Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Enlistment poster

Enlistment poster

c1916
Printed ephemera
Published by WA Gullick, government printer, Sydney
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
F91/32

Despite the early rush to enlist, by 1916 the Australian military faced a critical shortage and the pressure on eligible men to enlist became enormous. Posters were an important element of government campaigns to persuade volunteers to sign up. With slogans such as, ‘Defend your homes, your women and your children’, ‘Don’t stand looking at this. Go and help’ and ‘Get into Khaki, your comrades at Gallipoli need you’, these posters directly targeted strong emotions and values: loyalty and national pride, patriotism, mateship and adventure, as well as guilt, fear and hatred of the enemy.

Along with newspaper editorials and much of the public debate, recruitment posters presented a highly simplified and polarised view of the issue: as put by the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘There are two classes of Australians in this war, those who go to it and those who stay behind.’*

The pressure around enlisting culminated in the Conscription referendums of October 1916 and December 1917 (both narrowly defeated), which are still considered the most bitter and divisive in Australia’s history.

Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Commonwealth government began recruiting volunteers into the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). This new volunteer force was needed as the Defence Act limited the regular armed forces to the home defence of Australia, which meant they could not be deployed overseas. 

At the beginning of the War, only men between the ages of 19 and 38 were accepted into the AIF. They had to be at least 5 foot 6 inches tall (168 cm) with chest measurements of at least 34 inches (86 cm). But due to dwindling numbers, standards were later revised and many men rejected in the first wave of enlistments were later accepted.

In 1917 the Sportsmen’s Recruiting Committee was formed to specifically target athletes as candidates for military service. 

With the defeat of the two conscription referendums, the AIF remained the only all-volunteer force to fight in World War I, apart from South Africa. 

From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 Australians enlisted in World War I: over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.