OUR HISTORY – THE ADVENT OF WELFARE….

In 1937 the Government of the day was ramping up community housing with the rapid building of State Houses. “Every applicant will have to apply on the prescribed form”, officials said, “backed by a Statutory Declaration with personal details and rental they have been paying, signed in front of a Justice of the Peace or a Solicitor of the Supreme Court”. And it was the same with the introduction of sickness benefits in 1939, the application forms dubbed “almost a biography” which nevertheless had to be declared in front of a Justice of the Peace, Postmaster or officer of the Social Welfare Department.

Researched and compiled by Ric Carlyon