Between The Wars
The soldiers returning from the war in Europe brought with them the "Spanish flu" epidemic that was sweeping the world, for a while bringing the town to a standstill. Some of the area around Wagga Wagga was designated for settlement by returned soldiers, who faced insurmountable difficulties due to poor and unwatered land, lack of farming experience and lack of access to markets. Many walked off the land after years of backbreaking work. After some controversy, the Victory Memorial Gardens were established in 1927 by Wollundry Lagoon to honour those who served.
Throughout the 1920s the NSW State Government improved both the road and rail links in the region. Wagga Wagga was part of a new telephone link between Melbourne and Sydney and a new Post and Telegraph office was constructed to house the repeating centre, one of the largest in regional Australia. Residential growth continued with a population in 1921 of 11,631. Much of this residential growth was housed in the higher ground to the south, extending to the south of the railway tracks. A suburb consisting of tents and crude huts, known as "Tent Town", developed along the river providing housing for the poorer residents of Wagga Wagga. In 1922, electricity was provided for the town, with hydro-electric power available from Burrinjuck Dam from 1928.
The Great Depression had a marked effect on the economic, social and political life of Wagga Wagga. A range of unemployment relief schemes operated in the town, mainly improving public works, however poverty was widespread and "Tent Town" quickly became overcrowded as tenants were unable to afford rental accommodation. The depression, and the election of Jack Lang of the Labor as New South Wales premier, sparked the formation of the "Riverina Movement". Throughout the Riverina in early 1931, a series of rallies were organised by the movement, culminating in a great meeting in Wagga Wagga on 28 February 1931. The meeting called on the State and Federal governments to alleviate the concerns of producers in the district or hold a referendum to determine if the Riverina should secede. The movement petered out following the dismissal of Lang in 1932 and the recovery of the regional economy
Read more about this topic: History Of Wagga Wagga
Famous quotes containing the word wars:
“The grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island. In this cry of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and seas.”
—J.M. (John Millington)