Communication During War - recieving news about the war

On Sunday 3 September 1939 at 9:15 pm, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced on radio that Australia was at war with Germany. 

Radio was an important means of communication allowing people in Australia to keep up to date with news about the war.

A radio made in Australia 1940-1946 (Powerhouse Museum)

Members of the public also relied on newspapers for information about the war. War correspondents were allowed to send information about the way back to Australia provided that the information was not classified.

In Melbourne there were three daily morning newspapers - The Argus, The Age and The Sun News Pictorial. In the evening The Herald provided updates on the news. These newspapers were published six days a week. As well as stories about the war a casualty list was published in the newspapers.

Country newspapers also published news about the war, especially when it concerned members of the local community. 

War photographers also took photographs of people and events during the war. A well known Australian  war photographer was Damien Parer. He was the first Australian official photographer during the Second World War. Damien Parer initially worked as a war photographer in the Middle East before covering the war in the pacific. He was killed by Japanese machine gun fire in 1944.

Damien Parer with his camera [AWM]

Some of the soldiers also had small film cameras allowing them to photograph their new environment, especially when they were off duty visiting the sights in Egypt or Palestine.

Many of the soldiers also kept diaries. When battalion histories were later written the information that the soldiers had collected formed an important part of the published work.

Charles Bean was a well known war correspondent during World War I. He later wrote the Official History of Australia in the War 1914-1918 (12 volumes).

Magazines such as The Australian Women's Weekly also often included articles and pictures about the war. They also had special correspondents who went overseas to collect stories of interest to wives and mothers of soldiers at home. One article in the 24 February 1940 issue described the scene as the ships filled with Australian soldiers left for overseas.  A story in the issue dated October 26 1940 was based on interviews with Australian soldiers on leave in Cairo, visiting the zoo, going to the races, and general sights.

Sometimes the military needed to communicate directly with next of kin of those serving overseas. Telegrams were the quickest way for the military to do this. When a telegram boy or a postman approached a house with a telegram there was an immediate natural fear that it might contain bad news informing them that a close family member was a casualty of war - that the family member had died, was injured or was a prisoner of war. Neighbours in the street would anxiously watch hoping that the postman did not stop at their door. The military officer who sent the telegram would ensure that a follow up letter with more detailed information was sent.

But telegrams could also convey good news such as the one above where a soldier is informing his mother that he is on his way home. The ship has arrived in Perth and he will soon be in Sydney.