Politics > Pyrmont at War > World War II
World War II
Ferocious wars were under way in Spain and China, but the Australian Government was formally at war against the Axis powers only from 1939, and against Japan from 1942 after Pearl Harbor. These were quite separate theatres. Thousands of troops embarked for the Middle East, through the ultra-modern Jones Bay Wharf. When the Pacific War erupted, the situation became much more complicated. Ships of the Royal Navy were destroyed, then British and Australian forces were captured in Malaya, and spent years as prisoners of war. General MacArthur took charge as American forces arrived and camped in and around Wentworth Park. They and Australian forces mustered and embarked through Jones Bay and Glebe Island.
Many Pyrmont recruits were (like Billy Young) impoverished and adventurous. Many of their names are recorded in the Pyrmont-Ultimo war memorial and elsewhere, but they joined many military and naval units, and it seems impossible to assemble their diverse experiences into a Pyrmont story.
It is easier to consider Pyrmont as a maritime strategic hub. Air transport was limited, so shipping was vital. Military supplies were shipped in immense quantities to troops fighting in New Guinea. A crisis soon developed on the wharves. Many men were recruited into the armed forces, creating a shortage of wharf labour. Army and Navy officers, acutely aware of the urgency of supplies, confronted waterside workers with long-standing grievances about the employment of non-union labour. Wharfies were politically alert and active, as they showed in boycotting pig iron exports to Japan before war broke out. They were not easily coerced! Fights broke out, especially when military officers directed soldiers to load supplies. The wharves were sometimes brought to a standstill, as in April 1943:
It is reported that because of a general shortage of waterside workers many vessels were idle and others only partly worked on the Sydney waterfront. Several hundred men again failed to present themselves for work. More watersiders were on the job on Wednesday than the day before, but they did not comprise more than half of the 4500 waterside workers registered. (Daily Commercial and Shipping Newslist, 30 April 1943)
Fortunately for the war effort, the federal government intervened, and negotiated a comprehensive agreement with the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF), bringing working conditions into the 20th century, abolishing the “bull system”, recognising the WWF – and resolving the impasse.
War ended in Europe (VE Day) and in East Asia (VJ Day). The armed forces were demobbed and surviving prisoners of war brought home. Many conflicts were unresolved - in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. These would demand the attention of Australians - and the newly created United Nations.
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