Welcome to this Soundtrail from the Australian Living Peace Museum. Over the course of this walk, you’ll hear about Australians who opposed conscription during the First World War. The Perth Anti-Conscription History Walk focuses on individuals in Perth, WA, who made known their opposition to conscription in the lead up to the 1916 and 1917 conscription plebiscites (called referendums, at the time).
Along the way you’ll visit five Perth sites that tell the remarkable story of how these very different people opposed the introduction of conscription for overseas military service during World War I. Their determined opposition to the 1916 and 1917 conscription plebiscites led to a slim majority of Australians opposing the Federal government’s desire to introduce compulsory overseas military service – an historic victory for the Australian peace movement.
Your guide, Stuart Reid, will explain who was involved, what they did, and the consequences they experienced.
Credits & Contributors
Voices
- Narrator: Stuart Reid
- News Reader/Le Mesurier: Ingle Knight
- Lilian Foxcroft/Adela Pankhurst: Julia Moody
- John Curtin: Geoff Kelso
- Script by Dr Bobbie Oliver
- Produced by Alexandra Pierce
- Recorded in the Creative Space, The University of Western Australia, with the assistance of Dr Ryan Lopez and Stuart Reid.
Image credits
- Perth Trades Hall (Bobbie Oliver)
- Staff outside the Westralian Worker office, John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, (JCPML00379-1)
- Portrait of John Curtin as a young man, The National Library of Australia, MA1068555256-john-curtin-1200h)
- “Esplanade Meeting”, Daily News, 2 October 1916.
- Cartoon: “Liberal Lurk to Leg-Iron Labor”, Truth, 9 September 1916 (Courtesy of the State Library of Western Australia
- Weld Club (Bobbie Oliver)
- Portrait of Adela Pankhurst, Mary Evans Picture Library Accession no 10810170.
- Conscription banners at the Perth Town Hall, West Australian Newspapers Ltd.