WHEN the first world war ended in 1918, people thought their lives could only get better. They built houses, bought new cars, and lived well. But by October 1929, when America’s Wall Street money market failed, the good times were already coming to an end. The Wall Street crash was the official start of what was later called ‘the Great Depression’. People lost their jobs, shops and businesses closed, and millions all around the world were plunged into poverty.

Australia’s economy was greatly affected by what was happening in other countries. It was made even worse by low prices for wool and wheat, and by drought. By 1932 one in three of all working Australians were unemployed. Men often left home to look for work, moving from place to place, sleeping rough. In poorer families children left school at the age of 13 or14 to take up low-paid jobs. Government ration cards allowed unemployed people to buy basic foods like tea, sugar, rice and oatmeal, and some also worked for a small amount of sustenance money known as the ‘susso’ or the ‘dole’.

South Australia suffered more than the other states. Most jobs in Adelaide were in industry or the building trades, and these were the areas worst hit. In the mid-1920s about3000 new homes were being built each year: by 1931 this number had dropped to 50.

Australians often couldn’t afford things like new clothes, and sometimes they didn’t have enough to eat. Many people who lived through those years remained careful with food and money for the rest of their lives.