The Australian Women’s Land Army

The Australian Womens Land Army

While we pause to remember the contributions and suffering of all serving Australians and New Zealanders during war and conflict, we also acknowledge the contributions of those on the home front, particularly women.

This photo shows local Ida Daly (far right) and two other members of the Australia Women’s Land Army working in Queensland during 1942.

The Australian Women’s Land Army was formed during WWII to combat rising labour shortages in the farming sector. Men were leaving farms to join the armed forces, leaving a looming crisis in food production to feed Australia.

Women’s land armies were soon established, recruits had to be between 18 and 50 years of age and be British subjects or immigrants from Allied nations. These women were generally drawn from city areas and were often unskilled in rural work. This new form of labor was resisted by local farmers initially, however soon turned to praise when the hard-working women proved their worth on the land.

The average working week for an AWLA member was 48 hours, with pay starting at the AWLA minimum wage of 30 shillings a week. Women were paid much less than their male counterparts for the same work, which covered a variety of agricultural labors, such as vegetable and fruit growing, pig and poultry raising, and sheep and wool work.

There was a very good six episode TV series about the girls in UK.Everyone over the age of eighteen, had to do some sort of ‘warwork’.
My mum worked in a factory making windscreens for fighter planes, the women weren’t told what they were making.They found out only when the war was well over! The workroom was the cellar of a fully operational brewery.
The German bombers ,left it alone, they wouldn’t waste artillery on a factory that was apparently none threatening.