Adam Shoemaker

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for chapter 1 By 1930, in Australia, as in most other countries, the economy was in the grip of the Depression. The decade between the onset of the Depression and the beginning of the Second World War deepened the poverty of a minority group that was already, in 1929, at the bottom of the Australian economic ladder. During the period 1929 to 1945, certain conferences and pieces of federal and state legislation refl ected turning points in the black/white race relations of the Depression and war years. Some literary works are also representative of the same phenomenon. However these turning points resulted from the efforts of a small, enlightened, and progressive elite of individuals and were well received during the period only by like-minded Australians. The role of the Second World War as a catalyst for policy change is shown as being undeniably central.