which became highest town in Australia. The sleepy rural town of Cooma became a bustling construction economy, while small rural townships like Adaminaby and Jindabyne had to make way for the construction of Lakes Eucumbene and Jindabyne. Improved vehicular access to the High Country enabled ski-resort villages to be constructed at Thredbo and Guthega in the 1950s by ex-Snowy Scheme workers who realised the potential for expansion of Skiing in Australia.

Labor remained in power in New South Wales until 1965 when the Liberal Party led by Robert Askin won government.