Recovery 1915-17

For much of the 20th century, some 75 percent of Australia's export income depended on farm products. Widespread drought was therefore a serious, if not disastrous, matter. The terrible drought of 1914 impacted heavily on the Australian economy, and the effect was exacerbated by the cost of the war effort. For a decade exports had greatly exceeded imports, but in 1914 the scales tipped the other way. Added to these economic problems was the grimness of the war itself, which overshadowed the country for the next few years. Fortunately climate conditions - so often the cause of distress and hardship in Australia - on this occasion proved a saving grace.

Following the break of the 1914 drought over southeastern and southwestern Australia in autumn 1915, plentiful rain continued through winter and spring. These seasons were also milder than usual in Victoria, leading to excellent pasture and crop growth. The national wheat crop rebounded from a miserable 669,000 tonnes in 1914 to a record 4.8 million tonnes in 1915. At that time almost 90 percent of wheat was grown in the southeastern States, just 10 percent in southwestern Australia, and only a small amount in Queensland.

In 1916, rainfall was again plentiful through the growing season, though rather too much so in Victoria in late September when there was widespread flooding. Although the wheat yield for the Mallee and Wimmera was the highest known, Victoria's overall production was down on 1915, while the New South Wales crop was little more than half that of 1915. Fortunately in South Australia a record area planted led to a record crop, and the total for Australia was 4.1 million tonnes.

The 1917 growing season was again wet, particularly in South Australia and Western Australia, and there were floods in northeastern Victoria in June. A marked decline in the area planted in all States led to a smaller wheat crop of 3.1 million tonnes. However, sheep and cattle numbers were rising: sheep numbers rose from 69 million in 1915 to 87 million in 1918, and cattle from 9.9 million in 1915 to 12.7 million in 1918.

Overseas trade returned to the black from 1916-17, despite war-related distortion of trade figures (wool sales were dislocated, and overseas shipments of wheat were delayed due to the understandable shortage of shipping). Thus what could have been a disastrous situation was to some extent saved. Moreover, the favourable climate conditions of 1915-17 were to provide something of a bulwark against drought in the eastern states in 1918-20.