Our Brisbane History

Pic: Flyer advertising a special meeting of the Brisbane Women's Peace Army c. 1916 with special guest speaker Adela Pankhurst, a leading anti-war campaigner during World War I. Meetings were often controversial as the Women's Peace Army projected a militant and radical image along with a socialist ideology.

A Nation Divided

The Conscription Issue

In 1916 the Great War had been under way for two years and Australian troops had been directly involved since 1915. Allied troops had sustained massive casualties at both the Somme and Ypres. When Prime Minister Billy Hughes visited London in 1916, he became convinced that, unless conscription was introduced, Australia would not be able to raise the number of troops required to support the Imperial war effort.

In Australia the debate on conscription raged acrimoniously. It polarized the community along class, religious and political lines. Hughes was convinced that conscription legislation would be defeated in the Senate. He therefore submitted the question to a referendum. This occurred in October 1916 and was narrowly defeated, with three states including Queensland voting against it. Despite this rejection, Hughes held a second referendum on the conscription issue in December 1917. It was again defeated, with four states this time voting 'No'.

In Brisbane there were a number of violent street clashes between pro- and anti-conscriptionists. On 8 October 1916 a group of between 50 and 100 uninformed men entered the Domain to disrupt an anti-conscription rally attended by 2,000 people. During the melee one of the military pickets, Lieutenant Mackay, was shot by an unknown assailant. Both sides blamed the other for the assault. The anti-conscription forces then established their own vigilance body called the Labour Volunteer Army, to prevent the disruption of further gatherings. These street conflicts were the most obvious example of the great polarization which conscription had created in the community.

The Queensland Premier, T.J. Ryan, was totally opposed to conscription and this brought him into conflict with Prime Minister Hughes. In 1917 Ryan gave a strongly worded anti-conscription speech. At the direction of the Prime Minister, the Commonwealth Censor prevented the Brisbane Courier from reporting the speech. To counter this, Ryan repeated his speech in Parliament with the purpose of having it printed in Hansard. The censor attempted to thwart Ryan's plan by descending on the Hansard. Undaunted, Ryan had a special copy of the Government Gazette printed detailing the correspondence which had led to the raid. Fifty thousand copies of the Gazette were distributed.