Victor Yang

A QUESTION OF LOYALTY

AUSTRALIA DURING WORLD WAR I

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE NSW RAILWAYS & TRAMWAYS

My project is an attempt to try and fit a single series of primary documents into a broader history and provoke the reader into interpreting them in terms of historical themes and disputes.

The project is a website. I have tried to use the design to set out a broad thematic approach to the period in question (1914-1918). It is divided in a fairly traditional manner, beginning with introductory outlines and proceeding to a brief history to place the primary documents exhibition in.

This project is still being finalised. All the relevant circulars have been sorted, converted and placed into the website. What remains, however, is the accompanying text for those circular slideshows, concluding remarks, and an extensive source list. I hope to complete this all in the coming weeks. This is why the project is currently password protected though published.

Further, the website was put together through www.wix.com, and for now has a free domain name. A standalone domain name would require a subscription which may be considered upon completion.

There are some aspects of the work that raise some concern. The interests of concision are at times outweighed with the necessity of more detailed argument. The focus on the textual history has, unfortunately, left the exhibition-ness of the website format perhaps underexplored. This is a product of time constraints and the focus of the website on one particular document series – extensively archived as it was.

Argument

The argument I adopt in this project is, I think, rather clearly set out. It challenges a history of the nation and its people that is said to have blossomed through the participation in a foreign war.

I wanted to contrast the ideals of those who worked and fought in the war against the disputes that occurred during it. The Great Strike of 1917, sparked at the Eveleigh carriage works, is what I therefore thought to be a very useful event to centre these themes around.

Ultimately my argument suggests that those notions of egalitarianism, mateship, and ‘a fair go’, universal as they are, were at loggerheads with the administration of the nation and its industry – a point all the more apparent during the war.

The industrial disputes that gripped the nation and the response to them in terms of loyalty and patriotism are one of the key themes that I wished to draw out through the project.

Evidence

There are a number of secondary sources that I have relied upon. I was hoping to include these in the project itself but have not yet. These are mostly scholarly journals and books regarding the development of the railways and the railways unions. However, I also reference and link to another online project by Transport Heritage NSW.

One historian I have yet made use of is Lucy Taksa. Her work on the 1917 strike is very important and interesting. While not heavily, I would like to include her research about the social protest nature of the strike (in light of the state failing to hold up its end of the social contract), as well as the relationship of early twentieth century managerialism and the strike.

My primary documents are the CME circulars from the period, as collected and digitised by the Australian Railways Historical Society (NSW branch).

Throughout the text I have tried to make reference to the historians whose work I have used. I have tried to do this without making the text too cumbersome.

I have used a few, though not many, images throughout the website. The main background image is an image of a corned-beef line during the 1917 strike.

Need

I see the importance of this project is that it allows for a critical evaluation of the Australian identity as founded in the Anzac tradition. No doubt, the topicality of the subject is an important aspect for encouraging critical reflection about the meaning of Australia’s history and its relationship to war and the Anzac idea.

It attempts to bring forward primary documents that, with the help of context, allow the reader to see some of the otherwise latent conflicts held within that national identity.

By providing scores of primary documents and some historical context, sorted thematically, this also allows the reader to appreciate the interpretation of such documents to better appreciate the past.

Also, the project arranges and exhibits these circulars that have been painstakingly digitised. Readers can see the ideas and processes that link them, and ponder their relationship to the deeper issues raised. They can also hopefully appreciate the effort that goes into making that possible.

— VICTOR YANG